Graduate Programs

LSTD 5083 - Qualitative Research Methods in Interdisciplinary Studies (Online)
This course is designed to acquaint students with qualitative research methods in Interdisciplinary Studies. By the end of the course, the student will be familiar with the most common forms of qualitative research, including how to design a study, ethical issues that must be recognized and appropriately addressed, and analysis of qualitative data.

LSTD 5960 - Directed Readings in Interdisciplinary Study (Independent Study)
An in-depth study of literature on a topic related to the student’s program of study; variable content. May be repeated with change of content; maximum credit nine hours.

LSAL 5113 - Leadership Theories (Online)
The master of liberal studies - administrative leadership program educates you for success in the 21st century by combining the broad elements of interdisciplinary study with an in-depth understanding of leadership. The very qualities that today’s employers seek are those of leadership within the context of creative and flexible thinking.

LSAL 5133 - Cultures of Organizations (Online)
How you understand or explain a phenomenon – whether it be a static thing like a painting or a set of dynamic events such as group behavior in an organization – determines how you act. Your actions are then interpreted by many different people, and each will attach to it a unique explanation or interpretation.

LSAL 5153 - The Ethics of Leadership (Online)
In this course, students will examine ethical dimensions of leadership from many perspectives and create case studies and a final project that applies the concepts learned in the course. Ethics, in the broadest sense, refers to how we relate to other people, animals, the environment and ourselves in terms of what we should do. The study of ethics is more than just memorizing a moral code or religious doctrine; it enables the student to examine ethical problems from several important perspectives, adequately frame problems for optimal understanding and practice ethical reasoning in developing practical solutions. These skills are essential in human life. The more honed an individual becomes in making good and ethically sound judgments, the more valuable they become in the decision-making process of any organization.

LSAL 5173 - The Individual and Leadership (Online)
This course examines positive and negative aspects of leadership in terms of traits, behaviors, styles, personality function, situational variables, motivational factors, values and self-understanding. Students will explore theories and research on others who function in leadership roles as well as engage in their own self-analysis of key variables related to leadership. The coursework will facilitate the student’s ability to be a more effective leader through greater self-awareness and through strategies to promote constructive relationships in groups or organizations.

LSAL 5203 – Leadership Issues in Decision Making (Online)
This course is an interdisciplinary inquiry into the nature and attributes of poor management and leadership (also referred to as “stupidity” by author R. Sternberg and others in his anthology), consideration of a proposed theory of the attributes of “stupidity,” and how “stupidity” relates to human decisions and behavior. We explore from a cognitive psychology perspective the attributes of “stupidity” and from an economist’s perspective the attributes of social decision-making and the unintended consequences of those decisions.

LSAL 5243 - Project Management (Online)
The course focuses on a project for which a client wishes to find a solution. The client is a manager with responsibility for the problem area. The student selects the project and the client to use in this course. Typical projects might include: prepare a training, operation or maintenance manual for an activity of interest to the client; determine and evaluate several alternative solutions to a problem – increase readiness, improve response time, decrease cost, etc., or select an automated system for a task to improve the performance of a task. The class attempts to simulate as closely as possible the real-world experience of managing a project for a client. The client participates in the grading for the course.

LSAL 5313 - Organizational Communications for Decision Making (Online)
Information management systems are a significant issue in today’s organizational settings, both in military and private organizations. The significance of this issue can be seen in the success and/or failure of many organizations in their ability to adapt to external conditions. Organizations adapt to their external environment, or failing that, become ineffective and potentially dissolve. Organizations can no longer presume they will last forever, particularly when environmental changes occur at high speed. This course discusses the fundamental issues in the management of information, the ways people in organizations exchange information, and ultimately, how effective sharing of information leads to effective problem solving.

LSAL 5423 – Women in Leadership (Online)
This course explores women leaders and their influence on their societies as well as their contributions on a broader spectrum. Special attention is focused on how women leaders become change agents from different eras and what particular issues made them transformational leaders. The number of women leaders who have climbed to high level positions as heads of state, governmental bodies, administrators, and leaders of political parties and major organizations is limited. Successful women leaders are a diverse group and research shows they represent a wide range of varied and interesting personal, social and political backgrounds. We are interested in studying their leadership patterns, finding out what they accomplished and how their society was changed as a result of their transformational contributions.

