Goucher College’s limited-residency Master of Arts degree program in Historic Preservation (MAHP), the first and only one of its kind in the U.S., has had a long history of success ever since its first graduating class in 1996. All 30 of the program’s graduates are working in preservation or a closely related field; many of them work in high-profile positions, for instance, as Executive Director of a prominent estate restoration project, Program Officer for a National Park Service Preservation Program, and Preservation Engineer for a state highway department. This level of success is not surprising since Goucher’s Historic Preservation program is considered to be one of the top three or four in the country and is the only one which offers historic preservation at the undergraduate, graduate and certificate levels.

Goucher has kept its limited-residency MAHP program small to insure individual attention from instructors; the program currently enrolls 45 students and admits a maximum of 15 new students each year. Students in the MAHP program convene at Goucher for two weeks in the summer to receive necessary materials and take a workshop on the use of Web-based classrooms, then take courses off-campus during the 14-week fall or spring semesters. These hybrid courses, which use some of the top professionals in the field, consist of an introductory on-campus session followed by off-campus work done independently with regular contact with faculty via telephone discussions, conference calls, online synchronous discussions or asynchronous conversations.

Goucher’s MAHP program has attracted students from all over the U.S. and from as far away as the Midway Islands and Nigeria. Many of these students are working professionals who wish to advance their knowledge and their careers and value the increased flexibility and convenience this program provides.

Goucher College MA Historical Preservation Off-Campus Program

The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP) Extension is helping to create new leaders and advocates for effective environmental education by offering environmental education courses in online and hybrid (Internet with face-to-face) formats. UWSP reaches K-12 teachers seeking required certification in environmental education with over a half dozen courses, including Fundamentals of Environmental Education, Environmental Education Teaching Methods, Biodiversity, Ecological Lifestyles and Energy Education. UWSP partnered with the World Wildlife Fund to develop the Biodiversity course with Wisconsin utilities via the Wisconsin Center for Environmental Education’s K-12 Energy Education Program (KEEP) to develop the Energy Education course.

In the process, UWSP’s courses are improving access to environmental education in Wisconsin. Most of UWSP’s 300 participants in their online courses over the last two years have been K-12 teachers. Participants report in end-of-course comments that they will use what they’ve learned in their classrooms and their communities. If each teacher applies what they’ve learned to one of the K-12 classes with 15-20 students, UWSP can reasonably say that between 4,500 and 6,000 K-12 students have benefited from their teachers’ participation in UWSP’s coursework thus far.

UWSP’s online courses also support its Extended Master of Science degree Program in Environmental Education for Teachers. About 60 teachers pursue this degree each year; since the program started in 1992, UWSP has graduated over 100 K-12 educators with master’s degrees. UWSP’s online courses help these teachers accomplish coursework during the academic year, supporting their progress towards degree completion and improving program retention. Informal observations and conversations with degree candidates indicate that the program is successfully achieving these aims; UWSP is also planning a more formal evaluation of the program’s impact.

UWSP Extension Distance Learning