SHREVEPORT – Participating in a fully online degree program could feel isolating and disconnected.
But Dr. Nelson Coulter, program director for LSUS’s master of education programs, is making sure students feel part of a learning community.
Coulter will be receiving the “Meeting Students’ Needs” award at the 2025 Spring Innovation Series event, hosted by LSU Online and Continuing Education. The event will be Feb. 24 on LSU-Baton Rouge’s campus.
“Being part of a 100 percent asynchronous online program, on the surface, it can seem sort of mechanical,” Coulter said. “The thing we try to do, through our instructors particularly, is to let the students know how and what they are learning is applied in the field.
“We make personal connections so that students can leverage our failure. I’ve made more mistakes than anyone in the schoolhouse, but it’s powerful to learn from somebody that’s been an instructor, teaching coach, behavior analyst, or superintendent.”
An asynchronous online degree program is one where students don’t meet at any specific time, even virtually. Rather assignments and readings are given ahead of time, allowing students to make their own schedule.
Almost all of LSUS’s master of education students have full-time jobs, usually as teachers or other education personnel. This program structure allows students maximum flexibility to get an education while pursuing career goals and raising families.
That means instructor and staff responsiveness is key in connecting with students, 85 percent of which are female with the majority of those being working mothers.
“I tell our faculty and staff all the time that students can find this content almost for free, so it’s the quality of service we provide that makes the difference,” said Coulter, who taught at a principal preparation program at the University of Texas for 13 years before coming to LSUS in 2018. “We’re student-centered and student-focused.
“The folks on our team are very accessible. We try to get to know students as well as we can on a personal level, no matter where in the world they are.”
The result is a program that’s doubled in size since 2018 to more than 800 students.
“Our online offerings are really attractive, especially to working people with full-time jobs,” Coulter said. “We’re also extremely affordable, and we deliver quality instruction.
“We know a lot of classwork gets done on the weekend because that’s when many of our students are able to invest quality time in their courses.”
Curtis Evans is an administrator and assistant football coach at Shreveport’s Huntington High, and he said pursuing his master’s degree wouldn’t have been possible without LSUS’s program structure.
“I explored a lot of programs, but LSUS’s online structure allowed me to put the necessary time into coaching and my duties as a discipline administrator while completing my coursework,” Evans said at his graduation this past September. “It’s time for me to look into leadership positions after 26 years of coaching, and I think the leadership skills I’ve learned through coaching and as an administrator transition well into education leadership roles.
LSU Online, a centralized online program management service for the LSU system, plays a key role in marketing and recruiting LSUS’s online programs, including the master of education.
“Our partners at LSU Online have been phenomenal in this respect, and they have a team who helps us recruit and retain students through student success coaches,” Coulter said.
LSUS offers education master’s degrees in curriculum and instruction and educational leadership with six different start dates throughout the year.
