Please introduce yourself

[Mark Nichols]

I'm very conscious that at first this group will consist entirely of
strangers... some of whom we may never actually meet. For that reason,
it would be good to have you introduce yourself. In this thread,
please say a few things about yourself addressing things such as:

What is your involvement in theological education?
What interests you in this group?
What are some things you are seeking to learn about?
What sort of contributions do you think you might make?

We look forward to getting to know you better!

Mark.

[Reuben]

Hi. I am Reuben van Rensburg, the Principal of the South African
Theological Seminary, (www.satsonline.org), a distance education
institution accredited up to PhD level. We have nearly 3000 students
in 73 countries. We are passionate about our three foundational
principles, namely Bible-based, Christ-centred, Spirit led. Our
students can choose to do their studies either in print, or by
downloading print-based material from our website, or in e-learning
classes, asynchronously. We actively forge partnerships with like-
minded groups around the world and currently have aout 70. I would
hope that through this group we wil be able to meet new potential
partners, or make contact with people who have the same interests as
we do so that we can do more for the Kingdom than we can do
separately.

[Diane Hockridge]

Hi all,
I'm Diane Hockridge, Distance Education Officer of the Sydney College
of Divinity. The SCD is a consortium of theological higher education
colleges, located around Australia. My role is to coordinate,
oversee, support and develop distance and online learning across our
colleges. It is an educational administration and development role,
not a direct teaching role. The SCD currently 7 member colleges, some
of which have a long history of offering distance and/or online
learning, others of which have only recently begun offering distance
or online courses.

I am keen to connect with others in theological education who are
thinking about how we can offer really high quality distance and
online learning and who are grappling with issues that are particular
to our context. I was excited to come across Mark's PhD research as I
think it addresses one of the key issues we are facing in distance
education - the prevailing view that distance and/or online learning
is in some way inferior to more traditional, face-face methods of
teaching and learning.

I am currently undertaking a Masters in Higher Education, specialising
in e-learning, at Macquarie University in Sydney. This course is
providing me with a good picture of developments in online learning,
the challenges to pedagogical approaches and teaching practices that
online learning brings to institutions. What has been missing for me
is the opportunity to connect with others in the theological education
sector who are thinking about these issues.

So I hope that we may be able to develop some fruitful connections and
have some interesting discussions via this group.

One of the things I do to support distance and online learning in the
SCD is to publish a monthly internal newsletter for our academic staff
which looks at issue related to distance and online learning. I'll
upload a recent edition of the newsletter for this group. Or you can
access the newsletter at our Wiki:
http://courseworksandpit.wetpaint.com/page/Distance+%26+Online+Learning+Resources

Looking forward to interacting with you
Regards

Diane H

[Diane Hockridge]

Just to clarify - I initially uploaded a different edition of the SCD
Newsletter than what I intended, I have now uploaded a recent edition
that is perhaps more relevant to this group.

Diane H

> access the newsletter at our Wiki:http://courseworksandpit.wetpaint.com/page/Distance+%26+Online+Learni...