MALS Learner Designed Area of Study

Areas of Study Overview

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The learner-designed area of study (LDAS) gives students the opportunity to choose areas in the liberal arts and to plan and implement their own academically robust learning activities. Students develop a coherent plan of study that can link directly to their final Capstone project.

Students may propose to complete their learner-designed area of study in several ways:

• take additional online graduate courses from Thomas Edison State University;
• apply up to 12 credits of American Council on Education courses that have been evaluated at the graduate level;
• develop a graduate-level prior learning assessment (PLA) portfolio; and/or
• transfer up to 12 credits of graduate-level credit earned at other institutionally accredited institutions recognized under the TESU Transfer Credit Policy and Guidelines.

Credit Distribution

I. Core Course Sequence (18 Credits)

LAP-500	Liberal Arts and Professional Life	3
SAM-501	Sense of Community I: Art and Morality	3
SAM-502	Sense of Community II: Faith and Reason	3
CCR-610	Change, Conflict, and Resolution	3
SIC-520	The Species, the Individual, and Community	3
THC-625	Technology and the Human Community: Challenges and Responses	3

II. Learner Designed Area of Study (12 Credits)

For TESU course options, please contact an academic advisor. 

III. Capstone (6 Credits)

MLS-700	Capstone I	3
MLS-710	Capstone II	3

Total Credit Hours: 36