On the University of Pennsylvania campus, our trees are losing their leaves—but at Penn LPS Online, we’re already thinking about next spring. The new year can feel like a new beginning: spring is a wonderful time to learn a new skill, discover a new idea, or branch out into a new subject. Will 2025 be the year you dip your fingers into the well of creative or professional writing? Are you ready to challenge yourself with complex questions or imagine potential futures? Whatever drives you or inspires you, Penn LPS Online has a course for you.
Spring 1 courses begin on January 15. Current Penn LPS Online students can already register for courses via Path@Penn. If you are new to Penn LPS Online, you can enroll as a certificate or course taker through December 15. Prospective Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences (BAAS) students can apply by February 1 for a spring 2 start.
Ready to climb the tree of knowledge?
Practice professional applications in writing
PROW 4000: Writing for Social Media
The landscape of social media is constantly changing. Even if you’re an experienced user of Twitter—excuse me, X—or one of the first pioneers on Bluesky and Mastodon, it can be challenging to get a big picture view: if you want your organization to have a meaningful presence on social media, where is your audience? How do you communicate with them? What if you make a mistake?
This course explores how readers and content creators alike approach social media: how to design multimedia texts that bring together language, image, sound, and gesture; how to establish a coherent message and credible reputation; how to create a brand identity and cultivate audience loyalty. By the end of the term, your coursework will stand up as a multiplatform professional portfolio of social content.
- Instructor: Matthew Osborn, Director, Critical Writing Program, Marks Family Center for Excellence in Writing
- 8-week course offered in spring 2 (March 17 – May 9, 2025)
- May be taken as an individual course
- May be applied toward the Certificate in Digital Strategies and Certificate in Professional Writing
- May be applied toward the BAAS concentrations in Individualized Studies
Haven’t you always wanted to sit in a TV writers’ room, or adapt your life story for the screen? In this workshop, you’ll learn the tools of the trade: beats, loglines, script formatting rules, and more. By studying the screenplays of successful film and television shows, you’ll explore different methods of structuring your story, conveying complex characters, and controlling tension and narrative escalation. This is a workshop, so you’ll also pen your own pages—and, through peer feedback and writing groups, get a taste of the highly collaborative screenwriting industry.
- Instructor: Zachary Tyler Vickers, Lecturer in creative writing
- 8-week course offered in spring 1 (January 15 – March 12, 2025)
- May be taken as an individual course
- May be applied toward the Certificate in Creative Writing
- May be applied toward the BAAS concentrations in Creative Studies, Individualized Studies, and Literature, Culture, and Tradition
Immerse yourself in interdisciplinary arts
DIGC 3200: Designing Critical Futures
What are critical futures? Just look at the work of Nebula award-winning author Octavia Butler, whose imaginative fiction explores not only dystopia paths but new opportunities for community, connection, and meaning. In this course, you’ll explore the ways technological and digital tools can either create inclusive spaces or recreate systemic biases and inequality—and, like Butler, apply critical methods such as analysis and inquiry to imagine fair and thriving communities. With a curriculum that spans speculative fiction, social justice scholarship, and other visionary work in the arts and sciences, this course offers rich imaginative opportunities for students of different disciplines. To learn more about this course from the instructor, visit Faculty Spotlight: Clayton Colmon.
- Instructor: Clayton Colmon, Associate Director of Instructional Design
- 8-week course offered in spring 1 (January 15 – March 12, 2025)
- May be taken as an individual course
- May be applied toward the Certificate in Digital Strategies and the Certificate in Social Difference, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
- May be applied toward the BAAS concentrations in Individualized Studies and Literature, Culture, and Tradition
SDEI 2600: Inequity in Arts & Design: Re-Presenting History
Contemporary art is a powerful avenue for understanding history—and imagining the future. Through a wide range of media, including painting, sculpture, video, and virtual visits to site-specific installations, you can explore systemic inequality through the lens of impactful US artists such as Kehinde Wiley and Kara Walker. No prior knowledge of art or art history is required for this course, in which you’ll learn the vocabulary and frameworks you need in lectures and readings as you explore themes including the legacy of slavery and colonialism, indigenous art, representation and cultural appropriation, and other social issues. To learn more about what to expect in this course, read Faculty Spotlight: Heather Moqtaderi.
