Lamar University: One Free Graduate Level Course

[wow]

update: I received an email called "Tips for starting your upcoming class" today at my personal email address and now have access to blackboard. I haven't tried relogging into my lamar email address again.

[zmn4000]

Any idea if you get the course listed on a transcript? Or is the transcripted credit behind a pay wall or does it only count if you take other courses at Lamar?

[MissRN]

Any idea if you get the course listed on a transcript? Or is the transcripted credit behind a pay wall or does it only count if you take other courses at Lamar?

In the FAQ, it says you do get credit and does get transcripted. Nothing about a fee for it though.

[Karlp2337]

I got the email to set up my student account and did so last week. However, I am still getting errors if I try to access my student email or the LMS. The LMS makes sense to me since my course doesn't start until Monday, but the email is weird since my understanding is that's the only way they're going to communicate with me from here on out. Has anyone else run into this? I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything obvious before I contact Lamar U.

I was getting this until I got the official "Congrats, you're in!" email.

How long did it take for you to get accepted? I wanna apply but the last batch of classes start in 4 days...

Edit: Applied, got an email saying they would process my app within 5-7 business days.  2 business days for classes to start. So its a long shot, but we'll see!

Following up, I got in yesterday (10/14) and registered for the class today (10/15)! They allow students to register up to two days after class start date. So, the whole process took about 5 business days.

[Vle045]

I was able to enroll from New England.

I chose Special Education Law.  3 graduate-level credits, 5 week course.

Blackboard platform 
Textbooks not provided, but I was able to rent it (by the month) for $7.50/mo from the publisher, Pearson.

Classroom opened 2 days before official start.  People started submitting week 1 discussions before official start, so nothing seemed to be locked when the classroom became available.

Coursework includes:
*Reading 3 chapters/wk from the text.
*Weekly discussion board post ("at least 2 paragraphs of 6 to 10 sentences each")
- respond to at least 3 classmates ("at least 1 paragraph of 6 to 10 sentences")
*Weekly webinar (live, or can watch replay)
- submit 1 paragraph summary of webinar (minimum 3-5 sentences) PLUS
- submit bulleted list of key ideas listed by instructor during the video
*Weekly assignment (based on text reading and additional readings provided on Blackboard)
- Each week has a template that has to be used to respond to presented questions
- Can't be submitted late, submissions get locked
*Quizzes - Week 2, 4 (multiple choice, 20 questions each)
* Final exam - Week 5 (multiple choice, 30 questions)

Some of the courses available are undergrad, some grad.  The SPED Law class was big, nearly all current educators, many working toward Education Diagnostician credentials.

Once I was approved for a class, the links sent weren't working to enroll in the specific class.  The registrar was VERY helpful and responded quickly.  IT had the issue solved within an hour.  I didn't receive any info about books, etc., with enrollment - the registrar looked it up for me.

 

Oh no. I missed this one. What do you think?   I wonder if they will offer this again.

[wow]

I was able to enroll from New England.

I chose Special Education Law.  3 graduate-level credits, 5 week course. ...

 

Oh no. I missed this one. What do you think?   I wonder if they will offer this again.

They say this is a one-time offer, but I think some of the classes are yet to start, so you might be able to register for one of those.

ETA: Just checked. Fundamentals of Leadership doesn't start until Nov. 3

[joshuaissac]

Courses should be wrapping up now. What was the experience for those who took them?

I will share mine. I had wanted to take Special Education Law, but it was already booked up, and I was contacted by the administration team to book another module. Ended up going with MISY 5320 Information Assurance and Security. It was delivered via Blackboard, and was based on Wm Arthur Conklin's Principles of Computer Security, a book designed for studying for the CompTIA Security certification.

There were quizzes and written assignments weekly. The assignments had a lower word limit. The quizzes were based on specific sentences from the book (e.g. definitions), from which we had to fill in a missing word. Most were multiple choice but some had to be typed in. No proctoring software was needed.

There were also an essay, a mid-term exam and a final exam. Both exams were quizzes with 80 questions.