LSAL 5443 - Religious Leaders for Social Justice (Online)
The master of arts administrative leadership option educates students for success in the 21st century by combining the broad elements of interdisciplinary study with an in-depth understanding of leadership. This third-in-a-series of courses dedicated to the principles of leadership focuses on the characteristics of leaders as individuals and, in particular, as individuals of faith for causes pertaining to social justice. We explore individuals from the major faith traditions including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Native American religion and investigate the ways in which faith and the particular constellation of life experiences and social situations have inspired leadership for the cause of social justice.

LSAL 5463 - U.S. Military Leadership from the Revolution to the Gulf War (Online)
This is a graduate level course that studies leadership, both uniformed and civilian, in the United States military from 1775 to 2000. It does this within the context of the evolution of American military from a small 18th century army and wooden ship-and-sail navy to the globe-dominating colossus of the late 20th century. This context includes the impact of technology, maturing military theory and the changing position of the United States in the world. All of this produced diverse leadership styles which are illustrated in the careers of military leaders such as George Washington, U. S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, David Farragut, John Pershing, Hap Arnold, George C. Marshall and many others.

LSHA 5113 - Strategic Planning and Evaluation in HHSA (Online)
An interdisciplinary inquiry into the concepts of strategic planning and evaluation in the human and health services organizational settings. This will include a study of the strategic planning, implementation skills and the evaluation process; and of various models and approaches to designing and conducting strategic planning, including specific techniques for conducting environmental scans, SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats), strategic issue identification and strategy formulation.

LSHA 5133 - Cultural, Social and Diversity Issues in HHSA (Online)
An interdisciplinary inquiry into cultural, social and other diversity issues that human and health services professionals will encounter in the process of providing services to their clients/patients. Exploration of how one’s cultural and social environment impacts one’s belief system. Successful delivery of service will depend upon the depth of understanding by personnel with regard to various belief systems.

LSHA 5153 - Ethics in Human and Health Services Administration (Online)
An interdisciplinary inquiry into the nature of ethics, especially in the context of multicultural health care; the kinds of moral problems within this landscape and how rational thinking can guide ethical thought in ways that address the challenges in health care policy and reform.

LSHA 5313- Cross Cultural Health Issues (Online)
This course explores multiple issues in the field of international health using a multidisciplinary perspective while including particular countries as examples. Students will be exposed to the perspective that human lives are affected by larger, societal level influences that often are beyond our immediate individual control. We will explore the ways in which structural level variables influence human health, including economic, historical, cultural, political and psychosocial factors. For example, we will see the role that war has played in the high rates of HIV/AIDS in Africa. Moreover, we will consider the influence of behavioral patterns on certain health outcomes.

LSHA 5513 - Psychosocial Aspects of Disability (Online)
This course is designed to examine the struggles in which persons with disabilities have been engaged and the barriers they have had to overcome as well as the barriers they continue to face in their quest to obtain the freedoms that persons without disabilities so freely enjoy. The following areas will be examined in some detail: disenfranchisement of persons with disabilities; attitudes toward persons with disabilities; Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and other legislative actions; disability rights movement; self-concept and self-esteem; role of family; and intervention strategies.

LSHA 5403 - Geriatric Issues (Online)
This course will introduce health and developmental issues pertaining to human geriatric populations, provide specific challenge areas for focusing on both problems and potential solutions, and highlight positive, recreational and self-actualizing activities and pursuits available to geriatric populations.

LSMS 5113 - The World of a Museum (Online)
This class is designed to prepare the students to meet the many challenges involved in operating a museum or in being an employee of a museum, and to understand museum management procedures. By successfully completing the course, the student will have a much better understanding of the complexity of the museum world and their place in that world. Moreover, they will be among the better-informed employees of any museum that hires them and will be able to adapt to new challenges and opportunities that may arise during their museum career.