- Instructor: Heather Moqtaderi, Founder and Artistic Director, Past Present Projects
- 8-week course offered in spring 2 (March 17 – May 09, 2025)
- May be taken as an individual course
- May be applied toward the Certificate in Social Difference, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
- May be applied toward the BAAS concentration in Individualized Studies
Scale up your science and math knowledge
SPRO 1000: Scientific Reasoning
You don’t have to be a scientist to benefit from scientific reasoning. So many everyday decisions, from who to vote for to which medications to take, could be informed by having some fluency with scientific discourse and comfort in evaluating new knowledge. This course examines the tools used to generate knowledge and explores how knowledge is influenced and shared over time—which is vital not only to anyone interested in pursuing scientific studies, but also anyone whose creative or professional work entails sharing and interpreting knowledge. To learn about the importance of scientific reasoning from one of the course designers, read Faculty Spotlight: Michael Weisberg.
- Instructor: Paul Musso, PhD Candidate in Penn's Department of Philosophy
- 8-week course offered in spring 1 (January 15 – March 12, 2025)
- May be taken as an individual course
- May be applied toward the BAAS Foundational Requirement – Scientific Process
MTHS 2000: Mathematics All Around You
If you have math anxiety, this is the math class for you. This course grounds the abstract concepts of mathematics in concrete, real-world applications, such as game theory for decision-making or graph theory for studying social networks. Students bring their own interests and ideas to the course, so some of the topics and applications may vary—but you can count on learning the foundations of mathematical science and logic. To learn more, read Learn how to leverage the power of logic in Mathematics All Around You.
- Instructor: Nakia Rimmer, Associate Director of Undergraduate Mathematics and Senior Lecturer, Department of Mathematics
- 8-week course offered in spring 2 (March 17 – May 9, 2025)
- May be taken as an individual course
- May be applied toward the Certificate in Leadership and Communication and Certificate in Science Foundations
- May be applied toward the BAAS concentrations in Individualized Studies, Leadership and Communication, and Physical and Life Sciences
- May be applied toward the BAAS Foundational Requirement – Quantitative Analysis
CLCH 2200: Atmospheric Science
Atmospheric science is in the air lately. This course provides an introduction to atmospheric science at the local, regional, and global levels, and will help you make sense of phenomena from air quality alerts impacted by wildfires to the appearance of the Northern Lights further south than usual. While you may have a more robust experience in this course if you have previously completed CLCH 1600: Oceanography, there are no prerequisites for this course. On the other hand, a solid grounding in the composition of the atmosphere as well as the mechanisms of weather will position you to understand environmental concerns from pollution to climate change.
- Instructor: Maria-Antonia Andrews, Associate Director, Undergraduate Programs in Earth and Environmental Science
- 8-week course offered in spring 1 (January 15 – March 12, 2025)
- May be taken as an individual course
- May be applied toward the Certificate in Climate Change
- May be applied toward the BAAS degree concentrations in Individualized Studies and Physical and Life Sciences
Be your best self at work and beyond
APOP 1200: Human Flourishing: Strengths and Resilience
One of the first assignments in this course is a personal strengths assessment: you complete a scientific survey and learn about the elements of your unique character that help you pursue personal fulfillment, make connections to others, or weather difficult times. This becomes your starting point in identifying evidence-based interventions you can use to flourish or thrive wherever you are. While you may have a more robust learning experience if you first complete APOP 1000: Introduction to Positive Psychology, there are no prerequisites for the course. Beyond the methods and research that anchor this innovative field, the subject of positive psychology is you—and what a meaningful life looks like to you.
Course instructor Virginia Millar was presented the 2024 College of Liberal and Professional Studies Award for Distinguished Teaching in Undergraduate and Post-Baccalaureate Programs; read more in Faculty Spotlight: Virginia Millar.
- Instructor: Virginia Millar, Penn LPS Online Certificate in Applied Positive Psychology Faculty
- 8-week course offered in spring 2 (March 17 – May 9, 2025)
- May be taken as an individual course
- May be applied toward the Certificate in Applied Positive Psychology
- May be applied toward the BAAS concentrations in Data Analytics and Psychological Sciences, Individualized Studies, Leadership and Communication, and Organizational Culture and Collaboration
ORGC 3010: Anthropology of Organizations
What is your workplace like? How is your team structured, and how do you communicate with one another? Who leads your group and how is leadership chosen? In this course, you will examine the structure and culture of your workplace using one of the keenest tools for that purpose: anthropology, the study of how people organize and maintain groups. Through anthropological theories and methods, you’ll identify the drivers of cultural conflict that can hinder strategies and reduce collaboration, and work with an organization’s particular cultural characteristics to create sustainable change.
- Instructor: Marshall B. Knudson, Instructor
- 8-week course offered in spring 1 (January 15 – March 12, 2025)
- May be taken as an individual course
- May be applied toward the Certificate in Organizational Culture and Collaboration
- May be applied toward the BAAS concentrations in Individualized Studies and Organizational Culture and Collaboration
This is just a small selection of the enriching subjects available online this spring—there are many more courses to leaf through! View our course guide to see the full range of what’s available in the upcoming terms.
