Goucher has perfected the low-residency model of graduate distance education. We've been doing it for years with our highly acclaimed and competitive Historic Preservation, Nonfiction, and Arts Administration programs.

Our distance education format allows us to attract the absolute best faculty and students from around the country and the world, and to build small classes of rich diversity and ideas. The technology and teaching approach behind our distance-learning programs is top-notch, and the experience is as stimulating and interactive as a classroom setting - if not more so, due to our faculty's increased accessibility through technology. These qualities - diversity, excellence, and interaction - are key values of a globally-focused program like Cultural Sustainability. Each semester is composed of both a Residency Session and a Distance Learning Session.

On-Campus (Residency)

The low-residency portion of our program enriches the educational experience by bringing all students and faculty to our beautiful campus just outside Baltimore, MD, for a one-week residency offered in late July.  An additional optional residency in January is planned off-site in places such as Washington, D.C. in collaboration with thought leaders in the field, or in Nepal exploring cultural sustainability in context. During their first residency, new students

• take one or two required courses,
• meet with the academic director to create an individualized course of study,
• engage in seminars, site visits, and friendly gatherings in a retreat-like setting,
• build a life-long network of alumnae/i committed to the importance of sustaining culture and communities. 

The residencies are intense, and our students often remark that they feel transformed in unexpected and wonderful ways after being immersed with their fellow scholars: learning, discussing, and exploring, face-to-face and side-by-side. Our field experiences might take us to the urban streets of Baltimore or the rural wetlands of the Chesapeake Bay's Eastern Shore, gaining hands-on experience with cultural sustainability efforts in communities.

Off-Campus (Distance Learning)

While the low-residency portion of the program allows students to engage in-person with their faculty and classmates, it is the distance learning portion of the program that allows students to return to their homes and continue their education, identifying ways they might apply what they learn in their own community settings. With nearly 15 years of distance learning experience, our faculty know how to do this. 

• Online courses are completed during either 8 or 16 weeks of the summer, fall, or spring semesters.
• Students are expected to spend 9 to 12 hours per week on each 3-credit course.
• Faculty maintain very close contact with students throughout the online semester through synchronous meetings, asynchronous conversations, guest speakers, blogs, writing and video assignments, and student presentations.

The formation of an online student/faculty community is key to our program. Faculty facilitate opportunities for students to learn and share their knowledge and experiences within this community. Our format produces a rich environment of discovery where all can learn not only from our eminent faculty, but also from each other.