LSMS 5133 - History and Architecture of the Museum (Online)
The course will explore the history and architecture of public museums from the late 18th century to the present. First, we will focus on the founding of the Louvre Museum, and then examine the classical model for the museum and museum building established in Europe and America in the 19th century and surviving into the 20th with institutions such as National Gallery of Art. The course will then look at assaults on and the evolution of the classical model by, for instance, the Museum of Modern Art and the art museums of Louis I. Kahn. We will then survey the numerous building projects of recent decades. The course will conclude with an examination of the major issues involved when a museum plans an expansion, selects an architect and determines the building program. The emphasis will be on art museums.

LSMS 5163 - Museum Management and Leadership (Online)
This course is designed for students to understand top quality museum administration and management and to meet the challenges of directing and operating successful museums.

LSMS 5173 - Museum Culture (Online)
Museums and their collections no longer stand apart from the communities where they reside and serve. Increasingly, museums are called upon to interact with society in new and sometimes unexpected ways. This evolving role has revised the traditional mission of museums and has called for new approaches and partnerships designed to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse and often demanding audience. Successful interaction with the public through exhibitions, educational programming, board development and volunteer associations not only strengthens the museum’s position of leadership within the community but also is key to gaining and maintaining the financial and moral support required for its very survival.

LSMS 5183 - Collection Management (Online)
In this course, we will consider the place of collections in the life of the museum. Just as the types of museums are varied, so is the nature of their collections. It is essential that the collections mesh with the goals and aspirations of the museum. For example, a science museum might have as its major purpose the active demonstration of scientific principles. An art museum might stress an aesthetic experience in which the object was paramount and the interpretation individual. A natural history museum might be a research institution as well as a place for educating and entertaining the public, so it would have a greater archival emphasis.

LSMS 5190 - Museum Project (Independent Study)
Download the project Guidelines as a PDF
The project will enable the student to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between theory and application by successfully discussing this relationship in the concluding report.
• Demonstrate the ability to formulate and/or carry out a specific museum project by successfully completing the described project.
• Demonstrate the relationship between the specific project and broader museum goals and operations by successfully evaluating its effectiveness for museum operations.
• Discuss the project within the context of the museum’s mission.
• Interact with museum colleagues and other professional staff.

LSMS 5313 - Museum Education (Online)
A central mission of museums is education and outreach. Because education plays such a vital role in museums, it is becoming increasingly necessary for museum professionals to have a strong foundation in museum education. This course serves as an introduction to museum education, including object-based learning, learning environments and learning theories, an understanding of which fosters the development of effective and motivating educational programs in museums. Although this course is intended to target those in the museum profession, this information can be applied toward the development of educational programs in other informal education fields.

LSMS 5333 - Intro Museum Interpretation (Online)
In 1957, Freeman Tilden of the National Park Service defined the concept of interpretation and pioneered its study and implementation in museums, parks and historic sites. Tilden’s definition in Interpreting Our Heritage states that interpretation is “an educational activity which aims to reveal meanings and relationships through the use of original objects, by firsthand experience, and by illustrative media, rather than simply to communicate factual information.” He described interpretation as a mode of communication intended to highlight information, emphasize the whole and ultimately provoke curiosity about a topic with a variety of media such as exhibits and programs.

LSMS 5403 - Museums and Native Cultures (Online)
This course is designed for students to understand the representational history of Native cultures in museums and the dynamic collaboration between a museum and a culture to accomplish an authentic and respectful presentation today.

LSMS 5423 - Controversy and the World of Museum (Online)
Controversy and the World of Museum will examine some of the most controversial exhibitions of the 1990s, including shows about ethnicity, slavery, Freud, the Old West, the dropping of the atomic bomb by the Enola Gay, Jewish genocide and other cases from the museum history of the United States. Throughout the course, students also will be introduced with case studies from other countries, providing an international comparison on this subject. Controversies in this country did not simply begin and commonly reoccur in recent years, but, instead, controversies caused by art in America actually date back almost two centuries, and the provocations range from nudity to gigantism.

