Liberal Studies (100% online)
Offered at IU South Bend by Graduate School
About
This is an online program.
The Master of Liberal Studies (MLS) provides graduate instruction in three areas: arts and humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Students in the program obtain advanced skills and knowledge in these areas and an ability to approach problems with an interdisciplinary perspective.
The program is open to students who have completed an undergraduate degree with a minimum 3.0 grade point average.
The MLS may hold special appeal for community college, dual-credit, or other post-secondary instructors who have completed specialized coursework via an IU Online graduate certificate in biology, communication studies, composition studies, chemistry, history, language and literature, literature, mathematics, or political science. As many as 18 to 20 credits from these certificates will apply to MLS degree requirements.
The combination of discipline-specific certificate courses, plus the unique interdisciplinary core and capstone experience of the MLS, will help these instructors integrate new concepts and approaches into their teaching, thereby improving the quality of instruction and learning outcomes for their students.
The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) requires all high school teachers who teach dual-credit or other college-level courses to hold a master's degree in the field, or to have a master's degree in another area plus at least 18 credit hours of graduate coursework in the discipline. Because this program enables students to complete a master's degree and discipline-specific coursework, it fulfills this requirement.
Additionally, the program allows students to transfer up to 20 previously earned credits from IU graduate certificate programs. Students who have earned credits from a different accredited college or university may transfer up to 6 credits.