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Seminary Course Prepares Online Students for Success
CHICAGO, IL (April 14, 2005) - A new online orientation course for
SemConnect, the online education program at North Park Theological
Seminary, will be showcased at a national conference this summer.
The course program, entitled will be highlighted during a Course Design
Showcase at the national Distance Learning 2005 conference, scheduled
August 3-5 in Madison, WI.
Allyson Dickie, the seminary's director of distance learning, and Jenny
Henrikson,
assistant director of student services, will attend the conference and
give presentations and demonstrations of the course.
Allyson Dickie, the seminary's director of distance learning, says that
the course, entitled "E-learning, Prepare for Success," has three main
goals: to familiarize new students with the online course delivery
system; to introduce the school's support services to new students; and
to begin building a "learning community."
That learning community includes students from across the United States
and nations as distant as Germany and Ecuador, says Dickie.
"Establishing a community of learners who know about one another and
who will learn together is very important to the success of online
learning programs," Dickie says. "Creating a cohesive community
identity helps reduce the isolation learners often feel due to the
separation of place and time inherent in the online environment.
Forming the foundations of this community early helps students
establish the social foundations of the face-to-face classroom that are
sometimes taken for granted."
Through an online discussion board, participants get a sense of each
other, Dickie says, and begin to learn how to form a community in an
online forum. Other features include introductions to Brandel Library
and other resources, as well as information on each of the professors.
The orientation takes about four hours, Dickie says.
Informal feedback from faculty indicated that students who participated
in the orientation program were better able to begin academic work on
the first day of class. The faculty also noted that they received far
fewer requests from students for technical assistance.
SemConnect offers online courses during the seminary's regular fall and
spring semester schedules and allow students from across the world to
participate together with seminary faculty and on-campus students.
Students registered for online courses are given computer accounts on
the seminary's network servers, which can be accessed via the internet
using a standard web browser. Each course has its own password
protected website where course materials are posted and class
discussions are held.
"Though North Park Theological Seminary is small, we are one of the
first schools to develop significant orientation and student services
for our online program," says Jo Ann Deasy, dean of students and
community life.
For more information about Seminary online programs, contact Allyson
Dickie at (773) 244-6287 ordickiea@northpark.edu.
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