LSMS 5700 - Special Problems in Museology (Online)
Variable topic course. May be repeated with change of content. Maximum credit six hours. Possible offerings include:

LSMS 5700 - The House Museum (Online)
This course will examine the types of House Museum - As places of pilgrimage: where X lived; where Y happened; the BIG house. As architecture: built by A; last/first/oldest example. Students will be introduced to the challenges of conservation and interpretation within buildings that are themselves the exhibit and to the question of objective truth in a historical narrative. Community involvement/inclusion and diversity will be examined.

LSMS 5700 - Historic Preservation (Online)
This course introduces students to the field of historic preservation and helps them develop the ability to identify and document historic buildings, sites and structures. The readings are designed to acquaint the student with the range of philosophies, methodologies and “schools of thought” within the field of historic preservation and to introduce the student to its foremost practitioners who are teaching and researching in universities, working within government agencies or operating as independent preservation consultants.

LSPS 5113 - Foundations in Prevention (Online)
The master of science in prevention science program combines the broad elements of interdisciplinary study with an in-depth understanding of prevention science. This three-hour course provides a theoretical and practical basis for exploring the role of primary prevention, examining prevention practice as social action, analyzing prevention systems development, and evaluating the role of media advocacy and social marketing in effective prevention practice. This course is a concentration course for the M.S. in prevention science.

LSPS 5133 - Substance Abuse Prevention Across the Lifespan (Online)
The master of science in prevention science program combines the broad elements of interdisciplinary study with an in-depth understanding of prevention science. Students in this course will study lifespan issues, to include theories of human growth and development, brain development, impact of substances on the brain at various stages of development, transition periods and strategies to address service provision issues. At the end of the course, students will have a better understanding of prevention theory, the future of prevention and prevention science, and will be empowered to view individual and community prevention in a “lifespan” approach. This course is a core concentration course for the M.A. in prevention science.

LSPS 5173 – Program Development, Implementation and Evaluation (Online)
This course is designed to facilitate the development of knowledge and skills essential to the understanding and application of concepts, principles, processes and models to plan, design, implement and evaluate substance abuse prevention programs. Material covered in this course will demonstrate the logical link between utilizing data to identify priority issues, select “best fit” interventions and develop an appropriate evaluation design.

LSTD 5700 - Advanced Topics in Interdisciplinary Study (Online and Independent Study)
Variable topic course. May be repeated with change of content. Maximum credit nine hours. Possible offerings include:

LSTD 5700 - Financial Decision Making (Online)
Financial Decision-Making for Leaders is an intensive inquiry into the decision-making functions of financial leadership in organizations. Based on concepts and financial ratios presented in the assigned readings, the course enables the student to understand and apply financial management and resource allocation skills through engagement in an Internet-delivered business simulation.

LSTD 5700 - The Importance of Followership
The trend in leadership studies is moving away from leader-centered theory to more integrated theory that includes the leader’s relationship with and influence on followers. The purpose of this course is to introduce students to an often understudied aspect of leadership – the role of the follower and the dynamics that result from followership. Students will learn about different theories and definitions of followership, different ways followers can be categorized, how followers often become subtle but influential leaders themselves and the role of followers in standing up for effective leadership or against ineffective or bad leadership.

LSTD 5700 - Motivation and Leadership (Online)
Motivation is often defined as the substance that “energizes behavior,” and when studying motivation, researchers are concerned with not only what energizes and directs behavior but also with how to maintain and sustain motivation. In this course, students will examine various motivational theories and their application in work and leadership. In other words, we will examine the set of energetic forces that originate both within, as well as beyond an individual’s being, to initiate work-related behavior, and to determine its form, direction, intensity and direction. Specifically, students will examine how needs, values, attitudes, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, goals, gender, culture and generations all influence motivation in work, communication and leadership styles.

LSTD 5700 - National Security Leadership (Online)
National Security Leadership is designed to prepare the student to operate within the environment of the U.S. national security system. It addresses the legislation that created the current national security system including the National Security Act of 1947, the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986, The Homeland Security Act of 2002 and the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004, among others. It looks at the structure of the national security community and how it has evolved and addresses, through selected cases, how it has worked in practice. Capping the course is a simulation of a national security crisis decision and a major research paper.