Overall, I feel like I learned quite a bit from this course. There were a lot of topics within cybersecurity that were covered. But I also feel it was a bit shallow. Quizzes felt like rote memorisation tests than a real tests of understanding. Essays were better and you could go into more detail. We had the opportunity to contact the TA and the lecturer, but with the material not being that deep, I did not feel the need to do so (except to point out some errors in the textbook). On the other hand, if you are already in tech and need a module you can take without too much effort, this might be a good choice.

[Kevin.B]

I was able to enroll from New England.

I chose Special Education Law.  3 graduate-level credits, 5 week course.

Blackboard platform 
Textbooks not provided, but I was able to rent it (by the month) for $7.50/mo from the publisher, Pearson.

Classroom opened 2 days before official start.  People started submitting week 1 discussions before official start, so nothing seemed to be locked when the classroom became available.

Coursework includes:
*Reading 3 chapters/wk from the text.
*Weekly discussion board post ("at least 2 paragraphs of 6 to 10 sentences each")
- respond to at least 3 classmates ("at least 1 paragraph of 6 to 10 sentences")
*Weekly webinar (live, or can watch replay)
- submit 1 paragraph summary of webinar (minimum 3-5 sentences) PLUS
- submit bulleted list of key ideas listed by instructor during the video
*Weekly assignment (based on text reading and additional readings provided on Blackboard)
- Each week has a template that has to be used to respond to presented questions
- Can't be submitted late, submissions get locked
*Quizzes - Week 2, 4 (multiple choice, 20 questions each)
* Final exam - Week 5 (multiple choice, 30 questions)

Some of the courses available are undergrad, some grad.  The SPED Law class was big, nearly all current educators, many working toward Education Diagnostician credentials.

Once I was approved for a class, the links sent weren't working to enroll in the specific class.  The registrar was VERY helpful and responded quickly.  IT had the issue solved within an hour.  I didn't receive any info about books, etc., with enrollment - the registrar looked it up for me.

 

Oh no. I missed this one. What do you think?   I wonder if they will offer this again.

Looks like they may offer this deal next fall..

"This is an opportunity for non-degree seeking individuals that are interested in professional development or continuing education for the Fall 2026 semester. LUPEN courses for the Fall 2026 semester can be found here soon." 

Fingers crossed they do this again.

[eriehiker]

Thank you to SpartacusPM for posting this.

I saw this post just prior to the start of the second 8 week half term. I tried to sign up for the statistics/programming course, but that was full. So I also took MISY 5320 Information Assurance and Security. I kind of watch out for cheap graduate credits in math, tech and a few other areas.

I think that I was actually registered for the course a day or two into the first week. I didn't have the book, so I just did everything looking up questions on Google. It worked for the first week, so I just kept doing this and never bought the book. That said, it seems like there are cheap used copies out there.

There was a slide deck for each week. At the start of each slide deck, there is a list of important terms for the chapters. I copy/pasted this set of terms into chatgpt to have it generate flash cards/study lists. The course is basically a prep for the CompTIA security exam, so that is just basically studying a lot of terms anyway. Prior to the midterm and the final, I printed all of the study sheets and also the weekly chapter quizzes and that was enough to study for the exams.

I was surprised that there was no proctoring for the exams. I was prepared for it and even downloaded what I thought was the proctoring software into my browser. You can tell that the course content was used for more mainstream Lamar courses because the material did include information about proctoring, but there was none.

There were two weekly written assignments each week. These sometimes required 150 words, sometimes 350 and sometimes 400. Sometimes these were vocab lists. Sometimes the questions were about providing advice for purchasing a home security camera or investigating an employee who was looking at dirty web pages. There was also a longer paper that I did some research for and created a bibliography. There was also a discussion board assignment each week and a 20 question quiz.

The professor was kind during Thanksgiving week and allowed for the assignments to be due on the Tuesday afterwards.

I got into the habit of doing one thing for the class each night. It did take some effort, but it was manageable. I think the class wasn't too hard, but it had all of the required elements of what online classes look like these days.

Oh, I also found some card sets on Quizlet that were helpful. Basically, anything related to the CompTIA exam would work. I even think that textbooks for similar courses would work for reading.

I am not sure that I would pay $1000 for this course, but I thank Lamar for letting me take the course and I had a positive experience.