Both the Monthly and Distance Learning Formats provide adult learners, who have significant commitments to family and/or employment, with the opportunity to complete their graduate coursework.
Distance Learning Overview
The Distance Learning Format at the Institute of Imaginal Studies combines online learning with two, week-long residential seminars each academic year. This combination of online and residential learning offers the distance learner the opportunity to complete the graduate program by traveling to the San Francisco Bay Area twice per academic year, once in the Winter and once in the Summer.
Academic Calendar
The Institute calendar is based on the quarter system. In the Distance Learning Format, the academic year consists of 30 quarter units of coursework. Distance Learning coursework consists of 60% online courses and 40% residential courses. Students who wish to add the optional external study component deduct those units from the online component.
Online Learning Component
Up to 18 quarter units of online learning may be completed through online coursework. Institute faculty and staff collaborate to provide an online learning experience for students that invites new and unexpected meanings to emerge. Online coursework is conducted asynchronously, providing students the opportunity to participate in collaborative learning with faculty and fellow students during times that are convenient with their personal schedules.
Residential Component
To compliment their online learning, students further deepen their learning experience in the graduate program through the residential component of the Distance Learning Format. Students meet in-residence in the San Francisco Bay Area for one week in the Winter quarter and one week in the Summer quarter. Twelve quarter units of classroom learning are completed in-residence each academic year.
Optional External Study Component
Students in the Distance Learning Format may make external study arrangements which include seminar and training programs conducted elsewhere, on a case-by-case basis. Approved external study can replace up to six units of online coursework per academic year.
