I have now completed my first teaching online experience in the TEL program at PSR. What an exciting week! The TEL program is brand new and takes place completely online as part of theological education and training for a variety of leaders. The one-week course I taught was Biblical Interpretation to a wonderful group of people who quickly formed community. I was moved by how they responded to one another’s prayer concerns and supported one another in their learning.
Lesson #1: Learning online does not have to mean a lack of community. It means a different kind of community, and one where people reach out to each other at all hours. Every time I logged onto our course site (through the Moodle platform), ping! there was an update from someone, a voice of concern, and a hope for an answered prayer.
Lesson #2: Objectives for online learning are the same as a traditional classroom, but the mechanism for learning them is different. The goals for this course were to explore and apply the historical and literary approaches to the Bible, understand how our social location affects our interpretation, and to learn how to utilize particular resources in biblical interpretation. In a traditional classroom, I might organize a class period around verbal discussion about a particular reading and practicing an approach on a biblical text, and perhaps looking at multi-media as it relates to the biblical text. Online, I organized “modules” to be completed at the student’s own pace by a certain time/date (usually over 48 hours). This involved some discussion of the reading in “forums” where students were asked to engage specific question about the reading—similar to a traditional classroom. The difference: students had time to read slowly and think in depth about the material before posting. The pressure was “off” in a way that sometimes paralyzes students in a traditional classroom, no matter how a teacher has created an inviting atmosphere. I believe that some students may engage the written material more deeply with this format, because they have serious time to consider the material. The interactive component is still there, because students are discussing and participating together. Student interaction is different, though, than the traditional classroom. In some ways, I as the teacher have a bit less control–gulp—in this format, because students may comment and make conclusions with each other when I am not online. There is always the possibility that students will come to different conclusions than I anticipated. And, that’s OK.
Maybe that’s lesson #3—take a deep breath, teacher, because your students are great and they’re going to learn.
Lesson #4: Lots and lots of setup. LOTS of preparation. In a traditional classroom I can have the “skeleton” of a course designed, with readings mapped out and major goals and assignments at the beginning of the course. Then I can wait for the daily/weekly preparation, mapping out particular class periods in consideration of the personality of the class, and specific time constraints–how far we’re behind or ahead in the course material. When teaching online, the entire course needs to be thought out ahead of time. I gave students specific modules to complete with suggested time to spend on each exercise. The TEL course is mindful of students’ time (which I greatly appreciate), and I had a total of 8 contact hours on the Moodle site for teaching and learning, so I constructed the course with this in mind. This means that every element of the course design focused on the specific learning goals and students viewed the entire course at once. This was beneficial to everyone, myself included. In fully developing and designing the entire course, I was able to construct much more specific and meaningful learning experiences for the students.
Lesson #5: Online learning is fun. I can’t wait for the next round!