Face-to-screen learning: Seminaries go online

As Douglas Stuart’s online survey course on the Old Testament begins, the lecture hall fills with students from a previous year. He himself looks some years younger than he is now. “All right,” says the longtime professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, “let’s talk about Exodus and covenant.” One current student watches the video of Stuart’s class in her pajamas at 9:00 in the morning, while another views the material and writes responses at 7:00 in the evening. Stuart recorded the lecture in a physical classroom, before a live class that laughed at his jokes, asked questions and made comments. But when students respond to the online lecture today, they do so by e-mail and telephone. Stuart says he has not relaxed his expectations for the course; moreover, the school’s standards remain “pretty rigorous.”

All this is possible through Semlink, a program that allows Gordon-Conwell students to complete up to a third of their degree online in self-paced courses. Some students choose to try out courses in the M.Div. program online before enrolling at the South Hamilton, Massachusetts, school. The tuition savings can certainly be significant—up to 50 percent. Online education allows students to stay in their own homes and keep their regular jobs rather than relocate to Gordon-Conwell’s campus. As if this weren’t convenience enough, students may take six months to complete a course.

Having been with the school for 42 years, Stuart is the senior member of the faculty, and he admits that he was initially skeptical about online teaching. “These methods had to be proven to my satisfaction. I’m a huge believer in residential education.”