Of CSU Grads Land Jobs Related to Their Career Plans
95%
Of Online Undergraduate Students Would Choose CSU Again
95%
Of Online Undergraduate Students Would Choose CSU Again
Degree Overview
Gain skills to help individuals and families throughout different stages of life with this online human development degree.
Online human development and family studies degree from CSU
Regardless if you are a first-time freshman, transfer student, or you are interested in pursuing a second bachelor's degree, this highly customizable program can help you achieve your educational and career goals. Through coursework and field experience focused on individual and family development across the lifespan, you will discover how people develop and change, and how family, community, and society affect human development.
Choose a degree concentration
In addition to the core courses in the HDFS degree curriculum, you have five degree concentration choices. You may choose to specialize in one or two of the following concentrations, depending on your career goals:
Early childhood professions
Leadership and entrepreneurial professions
Pre-health professions
Prevention and intervention sciences
Human development and family studies
Minor in gerontology
Gain a better understanding of the aging process, including the biological, psychological, and social aspects of adult development and aging with an optional gerontology minor. Visit the degree minors page to learn more.
Gain additional qualifications for roles in leadership
You can also choose to pursue Director Qualifications for early childhood centers as part of this degree program. In choosing this option, you will work with your advisor to select electives that help you meet state requirements and prepare you to seek early childhood education credentials upon completion of the coursework.
HDFS graduates are also strong candidates for application to become Certified Family Life Educators, who focus on healthy family functioning within a family systems perspective. They utilize a primarily preventive approach to address societal issues within the context of family.
Regardless of which direction you choose, CSU's online human development and family studies degree will equip you with skills in:
Observation
Program development and implementation
Grant writing
Social policy information
Working with diverse populations
Build an interdisciplinary foundation
This degree uses research and insight from multiple disciplines to provide you with a broad foundation of knowledge. Understanding key concepts in biology, psychology, sociology, and social work allows you to apply your skills to a variety of human service fields. This human development and family studies (HDFS) program's core curriculum covers topics like:
Child, adolescent, and adult development
Professional skills development
Families and relationships
Research methods and program development
CHHS research podcast
Find out how CSU’s research is making an impact by tuning into the CHHS Health and Human Science Matters Podcast, a collection of lively, engaging conversations with members of the college community.
Curriculum
Requirements to Graduate
A minimum of 120 credits are required to complete this degree.
This includes:
42 upper-division (300-400 level) credits
30 upper-division credits completed through Colorado State University
The number of courses needed to complete the program depends on:
The number of transfer credits awarded, if you are transferring credits into the program. You have the option to use the TransferologyTM website to conduct a self-review of your potential transfer courses. This tool will assist you in seeing how your previous college coursework may transfer to CSU.
Through the coursework and supervised field experience in this program, you learn to identify factors that influence an individual's development through infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, within the contexts of culture and family. This comprehensive curriculum is immediately career-applicable as it covers a range of topics such as early childhood development, marriage and family relationships, and emotional and language development. You also gain skills in observation, program development and implementation, grant writing, and social policy as these relate to diverse populations of people.
Most courses are offered every semester, including summer, although summer courses are not required. Throughout the program, you are allowed to repeat courses if necessary.
Prerequisites for this program are strictly enforced. Prerequisites must be completed or consent from the instructor must be given prior to registration.
In this program, you'll participate in a hands-on, intensive work experience in a setting closely aligned with your career plan and chosen concentration. Your academic advisor will help you determine how many credits you need and the section that will correlate with your concentration.
Your field placement must be taken in conjunction with HDFS 477 and permission is required to enroll. Once you have determined when you will participate with the help of your academic advisor, you can begin the internship application process. The field placement coordinator will contact you after you have completed the internship application to provide placement procurement and registration instructions.
Students must choose at least one, and no more than two, concentrations based on interest and career aspirations. Of the required 15 credits, a minimum of 9 must be HDFS courses. A minimum of 12 credits must be upper-division (300- to 400- level). Courses from one concentration cannot be applied to a second concentration.
You can also choose to pursue a gerontology minor and/or early childhood Director Qualifications. If you are transferring courses into the program or find other CSU courses that are more appropriate to your career goals, please speak to your advisor about substituting courses. Keep in mind that 30 upper division credits must be completed through CSU coursework.