Continuing Education Archives | �鶹ԭ�� News

�鶹ԭ�� to Launch 2 Cybersecurity Certification Programs

By Eric Michael ’96 — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 17:25:00 +0000

�鶹ԭ�� Continuing Education will launch two to address the global workforce shortage of highly-trained professionals to safeguard against growing digital threats. The and the Ethical Hacking Professional Certificate will prepare students with the skills and experience to thrive in this fast-growing field.

“Every day governments, corporations and private citizens experience cyberattacks that impact billions of people worldwide,” says Sean Armstrong, Continuing Education interim executive director. “This program meets the global demand for increased cybersecurity by offering a curriculum that teaches students the fundamentals of protecting digital environments from cyberthreats.”

Cybercrime is a global threat that cost the United States $2.7 billion in financial losses last year, as reported in the 2018 Internet Crime Report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Consequently, the need for qualified cybersecurity professionals is critical and continues to grow. According to the 2018 Global Information Security Workforce Study, there is a worldwide shortage of 2.9 million qualified cybersecurity specialists. These jobs represent lucrative opportunities for qualified professionals who can earn approximately $98,350 annually, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

To develop the certificate programs, Continuing Education has partnered with HackerU, a global cybersecurity-education provider with more than 20 years of experience. Each program begins with a 30-hour trial course that introduces students to what it’s like to work in the defensive and offensive cybersecurity fields before they commit to the entire program. Both certificates prepare graduates for internationally recognized certification exams and are designed to accommodate working professionals with part-time schedules taught during evenings and weekends at the Wayne M. Densch Partnership Center on the Sanford/Lake Mary campus of Seminole State College.

Cyber Defense Professional Certificate

Students will learn in-depth theory, as well as hands-on training in cybersecurity and programming. The 400-hour course prepares students for seven of the top certification exams in the field of cybersecurity: Microsoft MCSA, Linux LPI Essentials, Cisco CCENT, Cisco CCNA Security, CompTIA Cloud+, CompTIA Security+ and CompTIA CySA+. Students do not need any prerequisite experience to enroll in the program; it is suitable for those with self-taught technical background.

Ethical Hacking Professional Certificate

Veterans in both IT and cybersecurity fields will learn with the critical skills employers seek in offensive security experts. The 210-hour course focuses on advanced infrastructure attacks, cross-platform elevation of privileges, python programming for security, and web application penetration testing to prepare students to take the Offensive Security Certified Professional and the EC-Council Certified Ethical Hacker certification exams. To enroll in the program, applicants should have a degree in computer science or comparable work experience in the IT, coding or programming fields.

Taught by Expert Faculty

Instructors are leaders in the cybersecurity industry, offering students firsthand access to their knowledge and expertise of theory and defense methodologies. The programs, which utilize state-of-the-art virtual cyberattack labs, emphasize project-based learning to expose students to real-world scenarios in cyberbreach detection, assessment, blocking and prevention.

Career Services Included

All �鶹ԭ�� Cyber Security Professional Certificate students will receive access to , with a 10-hour course at the end of the program dedicated to professional development, networking and assistance with job and internship placement with leading security organizations, corporations, national and state governments, and law enforcement agencies.

For More Information

Classes for �鶹ԭ�� Continuing Education Cyber Security Professional Certificates begin July 29. To learn more about �鶹ԭ�� Cyber Security Professional Certificate programs, visit . Prospective students can also speak with a program advisor by calling 407-605-0575.

�鶹ԭ�� to Launch 1st Data Analytics and Visualization Boot Camp

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 19:12:40 +0000

�鶹ԭ�� Continuing Education, in partnership with Trilogy Education, will launch its first on Sept. 11. The program provides the practical and technical skills needed to solve complex data analytics and visualization problems. Trilogy Education works with universities across the nation including University of California at Berkley, University of Texas at Austin, Georgia Tech, Northwestern and Rutgers to provide educational programs.

