Degrees at a Distance Program: Courses

For full course descriptions, please see the Model FESHE Bachelor's Curriculum.

Analytical Approaches to Public Fire Protection: This course examines the tools and techniques of rational decision making in fire and emergency services agencies, including data collection, statistics, probability, decision analysis, utility modeling, resource allocation, and cost-benefit analysis.

Applications of Fire Research: This course examines the basic principles of research and methodology for analyzing current fire-related research. The course also provides a framework for conducting and evaluating independent research in the following areas: fire dynamics, fire test standards and codes, fire safety, fire modeling, structural fire safety, life safety, firefighter health and safety, automatic detection and suppression, transportation fire hazards, risk analysis and loss control, fire service applied research and new trends in fire-related research.

Community Risk Reduction for the Fire and Emergency Services: This course provides a theoretical framework for the understanding of the ethical, sociological, organizational, political, and legal components of community risk reduction, and a methodology for the development of a comprehensive community risk reduction plan.

Disaster Planning and Control: This course examines concepts and principles of community risk assessment, planning, and response to fires, natural and man-made disasters, including NIMS ICS, mutual aid and automatic response, training and preparedness, communications, civil disturbances, terrorist threats/incidents, hazardous materials planning, mass casualty incidents, earthquake preparedness, and disaster mitigation and recovery.

Fire and Emergency Services Administration: This course is designed to be a progressive primer for students who want more knowledge about fire and emergency services administration. The course demonstrates the importance of the following skills, necessary to manage and lead a fire and emergency services department through the challenges and changes of the 21st century: Persuasion and influence, accountable budgeting, anticipation of challenges and the need for change, and using specific management tools for analyzing and solving problems. A central part of the course focuses on how the leadership of a fire and emergency services department develops internal and external cooperation to create a coordinated approach to achieving the department's mission.

Fire Dynamics: This course examines the underlying principles involved in structural fire protection systems, building furnishings, and fire protection systems including water-based fire suppressions systems, fire alarm and detection systems, special hazard suppression systems, and smoke management systems.

Fire Investigation and Analysis: This course examines the technical, investigative, legal, and social aspects of arson, including principles of incendiary fire analysis and detection, environmental and psychological factors of arson, legal considerations, intervention, and mitigation strategies.

Fire Prevention, Organization and Management: This course examines the factors that shape fire risk and the tools for fire prevention, including risk reduction education, codes and standards, inspection and plans review, fire investigation, research, master planning, various types of influences, and strategies.

Fire Protection Structures and Systems: This course examines the underlying principles involved in structural fire protection systems, building furnishings, and fire protection systems including water-based fire suppressions systems, fire alarm and detection systems, special hazard suppression systems, and smoke management systems.

Fire-Related Human Behavior: The goal of Fire Related Human Behavior is to provide students with knowledge of what we know about how humans respond to fire and how that knowledge has been integrated into life safety systems design and development. Students will examine current and past research on human behavior, systems models, life safety education and building design to determine interactions of these areas in emergency situations. Students will develop an understanding of a best practice building life safety system as one that combines knowledge in the areas of psychology and sociology joined with engineering and education to produce the best possible outcomes in terms of human survivability in an emergency.

Managerial Issues in Hazardous Materials: This course presents current issues in management of a department-wide hazardous materials program. It includes issues that are pertinent to officers and managers in public safety departments, including regulations and requirements for hazardous materials preparedness, response, storage, transportation, handling and use, and the emergency response to terrorism threat/incident. Subjects covered include state, local, and federal emergency response planning, personnel and training, and operational considerations such as determining strategic goals and tactical objectives.

Personnel Management for the Fire and Emergency Services: This course examines relationships and issues in personnel administration and human resource development within the context of fire-related organizations, including personnel management, organizational development, productivity, recruitment and selection, performance management systems, discipline, and collective bargaining.

Political and Legal Foundations for Fire Protection: This course examines the legal aspects of the fire service and the political and social impacts of legal issues. This course includes a review of the American legal system and in-depth coverage of legal and political issues involving employment and personnel matters, administrative and operational matters, planning and code enforcement, and legislative and political processes with regard to the fire service.