Welcome to CHREDITS!
Mark Nichols
people interested in Christian Education (Distance) in Tertiary
Settings. I'm Mark Nichols, currently (as at 5 August 2010) working on
a PhD investigating the spiritual formation experiences of distance
theological education students.
At least for now, this site will do nothing more than connect people -
people who will, hopefully, get to know each other and share links and
ideas. Once you're a member able to read this, please feel free to add
documents and links for others to enjoy - and to ask questions through
this forum. Eventually, we may end up organising some online events;
let's see how it goes!
Philemon 25,
Mark.
Jesse McLain
Mark Nichols
Great topic for research you've selected, completely related to the work I'm (hopefully) about to complete. I spent some three years (more, if you count part-time) working in theological distance education with Laidlaw College, assisting in the delivery of two undergraduate degrees delivered entirely at a distance, making significant use of online forums. Students were not required to attend any face-to-face classes. My PhD research investigates the extent to which (if any) these distance students may have been at a disadvantage in terms of spiritual formation.
The findings? There was no significant difference in spiritual maturity across on-campus and distance students. The only differences I found were associated with age (17 to 24, compared with a more spiritually mature 40 to 65) and part-time study (those part-time had a more thorough spiritual maturity profile). I used the CSPP (Christian Spiritual Participation Profile) as the survey instrument, and followed up with qualitative interviews across samples.
To give a very glib and rapid-fire summary of what I found, both distance and on-campus students displayed evidence of perspective transformation as a result of their studies. Further, the distance students I interviewed were all active members of their local church congregations, and most were actively engaged in ministry. This is also the experience of Rockbridge Seminary, an online provider of theological education. Why might anyone have concerns about formation under these circumstances? There are several nuances to these conclusions, but this is the overall finding.
Anyways, great to have you aboard in CHREDITS. Let the conversation continue!
Best regards,
Mark.
Diane Hockridge
Hi Jesse and Mark,
Good to hear of your research too Jesse. I’m also just putting together a PhD proposal on this area, which I will hopefully be starting on later this year. I’m planning to look at how formational learning outcomes might be improved in theological higher education institutions by drawing on insights from the field of Learning Design. Previously I’ve been focusing particularly on spiritual formation in distance education, but I’ve now broadened my focus to look at how spiritual formation is addressed, regardless of mode of study. I think that if we can identify key elements and principles for formational learning then we will be able to develop a sound pedagogical approach that can be applied across various modes of study. (Though personally, I am particularly interested in how this happens at a distance and through using learning technologies).
Learning Design (as a specific field rather than the generic concept of designing learning) aims to provide a framework for making effective teaching ideas and learning designs more explicit, and to represent these in ways that can be freely shared and discussed with others. (http://learningdesigntimeline.wordpress.com/) So it may provide a possible way forward for exploring appropriate pedagogies for spiritual formation. I’m also hoping to explore some of the ways in which “work-integrated learning” (or field experience) is being used (effectively or otherwise) to contribute to formation.
Anyway, it would be good to keep in touch. I’d also be interested in finding out about any academic conferences anyone can recommend that might be of particular relevance to this area.
All the best,
Diane Hockridge
Distance & Online Education Coordinator
Sydney College of Divinity
email: dia...@scd.edu.au
PO Box 1882
Macquarie Centre NSW 2113
Tel:(02) 9889 1969 Fax: (02) 9889 2281
Mobile: 0402 978 038
Web: scd.edu.au
The Sydney College of Divinity is a Higher Education Institution providing Quality Theological Education through its member institutions: Australian College of Ministries (Sydney), Catholic Institute of Sydney (Sydney and Auckland), Emmaus Bible College (Sydney and Perth), Nazarene Theological College (Brisbane), NSW College of Clinical Pastoral Education (Sydney), St Andrew's Greek Orthodox Theological College (Sydney), The Salvation Army Booth College (Sydney).
ACN 002 653 036
CRICOS Provider Code 02904K (QLD), 02948J (NSW) 03284C (WA)
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