With the world being continuously drawn into an “online-first” mind-set, the University is taking the next step in offering students opportunities to earn their degrees.
The University is officially launching LSU Online over the coming months. It is a web-based program that will enable students who live outside of Baton Rouge to work toward receiving an LSU degree in a number of programs.
Four master’s programs have already been launched for LSU Online, with a fifth coming in the fall. By the end of the upcoming semester, all five will be launched and available for students to begin.
The five potential programs include Master of Business Administration, Master of Construction Management, Master of Arts and Education with an emphasis in higher-education administration, Master of Education and Educational Leadership and Master of Science and Human Resource Education.
“The online programs are entirely LSU’s,” said Vice Provost for Academic Programs T. Gilmour Reeve. “It’s LSU faculty teaching through the LSU Moodle software. The faculty is totally responsible for the content and the grading of the students and the students’ performances in class.”
Students will take courses in seven-week-long modules, and there are six modules in the year.
A student can start a degree program module at any time and can usually get a master’s degree with this module in two years or less.
Reeve said this type of movement has been on LSU’s radar for years now.
“LSU itself hasn’t grown,” Reeve said. “We didn’t move into [the online setting yet]. The institution wasn’t really directed into getting into the online business, and that was a state of affairs for many years.”
Only students who are not on campus will be allowed to take part in the LSU Online program.
“[The students in LSU Online] are students who, though they may be interested in LSU, aren’t going to move to Baton Rouge or come on campus,” he said. “They have either family or business or employment constraints or other reasons why they need to stay where they are, but they see an LSU degree as being highly valuable.”
The University is also currently working toward creating online undergraduate programs, but it is expected to take several years before this idea comes into fruition.