Exploration of the conceptual foundations of leisure, recreations, sport, play, and work, the history of ideas in the field and the relationships of these ideas to contemporary professional and social problems. Restricted to PRTM masters and students and others by consent of the instructor. This course will be offered in an accelerated seven-week format.

Restriction: PRT Grad Students Only

Typically offered in Fall only

Examination and understanding of advanced scientific investigative methods in their application toward explaining recreation and leisure behavioral phenomena and for resolution of recreation management problems.

Restricted to: Graduate-level Statistics

Typically offered in Spring only

This course is intended to provide students with advanced concepts of fiscal management as applied to the unique industries of parks, recreation, tourism and sport management. Emphasis will be placed on understanding how the receipt, disbursement, and utilization of funds can foster sustainability within these types of organizations. Additionally, this course will focus on developing the skills necessary to apply ethical financial analysis principles through financial risk management. This course is restricted to PRTM masters students and others by consent of the instructor. This course will be offered online in an accelerated seven-week format.

Typically offered in Fall only

Introduction to procedures and techniques used in research and evaluation in parks, recreation, sport, and tourism settings to solve management problems. The course emphasizes techniques for data collection, management, analysis, and communication of research findings. This course is restricted to PRTM masters students and others by consent of the instructor. This course will be offered online in an accelerated seven-week format.

Typically offered in Spring only

Introduction to spatial reasoning and spatial analysis as implemented in geographic information systems (GIS) to perform evaluation and research in parks, recreation, tourism, and sport settings. This course is restricted to PRTM master's degree students or others with consent of the instructor.

Prerequisite: Graduate Standing and MPRTSM

Typically offered in Fall only

This course will focus on the organization and administration of public, private and not-for-profit park, recreation, tourism and sports (PRTS) agencies. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the structural, human, political, and cultural factors that impact organizational efficiency and effectiveness - specifically focusing on these environments. The course will primarily address issues related to organization, management, ethical leadership, human personnel supervision, theory, and research. This course is restricted to PRTM master's degree students or by permission of instructor. This course will be offered online in an accelerated seven-week format.

Typically offered in Fall only

This course examines the theoretical principles and applications of marketing and promotion strategies for recreational sport and key marketing concepts and strategies using case studies. There is significant discussion on marketing activation, leveraging strategies of sport/event sponsor brands/ companies, and developing a marketing plan. This course is restricted to PRTM master's degree students and others with the content of the instructor. This course will be offered online in an accelerated seven-week format.

Typically offered in Spring only

This course explores risk management in PRTs organizations with an emphasis on ethical managerial strategies. The topics include legal concepts related to specific managerial functions, impacts on functions in recreation environments that result in more efficient and successful operation and protection for the organization. In addition, effective strategies for risk management related to facilitating active-healthy lifestyles and sustainable communities will be explored. This course is restricted to PRT master's degree students and others by consent of the instructor. This course will be offered online in an accelerated seven-week format.

Typically offered in Summer only

This course focuses on the development of a working knowledge of the rationale, procedures and tools for conducting sound program evaluation assessments in parks, recreation, tourism, and sport organizations. Effective skills for mastering comprehensive program evaluation strategies including formative, summative, and knowledge building strategies are taught. Students explore social science methods specifically appropriate for evaluation of youth programs.

Typically offered in Summer only

This course focuses on the association of active recreation in communities and community health. Students explore individual, social, community, environmental, and policy factors that affect community health and the contribution of recreation and park programs and facilities. This is a seven week course.

Typically offered in Spring only

In this course, students will examine the management of sport facilities, paying particular attention to environmental concerns and the sustainability of the event venue. Specifically, we will first focus on the three E's of sustainability (Environment, Equity, Economics) and learn about sustainable systems. From this underpinning, the class will be divided into six critical topic areas of sport facility managment: 1. History and role of venues 2. Venue Safety and Security 3. Venue Policy and Procedures 4. Food and Beverage Operations 5. Transportation and Parking Management 6. Ancillary Revenue Sources

Typically offered in Fall only

A thorough background on operations and services is essential for sport and entertainment venue managers. This course examines venue management by covering essential managerial functions. These include management and human resources, customer service and crowd management, managing volunteers, scheduling and booking venues, and ticket office operations.

Typically offered in Spring only

In this course students will learn how to mentor tourism microentrepreneurs so as to a) assist them in achieving their goals, and b) leverage their integration in the tourism system to fuel destination equity and competitiveness. The course is grounded in scholarly knowledge and practical experience mentoring tourism microentrepreneurs in partnership with civic organizations, destination management organizations, and private tourism companies. Students will be encouraged to utilize and share their professional expertise in the public or private sector, and their familiarity and intrinsic interest in their home region or another familiar destination.

