FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
LSC-Online Sets the Stage for Fall 2026 with “Digital Learning. Accelerated.”
Fall Convocation brings faculty and staff together around student success, agility and the evolving future of digital learning
HOUSTON, Texas — August 25, 2026 — LSC-Online welcomed faculty and staff to the Fall 2026 academic year with a clear focus on what it means to serve students in a rapidly changing educational landscape: remain responsive, strengthen what works and be prepared to evolve when student needs demand it.
That responsibility framed LSC-Online’s Fall 2026 Convocation, held August 21 under the theme “Building the Future of Online Education.” The event brought faculty and staff together to recognize progress, examine priorities for the year ahead and consider how LSC-Online can continue strengthening a college experience designed for digital learning.
LSC-Online President Carlos R. Morales, Ph.D., reinforced the college’s vision to become a premier online college recognized for student success, innovation and excellence in digital learning.
“Every student who chooses LSC-Online is placing their trust in us,” Morales said. “They choose flexibility because life demands it. They choose opportunity because education changes lives. And they choose us because they believe we can help them succeed.”
The presentation also acknowledged the environment in which today’s students are learning and preparing for work. Information is immediate, technology continues to evolve, artificial intelligence is becoming part of the broader educational and workplace landscape, and student needs and expectations continue to change. Rather than centering any one technology, LSC-Online is focused on a larger responsibility: remaining agile enough to understand change, evaluate its implications and respond intentionally when doing so can better serve students.
That responsibility is reflected in the college’s emerging identity:
Digital Learning. Accelerated.
For LSC-Online, acceleration is not about speed. It is about strengthening the college’s ability to recognize change, learn from evidence and adapt its practices while keeping student success at the center.
That work is also reflected in an academic structure distinctive to LSC-Online: its 9000-series courses. Unique to the online college, these courses are part of the academic environment LSC-Online continues to build as it explores what excellence requires within a digital setting. A digital college is more than a collection of courses delivered online. The experience includes teaching and course design as well as advising, student support, connection and the systems students encounter throughout their educational journey.
LSC-Online has also continued investing in faculty development as higher education evolves. During the previous academic year, professional development addressed areas including student retention and persistence, academic integrity, evolving course design, artificial intelligence, digital tools and the future of work. These opportunities allow faculty to examine emerging issues, explore new practices and contribute their expertise as the college determines how best to respond to changing student needs. The college enters Fall 2026 with measurable progress. LSC-Online has already reached the Lone Star College System’s 2030 target for Gateway English success while identifying student retention and persistence as areas where additional progress is needed.
Convocation challenged the college community to look beyond the numbers and examine the experiences behind them: whether students have clear pathways, receive support at the right time, encounter unnecessary barriers, maintain academic momentum and feel connected to their college in a digital environment.
That is what acceleration should ultimately mean: not change for its own sake, but the capacity to move when students need us to move.
Supporting Students in a Digital College
That commitment was visible in several accomplishments recognized during Convocation. Over the past year, LSC-Online expanded proactive outreach and wraparound support, increased student engagement through clubs and live events, advanced Online New Student Orientation and continued developing resources to support students navigating an online college experience.
“Being an online student should never mean navigating college alone,” said Tamara Herod, M.A., Manager, Disability Service. “Our responsibility is to make sure students can find the right support at the right time and know there are people behind the digital experience who are invested in their success. As our students’ needs evolve, we have to keep listening, learning and adapting how we serve them.”
The college also celebrated its first hybrid commencement, providing online graduates and their families an opportunity to participate in an in-person milestone while maintaining the flexibility central to the LSC-Online experience. Members of the Commencement Taskforce received the Golden Ticket Award during Convocation in recognition of the collaboration required to create that experience for graduates and their families. These efforts reinforce a broader understanding of digital learning. Students need an educational experience that supports connection, belonging, navigation, persistence and achievement alongside academic learning.
Removing Barriers to Progress
Financial support is another part of that experience.
As LSC-Online works to improve persistence and completion, helping students understand financial aid, navigate available resources and make informed decisions about paying for college remains an important part of removing barriers to progress.
“Financial aid is about more than helping students pay for college; it is about helping remove uncertainty that can become a barrier to continuing their education,” said Priscilla Valenzuela, Manager, Financial Aid Department. “When students understand their options and know where to turn for help, they are better positioned to make informed decisions and stay focused on their educational goals.”
The connection between affordability and persistence was also emphasized during Convocation, with the college examining how greater predictability, transparency and access can help students maintain momentum toward completion.
Students Remain the Measure
Ultimately, the impact of these efforts is measured through the experiences and success of LSC-Online students.
Chinonye Chukwukere, an LSC-Online Computer Science student and student government leader, brought that perspective directly to faculty and staff during Convocation.
“You do not have to do everything at once or have it all figured out; you just have to keep showing up one step and day at a time,” Chukwukere said. “For me, that is the power of consistency.”
Her message underscored what institutional measures ultimately represent: individual students moving forward one assignment, one course and one semester at a time.
The responsibility of the college is to keep showing up for them, too. That means listening, examining evidence, removing barriers where possible, strengthening what works, questioning what no longer does and remaining agile enough to respond as the world students are preparing to enter continues to change.
Building What’s Next
LSC-Online’s work advances Lone Star College’s 2025–2030 priorities in financial resilience, academic excellence, culture and talent development, and pathways to transfer, workforce success and long-term prosperity.
Within that broader mission, LSC-Online has a distinct responsibility: to continue exploring what excellence looks like when the college experience is intentionally designed for a digital environment.
That work will require technology, but technology alone will not define it.
It will require faculty expertise, intentional student support, collaboration, professional development, data-informed decision-making and a willingness to evolve as the needs of students and the environments they are preparing to enter evolve.
LSC-Online does not need to predict exactly what digital education will look like five or 10 years from now.
It needs to be ready for it.
Because students deserve an institution capable of meeting them where they are, responding as their needs change and helping prepare them for where they are going.
Digital Learning. Accelerated.
About LSC-Online
LSC-Online, part of Lone Star College, expands access to high-quality, affordable and flexible digital learning opportunities. LSC-Online supports students as they enroll, persist, complete and pursue their educational and career goals through an online college experience centered on student success, access, quality, innovation and connection.
Media Contact
Elaisa Acosta, DBA, MS, MA
Director, Marketing & Communications
College Relations
Lone Star College–Online
Email: MarCom@lonestar.edu
Phone: 281-290-1874