GREENSBORO – Students can now earn a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro without ever visiting campus. UNCG is offering the option of earning the degree entirely online.

MALS is an interdisciplinary program open to all college graduates that encourages critical and imaginative thinking within a broad humanistic perspective. Students still can earn the degree by taking face-to-face courses. Most MALS students have full-time jobs and family obligations, and the online format allows them to do coursework when their schedules allow.

“UNCG should be accessible to all qualified learners, and distance learning increases access to those students who, for whatever reason, cannot come to campus,” said Dr. Robert Brown, dean of the Division of Continual Learning. “Using technology, we are extending the intellectual resources of the university and better serving students.”

Online courses now can include instructional elements such as voice-over PowerPoint lectures, case studies, animation, video, music, interactive learning games, audio chat, virtual teams of students working on shared assignments, guest lecturers online and electronic portfolios of student work.

Dr. Jeff Jones, a history professor, is teaching an online MALS course about global issues since World War II. He said every student actively participates in an online class. “You can’t hide in the back,” Jones said. “In an online environment, you get more widespread involvement.”

MALS student Marya Wysocki is taking a course with an online component, “Religion and Ecology.” Juggling work and other courses, she appreciates the flexibility to do coursework whenever she finds time, whether late at night or early Sunday morning. She keeps an online journal for the course and participates in online discussions. In a traditional classroom, time constraints often cut short student participation. That’s not the case online.

“With this online course, everyone’s really been able to say what they want to say,” Wysocki said.

A few students already are pursuing the MALS degree entirely online. The program requires students to take 11 graduate courses, including at least five in the MALS curriculum, within five years to earn the degree. Most students complete the program in three or four years.

Recent and upcoming online courses include “The Contemporary World” and “Clue: Detective and Mystery Fiction.”

“The Contemporary World” examines contemporary global issues with a focus on the post-World War II period, from the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan in August 1945, to the complex, high-tech world of today. The main purpose of the course is to introduce students to alternative ways of interpreting history by weighing the merits of differing points of view. Students will consider a number of themes: the Cold War; the rise and fall of communism; nationalism; de-colonization/neo-colonialism; the international economy; racial, ethnic, and religious conflict; the rise of terrorism; gender; class; and environmental issues.

Students in “Clue: Detective and Mystery Fiction” will investigate how mystery writers draw in readers. In the process, they’ll get acquainted (or reacquainted) with the greatest detectives – Auguste Dupin, Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot – and some of the most intriguing mysteries in fiction, including Poe's “Murders in the Rue Morgue,” Conan Doyle's “Silver Blaze,” Agatha Christie's “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd,” and Dorothy Sayer's Oxford classic, “Gaudy Night.”

For more information about the MALS program, call Alison Swafford, MALS advisor, at (336) 334-4242 or visit www.CALLDCL.com.

Daniel M. Nonte
Posted 12-11-03

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