R: Graduate Standing or Permission of Instructor

Typically offered in Spring only

This course helps students understand the variety of cognitive, social, affective, and environmental factors that influence human behavior in natural resource contexts, with an emphasis on nature-based recreation experiences and conservation behaviors. Students will explore behavioral models from different disciplines, examine pathways to promote behavior change, and assess implications for park management, environmental stewardship, and natural resource conservation.

Typically offered in Fall only

This dual-listed course provides undergraduate and graduate students with hands-on exposure to the multifaceted nature of national park management and awareness of the complex challenges facing national park managers. Examines nature based recreation and tourism management approaches from an applied and interdisciplinary perspective with applications across federal and state recreation resource management agencies. Students will practice problem-solving techniques and interact with a wide variety of staff from the National Park Service, park partner organizations, and adjacent community managers. This course culminates in a week-long field experience that may conflict with other scheduled courses. Field experience held in conjunction with five other universities in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. A fee will be assessed for the trip that covers transportation, lodging and meals.

R: Junior or Senior Undergraduate Student Standing

Typically offered in Spring only

Understanding of environmental impacts of recreation and tourism, and different methods for assessing and managing such impacts. Examination of the scientific and management literature and application of impact assessment techniques.

Typically offered in Fall only

Understanding of collaborative processes and the role of partnerships in public land management, community based conservation, tourism development, and community health and recreation. Examination of literature and evaluation of collaboration and partnerships in practice.

Typically offered in Spring only

This course is offered alternate odd years

In recent decades, there has been an explosion of research around the benefits of nature, supporting measures of happiness, health, attention spans, social cohesion, and others. In parallel to these studies on how nature benefits people (especially children), work has emerged on how children may also be good for nature. Children are leading global movements to combat climate change, becoming civically active to ensure access to nature for all, and proving to be an avenue to bring even the most politically divided communities together to work toward a sustainable future. In this course, students will gain an overview of this rapidly growing literature, meet some of the researchers behind it, and find ways to contribute to it. Perspectives of graduate students from natural resources, education, landscape architecture, or others who are interested in exploring how nature can benefit kids and kids can benefit nature are most welcome.

R: Graduate Standing or Permission of Instructor

Typically offered in Fall only

Special topics in various aspects of recreation resources developed under direction of a graduate faculty member on a tutorial basis. Subjects offered under this course listing also used to test and develop new courses.

Prerequisite: Graduate standing

Typically offered in Fall and Spring

Special topics in various aspects of recreation resources developed under direction of a graduate faculty member on a tutorial basis. Subjects offered under this course listing also used to test and develop new courses.

Prerequisite: Graduate standing

Typically offered in Fall and Spring

Assigned or selected problems in field of recreation administration, planning, supervision, maintenance, operations, financing or program. Special research problems selected on basis of interest of students and supervised by members of graduate faculty.

Prerequisite: Advanced Undergraduate standing or Graduate standing

Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer

Students will develop a personalized digital portfolio of the work completed in all required courses in the Masters of Parks, Recreation & Tourism Management program. The portfolio should include evidence, reflection, and critical analysis of core competencies achieved throughout their academic course of study. This course must be taken during a student's last semester after he or she has completed all the required courses.

Prerequisite: Graduate Standing and PRT 500 and PRT 504 and PRT 505 and PRT 506 and PRT 508 and PRT 503 and PRT 507.

Typically offered in Fall and Spring

Teaching experience under the mentorship of faculty who assist the student in planning for the teaching assignment, observe and provide feedback to the student during the teaching assignment, and evaluate the student upon completion of the assignment.

Prerequisite: Master's student

Typically offered in Summer only

Instruction in research and research under the mentorship of a member of the Graduate Faculty.

Prerequisite: Master's student

Typically offered in Fall and Spring

Thesis Research

Prerequisite: Master's student

Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer

For graduate students whose programs of work specify no formal course work during a summer session and who will be devoting full time to thesis research.

Prerequisite: Master's student

Typically offered in Summer only

For students who have completed all credit hour requirements and full-time enrollment for the master's degree and are writing and defending their thesis. Credits Arranged

Prerequisite: Master's student

Typically offered in Summer only

PRT 700 is designed to learn about the foundations of recreation, tourism, sport, and leisure research by discussing their underlying concepts and theories. This course encourages critical thinking, academic inquiry, and dialectic debate through guided discussions of assigned readings. A primary focus of this course is to learn to communicate our ideas well. Thus, the course is built upon class participation through written and oral assignments.

