Students wishing to obtain formal university credit must sign up for the Continuing Education Course, "Conflict Management in Social Systems" (SOCY 4025-640). As originally structured, that course requires students to read books on traditional conflict management, and the assignments focus primarily on the US. However, students may opt to undertake the Online Training Program on Intractable Conflict (OTPIC) as an alternative curriculum. The workload is about the same, and much of the material is similar, but OTPIC has a broader and more international scope, is more focused on intractable conflicts than tractable ones, and the reading material is all available online. Students wishing to follow either curriculum should register for SOCY 4025-640, which can be done online and costs $465 (US)*. If you cannot reach this site, click here for an alternate route to a basic course course description. Then, you can choose the curriculum you want to follow — you can do the standard book-based US course, or you can do the Online Training Program. Either way, please send your assignments via e-mail to Dr. Heidi Burgess at burgess@colorado.edu, and she will e-mail back responses. You may write to her at the same address with questions. When you have completed all of the assignments, she will send in a grade card, and you will receive credit for Conflict Management in Social Systems from the University of Colorado. Students should contact their own university to see if credits earned through this program are acceptable. If you undertake the OTPIC curriculum, you can also get a Consortium Certificate of Completion for the program at the same time, at no extra charge.
Shortcut to class units and assignments.
Shortcut to class units and assignments.
Recognizing that registering in the above manner may be prohibitively expensive and that many users do not need formal university credit, we offer a second option — a Consortium Certificate of Completion. This option, however, is only available for the Online Training Program on Intractable Conflict; it is NOT available for the Conflict Management in Social Systems curriculum. For the OTPIC certificate program, students still submit papers which are evaluated by Dr. Burgess. However, instead of receiving university credit, they receive a certificate issued by the Conflict Research Consortium, indicating that they have completed the program in a satisfactory manner. Accompanying this certificate is a letter from the Consortium, describing the materials covered and the work done. Also available is a certificate indicating that the program was completed with distinction, for participants who do exceptional work. The cost for the certificate program is only $100, and scholarships are available for students from developing regions of the world who cannot afford to pay. Users should not feel reluctant to take advantage of this opportunity; the current structure of the global economy has created enormous income differences, and this scholarship program represents our very modest effort to correct for this inequality. While our goal is to provide as many scholarships as needed, our ability to do so continually depends upon our ability to raise the needed funds. If these funds are not forthcoming, then the program may need to be limited.
To sign up for the certificate program, simply send us an e-mail message with your name, organizational affiliation (if appropriate), preferred email address (and an alternate email address if possible), postal mailing address, and telephone and fax numbers. We would also appreciate learning about your background and specific areas of interest. Also, send a $100 check or money order — payable to the Conflict Research Consortium — to Heidi Burgess, Conflict Research Consortium, UCB-580, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0580, USA.
If you are requesting a scholarship, please include in your e-mail a brief statement of your financial situation. This will help us to secure the funding needed to maintain the scholarship fund.
For users who need neither formal certification nor university credit, the training program and all of its contents are available for free. Simply go to the Online Consulting page to get started. We would appreciate an e-mail, however, so that we know how many people are using the site and what they think of it.
*Tuition rates are current as of August 11, 2004.