How to pass string value of MVC DropDownList as a parameter to method in controller?

If you use form post like this:

<form method="get" action="/YourController/SearchCourseCriteria">
    @Html.DropDownList("CourseField", new SelectList(SmartJob.Web.UI.Helper.ProfessionalCourseDropDownHelper.CourseCategoriesDropDown, "Key", "Value", 0), "Field of Study")
<button>Submit<button />
<form />

Then your controller will be like this:

public PartialViewResult SearchCourseCriteria(string CourseField)
{
...//Controller logic here
}

Depending on your value type in DropDown it could be not string, but int or anythig else...