Restriction: PRTM Graduate students or instructor consent

Typically offered in Fall only

The overall goal of this course is to provide students with a background in advanced social science research methods commonly used in PRTM-related fields as well as strategies for planning, designing, evaluating, and applying research using the social science framework. This course will also be designed in a way to guide students through the phases of the research design and to develop a research proposal.

Completion of PRT 500/700 or concurrently enrolled; Graduate Status

Typically offered in Spring only

This course provides an introductory overview of various qualitative research processes beginning with onto-epistemological underpinnings, and continuing through theoretical frameworks, methodologies, methods, analysis, and both traditional and creative analytic representations. Specifically, epistemological approaches of prediction, understanding, emancipation, and deconstruction will be introduced and discussed in relation to current qualitative trends in social and environmental justice Students will investigate methodological possibilities and various ways of navigating philosophical, procedural, analytical, reflective, and ethical issues related to undertaking humanist qualitative inquiry.

P: Graduate Student status, or with consent of instructor.

Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer

This course is offered alternate even years

This course is meant to provide an overview of quantitative research methods in the social sciences with a focus on health of people and places. We will guide students through data collection, analysis, and communication, highlighting a diversity of techniques ranging from the traditional (e.g., survey research) to more emergent (e.g., big data, social network analysis). This course is meant to provide exposure to these various methods to facilitate choosing the appropriate methods for a range of social science contexts. Students will be asked to choose one method to explore more deeply through completing a final research paper and presentation. Students are encouraged to bring research ideas and/or datasets to use in the course, although this is not necessary. Throughout the course, we will center data equity and social responsibility as a unifying theme on how to conduct high quality quantitative social science research.

Prerequisite: Graduate Standing or Instructor permission

Typically offered in Fall only

In this course students will examine the potential role of tourism in mitigating or exacerbating health disparities and environmental degradation in rural poor areas. The course endorses an academic ethic of engaged scholarship. Students will be asked to make original contributions to participatory development scholarship, and they will be asked to collaborate with community partners on an applied project addressing tourism, health disparities and environmental degradation in an economically depressed rural community. Consistent with the engaged nature of this course, we will travel to rural communities to meet stakeholders, collect data, and provide coaching/training to tourism micro-entrepreneurs.

Typically offered in Spring only

This course provides a forum for new and continuing graduate students to examine and dialogue around the many ways we come to understand the world around us, with particular emphasis on leisure. As a starting point, the course recognizes and values the contributions of all ways of knowing and, with this appreciative gaze, provides a space to explore the possibilities of various onto-epistemologies, theories, methodologies, and concepts which inform our philosophy of science and subsequent understandings and investigations of leisure.

Typically offered in Fall only

Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer

Research studies, scientific articles and progress reports on research effects presented and critically evaluated. Each student pursuing a doctoral degree is expected to take this offering four times for one hour of credit each time.

Typically offered in Fall and Spring

Special topics in various aspects of recreation resources developed under direction of a graduate faculty member on a tutorial basis. Subjects offered under this course listing also used to test and develop new courses.

Prerequisite: Graduate standing

Typically offered in Fall and Spring

This course aims to provide an alternative supervised substantive professional development experience that is comparable to the Doctoral Supervised Teaching (PRT 885) in the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management (PRTM) PhD Curriculum. PhD students pursuing a non-academic career are expected to take this Advanced Directed Study (PRT 884) course while PhD students pursuing an academic career path should take PRT 885. In this course, students will develop and implement an advanced directed study plan addressing their essential professional networking, communication, and analytical skills under the supervision of their advisor. This will better prepare non-academic-track PhD students and equip them with essential skills and experience directly relevant to their desired career paths.

Restriction: Enrolled PhD students in PRTM. Students must have the consent of the Director of Graduate Program in the PRTM Department before registering.

Typically offered in Fall and Spring

Teaching experience under the mentorship of faculty who assist the student in planning for the teaching assignment, observe and provide feedback to the student during the teaching assignment, and evaluate the student upon completion of the assignment.

Prerequisite: Doctoral student

Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer

Instruction in research and research under the mentorship of a member of the Graduate Faculty.

Prerequisite: Doctoral student

Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer

Dissertation research.

Prerequisite: Doctoral student

Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer

For graduate students whose programs of work specify no formal course work during a summer session and who will be devoting full time to thesis research.

Prerequisite: Doctoral student

Typically offered in Summer only

For students who have completed all credit hour, full-time enrollment, preliminary examination, and residency requirements for the doctoral degree, and are writing and defending their dissertations.

Prerequisite: Doctoral student

Typically offered in Fall, Spring, and Summer