What to expect in the classroom and beyond.

Time

Not all learning takes place while listening to lectures. Coursework includes all learning activities, including reading, watching videos, studying, and completing assignments. Our university requires 48 hours of coursework per credit for college-level courses, which translates to:

1 credit hour = 48 total hours
2 credit hour = 96 total hours
3 credit hour = 144 total hours
4 credit hour = 192 total hours
5 credit hour = 240 total hours
6 credit hour = 288 total hours

For a 16-week, 3-credit-hour course, students are expected to dedicate 3 hours of organized instruction to learning the material and hours of independent study, which includes completing assignments each week.

For an 8 week, 3-credit-hours course, students are expected to dedicate 6 hours of organized instruction to learning the material and an additional 12 hours of independent study, which includes completing assignments, each week.

Course Experiences

Live Courses

Live courses taught by our top-ranked faculty provide opportunities to discuss real-world examples and case studies that enrich the course material. Some courses within the degree program hold regularly scheduled live and mandatory courses. These are designed to fit a variety of schedules, recorded, and are supported by asynchronous course material. Live courses may occur online or in person.

For online courses, Zoom and Engageli are the platforms utilized. Engageli is an interactive online course program for students to interact among each other, building off the experiences of others, while providing a highly interactive lecture and discussion style. This platform is free for our students. We provide instructions for accessing the live sessions.

Canvas

Canvas is utilized as the primary content management system across the degree program.

Projects

Collaborating with peers from diverse backgrounds on real case studies helps you gain new perspectives and insights into your field.

Capstone

The capstone is an innovation project. It’s designed to encourage students to draw upon their creativity for innovation, integrating theory, practical experience, research, data collection, analytic skills, writing, and critical thinking into a hybrid research-design project targeted toward generating a solution to a real-world problem.

Students regularly meet with faculty throughout the capstone experience for both online and on campus students to discuss project design, research, feedback and overall progress prior to the final presentation.

Read more about the Capstone.

Additional Opportunities and Resources

Graduate College Handbook

The current year graduate college handbook, policies and academic calendars can be found here.

Online and campus students:

All online and on campus resources are available to our students in the MVS program.

On or Near Campus:

Connect with small animal clinics, mixed animal practices or production animal farms on campus or in the area to gain a variety of experiences
Volunteer at the College of Veterinary Medicine Wildlife Medical Clinic
Work at Vet Med with an hourly job opportunity while working on your degree

Two programs to fit your schedule!