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Courses for this program are 100% online: no campus visits are required. Face-to-face field experience hours required. Practicum and capstone can be completed in your local community.
Your degree requires 120 credit hours, which may include transfer credits from other regionally accredited institutions.
The courses you take will include:
- MU General Education requirements
- 48 credit hours in early childhood education course work, including a capstone
- 18 additional credit hours in HDFS requirements
Transfer students
The number of credits you need to take will depend on the type of previous credit earned and the institutions' accreditation and transfer equivalencies. The admissions office will determine your transfer credit once they receive your official transcripts and application. Visit the University of Missouri Course Equivalency site to determine credit equivalencies from courses taken at other Missouri institutions.
Course planner
See a sample early childhood education BS “Semester Plan” of study. Personal degree plans will be developed with your academic advisor.
Courses are offered by multiple public universities in the IDEA consortium, and some may have varying start and finish dates. Once you’re a Mizzou student in the program, you will register each semester through Mizzou regardless of the institution offering the course.
The chart below shows when core courses are traditionally offered. Courses are 3 credit hours each, unless otherwise noted. The University reserves the right to change or cancel courses as needed.
State authorization
States require that the University of Missouri be authorized to deliver university-level distance/online education to their residents. Each state handles this process differently.
Please see our state authorization page for more information.