The boot camp is a covering specialized skills including Python, JavaScript, Social Media Mining, SQL, Tableau and Machine Learning in an immersive and collaborative . With these tools, graduates gain a competitive advantage in the job market for positions in rapidly expanding data-intensive industries such as health care, media, government and others.

Designed to , the part-time course will be taught during evenings and weekends at the of Seminole State College.

“This program increases opportunities for the Central Florida workforce,” says Todd Freece, executive director of �鶹ԭ�� Continuing Education. “The demand for data analytic skills is skyrocketing and programs like this help grow our local talent to meet the needs of businesses expanding in our area.”

Throughout the course, students will build a comprehensive portfolio of projects showcasing mastery of modeling, forecasting and other practical skills that are desirable in this fast-growing field. The boot camp will also offer , resume assistance, portfolio reviews and technical interview training.

Students may qualify for private loans and other education funding up to the full cost of registration. �鶹ԭ�� alumni are eligible for reduced tuition.

For information and registration, call 407-583-6750 or visit .

�鶹ԭ�� to Launch Coding Boot Camp to Teach Web Development in 24 Weeks

�鶹ԭ�� Continuing Education — Mon, 11 Jan 2016 18:31:18 +0000

�鶹ԭ�� will launch its first Coding Boot Camp this month, designed to teach students the skills they need for careers in “full-stack” web development, covering both front- and back-end technologies.

The 24-week �鶹ԭ�� Coding Boot Camp will teach the most highly sought-after web development skills, including Javascript and Node.js, HTML, CSS, jQuery, and PHP. The course will be taught at the �鶹ԭ��/Seminole State Partnership Center on the Sanford/Lake Mary campus of Seminole State College and combine on-campus classes during the evenings and weekends with online work. The �鶹ԭ�� Coding Boot Camp is a non-credit course offered through �鶹ԭ�� Continuing Education.

“Web development remains one of the fastest growing careers in the US economy with a projected growth rate of 20 percent by 2020,” said Todd Freece, director of Continuing Education at �鶹ԭ��. “Web development also happens to be the highest in-demand skill set in the State of Florida, with a growth rate of 112 percent in 2014-2015. �鶹ԭ�� Coding Boot Camp was designed to help students develop the skills and network needed to capitalize on this high-demand career track.”

Freece said the course will offer cutting-edge curriculum, hands-on learning, unparalleled levels of staff support, and a direct route into employment opportunities.

“�鶹ԭ�� Coding Boot Camp students will graduate ready to integrate their new skills directly into their career,” he said. “Plus, since this is a part-time program, students can keep working as they position themselves for greater opportunities within the computer programming profession or prepare for transition to a new and exciting career in web development.”

In this course students will build a portfolio of projects to showcase their knowledge, skills and products that will help them be competitive within the web-development industry. The boot camp will also offer career-planning services, portfolio reviews, demonstration days and recruitment assistance.

Students may qualify for private loans, workforce development grants and other education funding up to the full cost of registration. �鶹ԭ�� alumni are eligible for reduced tuition.

Details and registration information can be found by calling 407-454-9823 or visiting .

CEDHP Courses Help Florida Teachers Meet Certification Requirements

Jason A. Brown — Mon, 23 Feb 2015 21:04:12 +0000

In January of 2014, Florida’s Board of Education enacted new revisions to the Educator Certification Rule, and among the changes was a requirement for teachers seeking recertification to complete either a one-credit course or 20 in-service hours working with special needs students.

Recent research has shown that students with special needs are underperforming on achievement tests, and more so than traditional students in the same grade level. With many exceptional education students being served in blended classroom environments, there is a need for every teacher to be better prepared for engaging, preparing, and evaluating students at all levels. In an effort to help teachers remain certified while continuing their professional development and enhancing their skill in the classroom, �鶹ԭ�� professor Dr. Maria Reyes and several faculty within the College of Education and Human Performance are currently creating three key programs to offer the credits and experience that teachers need.

