I would never have started, endured or finished this work without your constant love, care and encouragement. The research conducted in this project was greatly aided by the assistance of Jeff Seaman, Doris Bolliger, and J. Thigpen, Director of ETS, who not only served on my expert panel but also orchestrated the delivery of my survey to full ETS members.
Matt Thomas and Jeff Horner, my research group, were constantly present throughout this research to offer feedback, criticism, and prayer as loyal friends and researchers. Thanks to my parents and sister for supporting me through many years of schooling so I could prepare for ministry despite the physical distance we had to endure. To my husband, Anthony, thank you for helping me make more out of life than I could have ever dreamed of on my own.
It is for his glory and the strength of his Body that I complete this work.
INTRODUCTION
In graduate-level theological education, little work has been done to understand educators' perceptions of online learning. Thus, the current perceptions of faculties about online learning in theological education at the postgraduate level have yet to be determined. For these reasons, there is an urgent need for research to determine educators' perceptions of online learning in theological education at the graduate level.
What evangelical faculty see about the future of online learning in graduate theological education. What, if any, are the positive perceptions about the possibilities of online learning in postgraduate theological education. What evangelical faculty see about the future of online learning in graduate theological education.
Finally, the very few existing studies of faculty perceptions of online learning in theological education are discussed, as well as a research hypothesis. The current state of online learning in graduate-level theological education is growing rapidly, but research has lagged behind. He defends this rejection against three common theological defenses of online learning in theological education.
From an understanding of the online student's needs, the faculty member's role in online learning unfolds.
Survey (Quantitative Research)
The findings of the data obtained from these two phases were analyzed using descriptive statistics, as described in chapter 4.
Focus Group (Qualitative Research)
The population for this research study was the full members of the Evangelical Theological Society. ETS is devoted to the inerrancy and inspiration of the scriptures and the gospel of Jesus Christ. According to the population size of 2,650, this study required 336 participants for a 95 percent confidence level and a +/- 5 percent confidence interval.
The total number of the population that participated in the study was 459, which met the requirements of a +/- 5 percent confidence interval. One question in the survey asked participants to provide an email address if they would like to participate in the voluntary focus group after the survey was completed. These two data sets will be combined into one as an explanation of the study results in Chapter 4.
Additionally, this study was limited to the perceptions and opinions of the faculty participating in the study. The purpose of this study is only to understand the perception of the faculty, not the actual quality of the online programs or courses offered and the many institutions represented by the faculty participating in this study. The instrument used and modified for this study is based on research conducted by Jeff Seaman and Elaine Allen in “Conflicted: Faculty and Online.
Adding "none" allows non-faculty members to be escorted out of the survey. Expert panel members included Anthony Foster, Timothy Paul Jones, Ryan Baltrip and Michael Thigpen. In this position, he has the most accurate knowledge of the population used for this current study.
Changes were made based on their suggestions, and the final version of the survey tool distributed to participants can be found in the Appendix.29. The questionnaire showed that the participants understood the purpose of the survey and the general clarity of the questions. To determine the reliability of the survey tool, I tested the original survey and retested the survey in an alternative format with 6 ETS members.
Focus Group
The growth of online education." Results for this question indicate that 42.5 percent of evangelical faculty were more excited than afraid, while 57.5 percent were more afraid than excited. Non-administrative faculty were divided in their agreement ( 30.9 percent) or disagree (27.3 percent) with the statement Administrative faculty agreed more (34.5 percent) with this statement than their non-administrative colleagues (23 percent strongly agreed).
Non-administrative faculties reported more fear (62.9 percent) than excitement (37.1 percent) about policies related to plagiarism in online education. Of those who had no experience with online teaching, 82.1 percent reported having no impact on their stress levels, as might be expected. Of those who had no online teaching experience, 84.6 percent reported no impact on hours worked, as might be expected.
Of those who had no online teaching experience, 85.9 percent indicated no impact on their productivity, as would be expected. Of those who had no online teaching experience, 79.5 percent indicated that no impact on the interaction they have with students would be expected. Of those who had no online teaching experience, 74.4 percent indicated no impact on their skill in using technology, as would be expected.
As expected, the majority (70.5 percent) of respondents who had no online teaching experience indicated a neutral attitude in response to question 17a. As expected, the majority (73.1 percent) of respondents who had no online teaching experience expressed a neutral attitude in response to question 17b. As expected, the majority (79.5 percent) of respondents who had no experience with online teaching expressed a neutral attitude in response to question 17c.
The majority (67.9 percent) of respondents who had no online teaching experience indicated a neutral position in response to question 17d, as would be expected. The majority (65.4 percent) of respondents who had no online teaching experience indicated a neutral position in response to question 17e, as would be expected. The majority (61.5 percent) of respondents who had no online teaching experience indicated a neutral position in response to question 17f, as would be expected.
Furthermore, in survey question 22, "What forms the foundations of your beliefs and perceptions about online education?" 16.3 percent of the respondents indicated “mentor/. Administrative faculty were more agreeable that the goals of theological education were met online (43.8 percent "agree") than their non-administrative peers (34 percent . "agree").
Future Perceptions
Therefore, administrative faculties in this study statistically tended to perceive online theological teaching with more support and optimism than their non-. Since there were almost as many administrative faculties as non-administrative faculties, these findings hold. As indicated in chapter 1 of this thesis, other studies also find that administrators are more in favor of online education.1 Evangelical faculties who hold administrative positions confirm this finding from the literature indicated in this study.
Comparison to Literature
This research fills a gap in the existing literature by considering evangelical faculty's perceptions of online learning in theological education at the academic level. Therefore, based on the perceptions of evangelical faculties who participated in this research, the implications of this research result in the following recommendations for the practice of online theological education. Teachers in the focus group recognized that online education requires them to reimagine and rethink their curriculum in light of the online medium.
As the survey and focus group revealed, online instruction creates a lot of frustrations for the faculty due to the strange nature of the online medium and the transactional distance between student and professor. As recommended in the focus group, further definition of "community" in theological settings is needed. It is highly recommended to use such an online survey if the survey needs to be replicated in the future.
As noted in strengths, this research design provided a large amount of data covering multiple aspects of faculty perceptions. Blended/Hybrid Course: A course where sufficient online content is provided to create a reduction in the number of face-to-face class meetings. 1 The level of my interactions with students in the online course is higher than in a. traditional face-to-face classes.
21 (R) The level of participation of my students in class discussions in the online environment is lower than in the traditional one. 22 My students use a wider range of resources in the online environment than in the traditional one. 26 (R) I am concerned about receiving lower course evaluations in the online course compared to the traditional one.
28 (R) It is more difficult for me to motivate my students in an online environment than in the traditional setting. I can give students better feedback in my online course than in my face-to-face course. It is valuable to me that my students can access my online course from anywhere in the world.
