FAQs


1 . If I am not an online student yet, can I look at a course online?^

For "guest" access to preview a typical online course in the MA in Organizational Leadership program at Gonzaga, go to Gonzaga Online, (http://www.gonzagaonline.net). Click on the "Login" button at the lower left of the Gonzaga "launch page."  When you arrive at the Blackboard login page, click on the "Login" button, and then click on the "Preview" button to the left of where you would normally enter a username and password. Click on the tab marked "Courses" at the top of the screen. Click on "Organizational Leadership" under the Course Catalogue section at the right.  Click on "ORGL 500 (Organizational Leadership)--Guest Access." Explore all the course material on this site, which is currently not being used by students. Questions? Contact Program Assistant Teresa Crane at 509-313-6645 (crane@gonzaga.edu) or Program Chair Dr. Michael Carey at 509-313-3550 (carey@gu.gonzaga.edu).

2 . I want to enroll in courses; what's my next step?^

Step One: In order to apply to become a graduate student in the Organizational Leadership or Communication and Leadership programs, please fill out the application that you can access on this site or contact an Enrollment Specialist;  For campus-based students, contact Connie Caddis at 509-313-3684 (caddis@gonzaga.edu).  If you are applying to be an online student, contact Paeca Souther at 866-674-8287 (paeca.souther@gonzaga.edu).

Step Two: After submitting your application and a $50 application fee, you’ll need to send the following materials to Connie Caddis (at Gonzaga University / School of Professional Studies / MSC 2616 / Spokane, WA 99258): 

  • 1. Official transcripts of all college work, 
  • 2. Statement of Purpose, 
  • 3. Official Test Scores, (GRE, GMAT, MAT or LSAT), 
  • 4. Two letters of recommendation and
  • 5. a Resume.

Step Three: After being accepted, you will be issued the following:

  • 1. a student ID,
  • 2. a Gonzaga e-mail address,
  • 3. Blackboard access username and password (the same as your e-mail username and password), and
  • 4. Zagweb access username and password. Eventually, you will make use of Gonzaga's "Zagweb" program to register for your courses, view your schedules, and update your contact information. If you are a “brand-new” student, however, we can help you get registered for the first time.

Step Four: Once you are registered for the courses you want to take, you need to make arrangements to pay the tuition for them. Contact Gonzaga University’s Student Accounts office at 509-313-6812.

Step Five: Enjoy being a graduate student in Organizational Leadership or Communication and Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University.  Go Zags!

3 . HELP! What if I experience problems accessing Blackboard, or while I'm in the online Blackboard environment?^

Not to worry! If you find that you have a problem accessing Blackboard online or, once in Blackboard, have a problem accessing documents or the "virtual classroom," simply call 1-866-748-1155 for help. Many problems are once-only problems that are caused by the configuration of your computer, and the staff of the help desk can help you take care of it. Other problems are Blackboard-related and can be fixed by the staff immediately or within a reasonable amount of time.

4 . Where do I go to on the internet to access my online course?^

Gonzaga’s online courses for Organizational Leadership are housed on a system called “Blackboard,” which can be reached by going to http://jesuitnet.blackboard.com. The Blackboard site requires a username and password, and these are exactly the same as the username and password you are issued for your student (“Zagmail”) e-mail account. If you have registered for courses, but do not have a Zagmail account username and password (and therefore don’t have a Blackboard username and password), contact Paeca Souther at 866-674-8287 or paeca.souther@gonzaga.edu.  Sometimes students register for courses, access Blackboard, and find that their courses don’t appear on their Blackboard menu. Students will not have access to a specific course until that instructor makes it available - this often does not occur until the day before the class is scheduled to begin.  If it is the day the course begins but you still cannot see your course on Blackboard, contact Program Assistant Teresa Crane at 509-313-3567 or crane@gonzaga.edu.