“The first piece is offering online courses in exceptional education for any and all educators seeking recertification,” Dr. Reyes tells us. “Those are open to learners who need only basic credits to be recertified. The next level is a course that’s currently in development; it would offer either one-, two-, or three-credit options depending on the teacher’s needs, and each level would involve more modules, activities, and interaction to qualify for the increased credit. Finally, the most comprehensive effort to provide exceptional education experience to teachers is the Educators Summer Institute, a two-day conference comprised of workshops, group sessions, and pre-conference online modules that is immersive, complete, and a true learning experience for teachers.”

Beyond simply assisting teachers in meeting this new requirement, the courses and the Educators Summer Institute are aimed at enhancing the skills and classroom management abilities of all teachers. Participants also benefit from the technology, research, and experience that �鶹ԭ��’s faculty offer, ensuring that lessons and activities are preparing teachers with the latest available information.

“What we’re hoping to do is provide as much as we can to assist teachers in not only meeting the requirements for recertification, but enhancing their abilities and classroom management,” Dr. Reyes continues. “It’s a real need at this point, particularly because there are not very many options. At �鶹ԭ�� we also have a strong emphasis on the use of technology in exceptional education, and we’re trying to include that as a very useful tool for teachers to incorporate.”

HAPPY Hour Student Showcase Speaker Reinforces the Power of Education

Jason A. Brown — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 14:25:43 +0000

This year’s celebrated the 10th anniversary of the HAPPY Hour workshop program, which offers seminars, activities, and professional development opportunities to undergraduate and graduate education students. In honor of the anniversary and as a reinforcement of the positive impacts the HAPPY Hour program can have, the Student Showcase invited CEDHP alumna and Christine Palmer to be the keynote speaker.

Ms. Palmer spoke to the attendees at the HAPPY Hour Student Showcase about the importance of education; from a difficult childhood and no thought of ever going to college, Ms. Palmer was able to achieve her dream of being a teacher and inspiring students, regardless of their backgrounds, challenges, or hardships. While a returning student at �鶹ԭ��, Ms. Palmer was the first recipient of the HAPPY Hour Student Showcase Scholarship, and she graduated Cum Laude in 2011 with her degree in elementary education. She credited the HAPPY Hour workshops with being an integral part of her success and development as an educator.

“What the HAPPY Hour Student Showcase does, not to mention the other workshops that are put on throughout the year, is phenomenal,” Ms. Palmer told the crowd of education majors at the Showcase. “When I was in school I was a non-speaker; I was very shy. I knew that talking would probably be required as a teacher, but I wanted to do it anyway. This (the HAPPY Hour program) really helped me be prepared for that; not only me but many of my colleagues too. And that practice led me to some opportunities – I had to give a presentation to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the big wigs at my school district, and standing in front of them I thought ‘I can do this.’ And that is because of the HAPPY Hour program.”

Ms. Palmer’s speech also touched on the importance and power of education, relating her own path to her current career and sharing her enthusiasm for education with her current students.

“(For) Many of the students in my classroom, a college career is not even in their reality… They’re just thinking about surviving. And I’m here to tell them that there’s more than just surviving…”

“Christine Palmer embodied the goal of the HAPPY Hour program – the development of its teacher candidates into effective, life-long learners,” , organizer of the HAPPY Hour program, tells us. “We are so proud to call Christine one of our own.”

Concluding her speech, Ms. Palmer told everyone at the HAPPY Hour Student Showcase, “Remember why you’re doing this, find people who are happy and positive with you, and remember that the students come first.”

The HAPPY Hour Student Showcase is an annual event that brings students in the College of Education and Human Performance together to interact in a conference-like setting, presenting their best work on education projects, drafting presentation proposals and work plans, and interacting with practicing educators in all fields for professional development. For more information about workshops and the showcase, visit the .

Continuing Education Offers Digital Badges for Course Completion

Tue, 25 Feb 2014 21:25:46 +0000

�鶹ԭ�� Continuing Education has launched an initiative to award digital certification badges for qualilfied recipients to include on social media channels or embed in online resumes.

The digital badges come with links to data such as the organization that awarded it and the skills and achievements that it represents. The badges are in addition to traditional certificates of completion.

