Course Descriptions

Required Courses - Please refer to the course credit table and the program structure diagram. Option Courses - vary from year to year. Course descriptions may be found in the annual course offering brochure.

• Year One
  • Material Culture Studies
  • General Principles of Heritage Resource Management Interpretation
  • General Principles of Cultural Tourism/Ecotourism
  • General Principles of Heritage Area Planning
• Year Two
  • Introduction to Heritage Resource Management
  • General Principles of Materials and Their Conservation
  • Curatorship Principles and Practices
  • General Principles of Building Conservation
• PRACTICUM

• Course Credit Table

• Current Course Offerings

Year One

General Principles of Heritage Resource Management Interpretation
(16 credit hours)

This course is concerned with providing the participant with an understanding of interpretive principles and will define the nature of interpretation by examining its purposes, different planning, programming, and design practices. This course will also address the relationships between the various aspects of the larger interpretive process: research, theme development, planning, design, delivery of interpretive services, supervision of staff, and evaluation. The course will be of interest to those involved in the heritage resource management process and is concerned with taking an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the implications of the overall interpretive process.

General Principles of Cultural Tourism/Ecotourism
(16 credit hours)

The focus of this course will be on examining the nature of cultural tourism in general, assessing its role in community and economic development, and understanding the role that planning and architecture can play in helping to achieve cultural tourism goals.

While this course will be concerned with the entire field of cultural tourism, the focus will be on heritage resource management (i.e., historic sites, historic areas, ecomuseums, museums).

The course objectives will include gaining an understanding of the field of cultural tourism and its relationship to the larger field of tourism, understanding the role of cultural tourism in economic and community development, and gaining an understanding and appreciation of the techniques that are available to ensure that cultural tourism serves community roles and objectives especially from a planning and architectural perspective.

General Principles of Heritage Area Planning
(16 credit hours)

There has been a growing interest throughout the history of organized heritage resource management in working at larger geographic scales to ensure that features such as character and setting are maintained as part of the process of maintaining and enhancing heritage resources. This course is concerned with management, planning, and design issues in historic districts and areas, ecomuseums, and cultural landscapes. The emphasis in this course will be on methods of assessment and evaluation, ensuring the participation of those affected in the process of intervention, the preparation of goals, plans, policies, and designs and the development of ongoing evaluation mechanisms. A case study approach will be used throughout the course.

Year Two

General Principles of Materials and Their Conservation
(16 credit hours)

This course will provide participants with a basic knowledge and understanding of the materials from which objects and buildings are made and the factors leading to their deterioration. This course will also discuss the basic characteristics of various materials in the conservation and restoration process. The course is concerned with providing practitioners in the field with a sound understanding of material conservation in order to allow them to assess various heritage resource management policies, designs, and plans.

Curatorship Principles and Practices
(16 credit hours)

This course identifies the key responsibilities of the curator, reviews the role and key components of museum collections policies, examines the rationale for the methods of collections planning, acquisition and disposal, and discusses ethical concerns surrounding collections activities. The role of the curator in museum and gallery exhibitions and in furnishing historic sites in conservation and in related museum activities will also be examined. This course is designed to provide participants with an understanding of the role that the curatorial process plays in the overall process of managing heritage resources.

General Principles of Building Conservation
(16 credit hours)

This course is designed to provide participants with a basic understanding of various restoration and rehabilitation techniques and approaches. The course recognizes that budgets, the heritage significance of a resource, levels of expertise, and time and climate all play a significant role in the overall process of the conservation of buildings. This course, through an understanding of these different factors and basic principles of material conservation, will look at the process of building conservation from a multidisciplinary perspective. The course will conclude with an understanding of design considerations as they effect the overall building conservation process.

PRACTICUM
(124 credit hours)

All registrants in the Certificate in Heritage Resource Management are required to take part in a four week practicum which will involve working on a defined task under the supervision of an approved instructor.

The Practicum is an integral part of the Certificate in Heritage Resource Management. It is designed to provide students with the opportunity to integrate the information, approaches, and concepts they have been introduced to within the Certificate in Heritage Resource Management courses, and apply them to a heritage resource management situation. The topic may be in any area of heritage resource management.

The Practicum Project must offer the possibility of an interdisciplinary perspective. For example, the Project must look at a number of other disciplines within it”s development. The Practicum Project will require approximately fifteen to twenty days of work which do not have to be concurrent, however, must reflect the kind of effort that would be required of this type of activity.

The majority of course requirements should be completed before work on the Practicum Project commences.

Students must complete a Practicum Agreement Form which may be obtained from the Faculty of Continuing Education (403) 220-2952.

Certificate in Heritage Resource Management: Credit Table