Online Theological Education in and after Covid-19 pandemic
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 [UCU] 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……
UCU convened a team of those with prior knowledge of, and experience with, online teaching to run a practical training programme called “Online Pedagogy Professional Development.” In order to facilitate the training, the Dean of the School applied for funds from St. Augustine Foundation…..This programme was run by both online and face-to-face modes for three weeks in December 2020
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 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.
The programme outcome - 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….. storyboards of the following course units developed:
Systematic Theology course units: 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.
New Testament Book Study course units: Mark and John, Gospels and Acts, and Bible Interpretation.
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.
Old Testament course units: Introduction to OT. Developed and Genesis to Deuteronomy, Prophets.
Historical theology course units: (a) General Church History, Christianity in Africa, Major themes in African Christianity, History of new religious movements in Africa. (b) Christianity in Uganda, History of Anglicanism. (c) Church in Africa and globalization.
Practical Theology course units: (a) Mission and evangelism, Pastoral Care, Pastoral Counselling. (b) Christian Education for Ministry, Contemporary issues in church and society, Chaplaincy, Christian education for ministry, Church leadership, & management, Urban theology. (c) Christian Worship, Christian stewardship and development, Pastoral psychology and sociology, African traditional religion and beliefs. (d) Islamic theology and law, Muslim evangelism, Islam for mission and ministry, Christian-Muslim relations.
Christian Ethics: Introduction to Christian ethics, Christian ethics, Theological research methods, Advanced ethics.
The Future Plans - as UCU continues 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.
Abbreviated version of the report given to the Foundation by Christopher Byaruhanga, Dean, Bishop Tucker School of Divinity and Theology, Uganda Christian University.
The full report can be read here.