Online Courses FAQs

Letter from Gilder Lehrman President James Basker about recent changes to the online courses.

Letter from Dr. Penny Sanders, Assistant Vice President for Graduate Studies, Research, and Sponsored Programs, Adams State University

To better serve students, Adams State merged the Gilder Lehrman MA with their own MA in Humanities with an Emphasis in American History. If you were enrolled in the Gilder Lehrman MA, you can remain in the Adams State MA in Humanities by completing an application.

The typical workload for online courses is eight to ten short response papers and one longer project completed in stages during the semester. Reading assignments are approximately 150-250 pages. Students will also be required to participate in online discussion forums each week.

Each live lecture session will be available for review immediately after the session ends. There is no limit on the number of times you may watch a session. Missing a session will not affect your grade. After each live chat discussion session, you will have access to a discussion board, where you may participate asynchronously if you were unable to participate during the live session.

Adams State online courses are on a Blackboard platform. You will receive a user name and password for your Blackboard account when you register for your first course. That account will stay valid for all subsequent courses, but you may be asked to change your password from time to time.

You should be comfortable using your computer for email and web browsing.

Most recent computers or tablets with a good Internet connection can be used to access the courses. You do not need any special equipment to participate in the course.

Your connection must be capable of downloading data at a rate of at least 5 Mbps (megabits-per-second). To test your connection speed, visit this link: http://www.speedtest.net/. If the download speed noted at the end of the test is not at least 5 Mbps, then your connection is not fast enough to support one of our online courses.

Each course costs $600.

Graduate participants who are teachers at Gilder Lehrman Affiliate Schools may apply for a scholarship. We offer two scholarships per course per semester. To check whether your school is a member of the Affiliate School Program, please click here. Scholarship information will be sent to everyone who has registered for courses once the registration window has closed. Students may apply for financial aid. For more information, visit the Adams State Financial Aid site.

For information, please click on the Adams State University’s Drops and Withdrawals Policy page.

Gilder Lehrman online graduate courses are generally eligible for CEU and PDP credits, but it is your responsibility to verify eligibility with your school administration or state PD office prior to enrolling in a course. If you need more information to determine eligibility than is available on the course information page, please email us at onlinecourses@gilderlehrman.org.

No. In order to pursue graduate credit through our online courses, participants must already have an undergraduate degree.

To enroll in the MA in Humanities with an Emphasis in American History from Adams State University, first complete your application and then register for a Gilder Lehrman online course. You will find links to descriptions of current course offerings at gilderlehrman.org/onlinecourses.

There is no application fee.

The principal prerequisite is that participants currently hold a bachelor’s degree from an accredited four-year college or university.

You may enroll in one course or several without pursuing the degree, but you will need to complete the application process.

If you applied for credit following your Teacher Seminar, then you can count that work toward the MA. Each Teacher Seminar is eligible for 3.0 graduate credits, which can be secured within the same year your seminar was offered by completing a capstone assignment and submitting a tuition fee to Adams State University. To read more about applying for credit for your Teacher Seminar, please visit this link: blogs.adams.edu/glinstitute.

Please note: Participants may count credits earned in only one Teacher Seminar toward the MA in Humanities with an Emphasis in American History. All other degree credits must be earned through Adams State Online Courses or Gilder Lehrman Online Courses.

You may transfer up to six (6) credit hours of graduate-level coursework in which you earned a grade of B or better from an accredited college or university. For additional information on transferring credit from other universities, please contact the program chair for the MA in Humanities with an Emphasis in American History: Dr. Ed Crowther, ecrowth@adams.edu.