After students complete a program and demonstrate the skills required, Continuing Education program managers award the badges.

Several courses have started offering the badges, and more are due to join the program this year. The current badges are available for:

Legal Nurse Consultant Certificate Program

Certified Financial Planning Professional Certificate Program

Florida Risk Management Association’s School of Commercial Lending

Home Inspection Courses

Train the Trainer Series

Fiber Optics Network Certification Courses

Photonics Certificate Program

Society for Human Resource Management Courses

Project Management Certification Courses

Nursing Lecture Discusses Health Care Reform

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 22:41:45 +0000

The �鶹ԭ�� College of Nursing kicked off the spring semester last night with an evening lecture discussing the role of nursing leaders as the nation implements healthcare reform.

Peggy Reiley, senior vice president and chief clinical officer for Scottsdale Healthcare (Arizona), shared her knowledge and expertise, and discussed the implications of the Affordable Care Act on the role of nurse leaders, evaluated the forces necessitating health care reform, and identified opportunities for nurse leaders to get involved as the nation moves to a new model of accountability for “health care” versus “sick care.”

Reiley said, “Shifts in the current healthcare system are largely cost related. Some of these issues include overtreatment, over-reliance on technology and coordination of care. Nurses are involved in many of these issues and will need to be part of the solution for the future.”

The free lecture – Nurse Leaders Role in Health Care Reform: Leading a Journey of Transformation and Accountability – was open to the public and attended by healthcare administrators, clinical nurse leaders, community partners, prospective and current students, and nursing faculty. Nurses had the opportunity to earn one contact hour of continuing education credit.

“These lectures are important for expanding our knowledge as nurses,” said Joy Parchment, director of nursing strategy and implementation at Orlando Health and a student in �鶹ԭ��’s nursing Ph.D. program. “I chose to attend because I want to continually broaden my exposure to the latest evidence and research that influences decisions and affects the practice of nursing.”

Susan Clark, a clinical coordinator at Martin Health System in Stuart, Fla. and first-year student in �鶹ԭ��’s Executive Doctor of Nursing Practice (D.N.P.) program, says she values having ownership for the profession and staying current with the latest nursing trends because healthcare is an ever-changing environment.

The Jan. 10 event supported by Florida Blue, formerly Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, is part of the college’s semiannual Nursing Distinguished Lecture Series where a national leader is invited to discuss current nursing leadership topics. The series spans two days, including the evening community lecture, followed by a day-long intensive seminar with the visiting professor and faculty and students in the college’s online Advanced Practice D.N.P. and Executive D.N.P. programs.

While both programs are offered online, the college brings faculty and students together twice a year at the beginning of the spring and fall semesters to discuss thought-provoking leadership topics with a national nursing leader.

To learn more about the college’s online D.N.P. programs, visit , or contact Dr. Julee Waldrop about the Advanced Practice D.N.P. at julee.waldrop@ucf.edu, or Dr. Diane Andrews about the Executive D.N.P. at diane.andrews@ucf.edu.

Nursing Lecture Looks at Impact of Electronic Health Records

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 18:37:58 +0000

The �鶹ԭ�� College of Nursing kicked off the fall semester with an evening lecture on how to better use electronic health records to improve health care.

Sharon McLane, chief nursing informatics officer and director of clinical transformation at Lakeland Regional Medical Center, shared her knowledge and expertise on the subject, and discussed the impact of electronic records on nursing workflow and how to manage all the information available. McLane earned her Ph.D. in Healthcare Informatics at the University of Texas, Houston, and previously was director of nursing informatics at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

The free lecture – Beyond Implementation: Informaticians & Meaningful Use – was open to the public and attended by healthcare administrators, clinical nurse leaders, community partners, prospective and current students, and nursing faculty. One attendee even traveled two hours from Tampa to attend the event. Nurses had the opportunity to earn one contact hour of continuing education credit.

McLane said, “We are just beginning to become aware of the possibilities in using information to improve quality in healthcare,” adding that managing the increasing amount of information will be needed even more in the future.

