LR’s Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) provides students with the opportunity to earn both a graduate degree and North Carolina teaching certification (honored in most states). The program is designed for students who have earned a non-education undergraduate degree and wish to pursue secondary teacher or certain K-12 teacher licensure areas. Students can earn a master's degree and gain the skills, training and certification they need to be highly-qualified English, math, social studies, science, Spanish, physical education or music teachers.

The program is designed with the working adult in mind. As a non-cohort program, students can complete the curriculum online at their own pace—full-time or part-time. Although delivered online, full-time faculty mentors are located on both LR’s Hickory and Asheville campuses, providing students greater face-to-face access when needed. Any practicum experiences, including student teaching requirements, can be completed close to home at the students’ greater convenience.

The online environment allows students to see, hear and interact with their professors and colleagues in a dynamic, real-time instructional setting that is very close to what they would have in a face-to-face class. This is not one of those programs where students are completing ""modules."" This program is comprised of live, interactive classes. Students work in groups and pairs as well as share their work as they would do in a regular classroom. Classes are small so that students can build important relationships with their professors and get the kind of personalized education that Lenoir-Rhyne University encourages.