Online Theological Education in and after COVID-19 Pandemic

A. Background

For the past decade, universities worldwide have been experimenting with multi-modal teaching and learning to increase and broaden access. The COVID-19 pandemic propelled this forward. The sudden closure of university campuses across Uganda necessitated the virtual delivery of vast numbers of courses. Here, Uganda Christian University was thrust into the delivery of e-learning of unprecedented scale and scope. Most UCU faculty, not least in Bishop Tucker School of Divinity and Theology, were not adequately equipped to deliver online teaching. Although the university offered the training and infrastructure on online teaching, the Dean of the School, Prof. Christopher Byaruhanga, felt that we needed to offer more guidance to faculty at the School of Divinity and Theology, and to establish standards for online teaching. To that end, he convened a team of those with prior knowledge of, and experience with, online teaching to run a practical training programme we called “Online Pedagogy Professional Development.” In order to facilitate the training, the Dean of the School applied for funds from St. Augustine Foundation. On October 18, 2020, St. Augustine Foundation gave Bishop Tucker School of Divinity and Theology St. Augustine Innovation grant in the amount of Uganda Shillings 69,450,000/= to carry out this project. We ran this programme by both online and face-to-face modes for three weeks in December last year, that is from 4 to 16th of December 2020 and continued in 2021 with the storyboards.

B. Programme’s Objectives

The objectives of the training were, broadly speaking, two: first, we wanted faculty to have capacity to develop own course units that met best practices in online pedagogy. Secondly, we wanted them to transform the syllabi of the course units they taught for face-to-face teaching into course syllabi suited for online pedagogy.

The specific outcomes of this training were the following:

a) Faculty to develop competencies in working with virtual learning environments.

b) Faculty to redesign courses conforming to the pedagogical subject requirements for online teaching.

c) Faculty to develop course handouts/notes that conform to best practice in online teaching.

d) Faculty to develop storyboards that conform to best practice in online teaching.

e) Faculty to implement a variety of presentation tools for active and effective learner engagement online.

f) Faculty to develop continuous assessments and examinations of learners that enhance their online learning and encourage their online learning experience.

g) Faculty to be able to employ a variety of technologies and tools to present online content.

h) Faculty to be able to use various activities within Moodle Learning Management System to engage the learners throughout the online journey.

C. Programme design and content

The programme was designed in such a way that faculty of the School would have time for practical exploration and application of what they were learning through the programme. They did this through a series of structured assignments. Mondays were the days of online and/or face-to-face learning. The assignments given at the end of the lessons were pursued by faculty for the rest of the week until the following Monday (when that learning session ended and the next one began). However, faculty took a longer time (December 16, 2020 to February 26, 2021) to develop detailed course outlines (storyboards) as a practical application of their learning, and a required learning outcome of the programme.

In line with the objectives of the training programme the content focused on:

· Navigating and working with Moodle’s Learning Management System, led by Dr. Stephen Kyakulumbye

· Preparing course outlines for online teaching, led by Dr. Omona

· Developing online course notes/handouts, led by Prof. Peter Nyende

· Preparing storyboards, led by Dr. Stephen Kyakulumbye

· Packaging and delivering online content via various media tools, led by Dr. Stephen Kyakulumbye

· Online course assessment, led by Dr Andrew Omona

D. Programme Outcome

As mentioned earlier, a key outcome for this training was the skills to design or develop a storyboard. A storyboard for online learning is a document that outlines the text, visuals, and audio elements, interactions, navigation and anything else that will be used in the online teaching and learning for the given course unit. All senior faculty members involved in the training were required to develop storyboards for the course units they are responsible for teaching both at Bishop Tucker Main and at the 5 feeder colleges. This exercise was a success with the storyboards of the following course units developed:

1. Systematic Theology course units:

Introduction to systematic theology, Major themes in systematic theology, African Christian theology, African Christian theological method(s), Anglican theology, Christin theologies of the Global South, Doing theology from the context of poverty, History and theology of the ecumenical movement, Ecclesiology and Ordered ministry. Developed by the Rev. Prof. Christopher Byaruhanga.

2. New Testament Book Study course units:

Mark and John, Gospels and Acts, and Bible Interpretation. Developed by Prof. Peter Nyende.

3. Biblical Languages and New Testament course units: Basic New Testament Greek 1 & 2, Basic Old Testament Hebrew 1 & 2, Advanced Greek, Advanced Hebrew, Introduction to the New Testament, Biblical foundations of development. Developed by the Rev. Dr. Emmanuel Mukeshimana.

4. Old Testament course units:

(a) Introduction to OT. Developed by the Rev. Prof. Nyende.

(b) Genesis to Deuteronomy, Prophets. Developed by the Rev. Rose Ekirunga.

5. Historical theology course units:

(a) General Church History, Christianity in Africa, Major themes in African Christianity, History of new religious movements in Africa. Developed by the Rev. Dr. Moses S. Isabirye.

(b) Christianity in Uganda, History of Anglicanism. Developed by the Rev. Rose Ekirunga.

6. Practical Theology course units:

(a) Mission and evangelism, Pastoral Care, Pastoral Counselling. Developed by Dr. Moses S. Isabirye. (b) Christian Education for Ministry, Contemporary issues in church and society, Chaplaincy, Christian education for ministry, Church leadership, & management, Urban theology. Developed by the Rev. Dr. Andrew Omona.

(c) Christian Worship 1 &2, Christian stewardship and development, Pastoral psychology and sociology, African traditional religion and beliefs. Developed by the Rev. Rev. Amos Turyahabwe.

(d) Islamic theology and law, Muslim evangelism, Islam for mission and ministry, Christian-Muslim relations. Developed by the Rev Dr. Sam Opol.

7. Christian Ethics:

Introduction to Christian ethics, Christian ethics, Theological research methods, Advanced ethics. Developed by the Rev. Dr. Andrew Omona.

E. Communication tools and learning management systems

Faculty at the Bishop Tucker School main campus were able to put the OBS Studio 26.10 on all the 5 laptop computers. OBS Studio enables them to teach online with ease by recording their lecturers. We were able to teach online courses offered in the feeder colleges from the Main campus. Secondly all our postgraduate course units, apart from Masters in Divinity program, are taught online using the knowledge acquired during the training.

F. Future Plans

As we continue getting new students and faculty, we intend to: (a) conduct refresher courses on online teaching especially for new faculty and students. (b) Carry out assessment of the effectiveness of online teaching and learning once every semester.

By Christopher Byaruhanga

Dean, Bishop Tucker School of Divinity and Theology

Uganda Christian University.