The Aug. 23 event supported by Florida Blue, formerly Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, was part of the college’s semiannual Distinguished Lecture Series where a national leader is invited to discuss current nursing leadership topics. The series spans two days, including the evening community lecture, followed by a day-long intensive seminar with the visiting professor and faculty and students in the Executive Doctor of Nursing Practice program.

Launched this past January, the Executive D.N.P. is an online program, but the college brings faculty and students together at the beginning of the spring and fall semesters to discuss thought-provoking leadership topics with a national nursing leader.

The next Distinguished Lecture for the community will be held Jan. 10 to kick off the spring semester, and to welcome the second cohort of Executive D.N.P. students.

To learn more about the Executive D.N.P. program, visit nursing.ucf.edu or contact Dr. Diane Andrews at diane.andrews@ucf.edu.

Writing Camp for Teens to Combat Influence of Social Media

Gene Kruckemyer — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 18:19:47 +0000

The style often used in composing texts, tweets and e-mails is taking a toll on the communication skills of young writers, says one concerned �鶹ԭ�� instructor who created a summer camp to instill principles of good writing in middle- and high-school students.

Terry Ann Thaxton, an associate professor in the English department, doesn’t blame computers and technology, but rather the new communication techniques that make it easy to shortchange precise and lively writing.

“Computers have brought writing more to the foreground,” she said. “Communication is part of being human, but social-media writing is taking out all the imaginative threads, all the description, all the interesting parts of language.”

Thaxton has taught at �鶹ԭ�� since 2000, and also interacts with public school children during the year through The Literary Arts Partnership at �鶹ԭ�� that she founded 10 years ago. The partnership offers free storytelling and poetry workshops to underserved children, youth and adults in Central Florida.

She said that when she first started offering the writing workshops she noticed that many of the children didn’t have an imagination, so they just gave up trying to write creatively.

“We had to show them how to pretend,” she said. Learning how to write creatively helps enhance an author’s literacy, attitude, character and self-awareness, which also benefits the community, she said.

Thaxton organized the July 9-13 writing camp at �鶹ԭ�� after receiving requests from parents and seeing firsthand the increasing need for young writers to improve their skills.

“Also what I’ve noticed in the classrooms in public schools is that teachers are pressured into having high scores on the FCAT, so they focus on teaching just those skills but not the ‘meat’ of writing,” she said. “Creative writing allows students to draw from the raw materials of their life and be imaginative. You need your imagination for writing everything from journalism to a memo for your boss.”

And what are some simple tips to improve writing?

For starters, Thaxton said, tighten up sentences, don’t rely on spellchecking, and reduce reliance on adverbs.

“Many writers overuse adverbs by using one for every verb,” she said. “If you’re using too many of them, you’re probably not using the right verb.”

The summer writing camp will have morning and afternoon sessions at �鶹ԭ�� Continuing Education, 12565 Research Parkway, Suite 390.

The morning session (9 to 11 a.m.) will study the basic structure of a screenplay as a starting point for writing stories and short scripts.

The afternoon session (1:30 to 3:30 p.m.) will focus on writing as an act of imagination, and memory as a source of ideas for creative nonfiction.

The fee for each session is $100, or both for $175. For more information or to register, go to http://ce.ucf.edu/creative. The deadline to register is July 5.

Proceeds will go toward supplies for The Literary Arts Partnership’s free writing workshops during the year at public schools, foster homes, community centers, residential treatment facilities, shelters, prisons, and assisted living facilities.

Human Resources Training Goes Portable

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:45:39 +0000

The program is updated to reflect the latest legislative and HR developments, the program prepares you for the Professional Human Resources (PHR) and Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) exams—and it provides an ongoing reference tool.

Course sessions for 2012 start in February and March. For more information on locations throughout Central Florida, registration, certification or other HR courses—including HR Essentials and the Global Professional in HR designation, please visit ce.ucf.edu/phrm or call 407.882.0237. For information regarding the HR Certification Institute’s eligibility requirements, visit hrci.org.