5 . How do I purchase my textbooks and other course materials if I am an online student?^

Another thing on-campus students and distance-education students have in common at Gonzaga is cost of course materials. If you have been out of school for a while, you will notice that the cost of textbooks has increased substantially since your undergraduate days. Some of the courses in the Organizational Leadership require more books than others do; the range of course materials cost is $70 to $270. Some of the books you may already own and don't need to purchase; others may be able to be borrowed from a local library or, in the case of films, from a local video store. You may choose to buy new or used books from a store local to you, from Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.com, or from the Gonzaga University Bookstore (where you can also buy your "Zag" sweatshirts!). The Gonzaga University Bookstore's website (http://www.bookstore.gonzaga.edu) allows you to see what materials are required for each course you are taking, and to order used or new books online, which are then directly shipped to you. Some of the textbooks and/or other course materials you used for a course will only be used for that course; other materials may be useful beyond one course. For example, Gary Yukl's Leadership in Organizations costs $130, but will be useful not only as a required text in the introductory course ORGL 500 but as reference text in nearly all of the other courses in the curriculum. The film Gandhi is required for the ORGL 530 course, but you may choose to use it to illustrate a point in a paper for another course.

6 . The online courses are eight weeks in length, while the campus courses are 15 weeks. Are they the same courses in terms of content?^

The online courses offered in the Organizational Leadership  and Communicaiton and Leadership programs are on an eight-week schedule, usually with each course divided into four two-week-long learning modules. Each learning module is developed around content competencies, and organizes the students’ work around readings, teacher presentations, films, mentor statements, and an on-going discussion among the students and the teacher. After doing the work outlined for each two-week module, students show evidence of mastery of the competencies through some means determined by the teacher (e.g., a paper). Students who complete the work for an eight-week online course are required to accomplish the same type and amount of work that they would have been required to do for a more traditional fifteen-week course on Gonzaga's campus in Spokane: both the eight-week online version and the fifteen-week face-to-face version are worth three graduate semester credits. If employers are disturbed about reimbursing tuition costs for eight-week courses, it is most likely because they don’t understand that while the course schedule has changed, the course content, work and credits have not. The Registrar’s Office of Gonzaga University is willing to be in communication with any employer regarding the equivalency of eight-week courses and the more traditional fifteen-week courses; in such cases, it would be helpful if a copy of the organization’s tuition reimbursement policy could be provided to the Registrar’s Office beforehand (in such case, please contact the University's Assistant Academic Vice President, Jolanta Kozyra, at 509-313-6595 or kozyra@gu.gonzaga.edu). The online courses leading to the Master of Arts in ORGL or COML are the current technical evolution of our distance-education program outreach to professionals who cannot attend classes on Gonzaga’s campus. Although the specific technology used is different (i.e., more current), the philosophy which propels our outreach has not changed over our nearly twenty years of distance-education experience: we seek to provide a transformational course of studies that will effect positive changes in both individual leaders and the organizations they serve.

7 . Are the online courses as good an educational experience as the campus courses?^

The Organizational Leadership program has continually improved the method for distance-delivery of its curriculum. In the late eighties and early nineties, faculty from the Gonzaga campus traveled to distant sites in the United States and Canada; later through the nineties, courses were provided by linking a distance-learning site to Gonzaga's campus through compressed-video technology; more recently, courses on-campus and off-campus were linked and integrated with each other through compressed-video technology. For the last few years, some faculty in the Organizational Leadership program have experimented with delivering courses using online technology exclusively. At this time, the Communication and Leadership Studies program was initiated.  Beginning Spring Semester 2004, both programs became available entirely online except for one course which is designated as a "residency requirement"; ORGL 502—Leadership and Imagination—is required by all ORGL students and is taken during a three-day residency on Gonzaga's Spokane campus. COML 517-519-Communication Practica-is required by all COML students and is taken as a summer study abroad experience in Italy or Ireland or as a 3-day intensive on Gonzaga's Spokane campus offered all semesters.  The online courses that are a part of this new approach to the distance-delivery of our curriculum represent a significant improvement over our previous experiments in online education. The "new" online distance-education program that began January 12, 2004 has the following features:

  • faculty develop and create their courses after a semester's training in competency-based education;
  • this training assists them to better articulate their learning objectives for students, as well as to more accurately measure students' achievement of mastery in the courses' competencies;
  • faculty work with a production team which translates their courses' content into engaging online presentations using graphics, video, and audio;
  • faculty who teach online courses meet with each other regularly to share best practices, revise their courses online at least every three years, and have opportunities for professional development specifically in online teaching methodology;
  • students make use of a Mentors Gallery, that is, a collection of filmed interviews with nationally-known leaders and writers in leadership studies, archived according to topic;
  • students are able to engage each other, the faculty, and mentors using both synchronous and asynchronous communication tools such as discussion boards and virtual classrooms (a "community of learning"—learning from other students as well as from the teacher—has always been a key dynamic of the Organizational Leadership program;
  • online courses allow that community to be expanded throughout the nation and, potentially, the world); and
  • students are able to use the course management software (e.g., Blackboard) to send written work or other evidence of mastery to faculty, who are then able to respond to the students online as well.

8 . Is there a residency requirement for online students?^

Given our previous experience and evaluation of our distance-learning program, we have initiated a residency requirement for those students who enrolled exclusively in distance-education courses. Because of the burden it places on students to be required to travel and take time off from work, the residency requirement is limited to a three-day, intensive experience of ORGL 502 (Leadership and Imagination), for Organizational Leadership students and COML 517-519 (Communication Practica) for Communication and Leadership Studies students.  Each intensive is followed by six to eight weeks of internet discussion. During their three-day stay on-campus, opportunities are provided for students who live outside the Spokane area to meet Spokane-area students, other faculty in the program, and staff members. Students who travel to Spokane for their residency experience may stay on Gonzaga's campus, if housing is available, by contacting Stuart Davis, Associate Director of Campus Services, at 509-313-6850; students can also stay off campus at one of Spokane's many hotels, three of which are very close to the Gonzaga campus: the Red Lion River Inn, the Marriott Courtyard or the Fairfield Inn.

9 . Is the tuition for online courses the same as for campus courses?^

Since the inception of distance-learning initiatives in Organizational Leadership, Gonzaga University has used the same tuition cost for all ORGL and COML courses, whether on-campus or off-campus, whether delivered face-to-face (or virtually face-to-face as in compressed-video) or online. All courses leading to the degree of Master of Arts in either ORGL or COML are the same in objectives and content regardless of the medium used to deliver them; the same faculty are asked to teach courses, whether on- or off-campus; access to the research capabilities of the Foley Center Library is equivalent both for those who live in Spokane and those who live outside our geographic area. The adult, graduate students who make up the population of the ORGL/COML programs are predominately working professionals who are not able to come to the Gonzaga campus during its traditional office hours between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., so whether they are an hour's drive or ten hours' drive from campus doesn't change the necessity for them to use postal services, e-mail, and telephones as their methods of communication with faculty and staff at Gonzaga.

10 . Can I complete my M.A. degree through internet courses?^

All Organizational Leadership and Communication and Leadership Studies courses leading to the Master of Arts degree are available online, except for two; ORGL 502—Leadership and Imagination which is offered during a three-day required residency experience (for ORGL students) on Gonzaga’s Spokane campus every semester, and COML 517-519-Communication Practica (required by COML students) which is offered as a study abroad experience in Italy or Ireland during the summer or as a 3-day intensive on Gonzaga's Campus in Spokane every semester.  Online courses are offered on a unique eight-week class schedule, as opposed to the campus 15-week class schedule. Students who live in the Spokane area are typically considered campus students and students who live outside of the Spokane area are typically considered online students.  Campus students may take a combination of campus and online courses.