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Features
Enriching Religious Studies Online
12/11/2001
Short interview segments then serve to deliver the guts of the course. These segments were videotaped on location at cathedrals, universities, and sacred sites with theologians, historians, and clerics. As the interviews proceed, they can be interrupted to provide background commentary. A constant vertical tool bar allows the student the option of calling up referenced texts (scriptures, expositories, creeds, etc.) as well as symbols, pictures, icons, and the like.
The course is multidimensional, allowing students to move from a relatively simple idea to increasingly complex concepts, requiring comparisons, contrasts, analysis, and correlations. Through the use of st3 technology, “gates,” or progress indicators, are also embedded in the course and are points where students’ understanding can be evaluated via journaling and objective exams, as well as through chat rooms or threaded discussions.
St3 not only provides high-order technical support, hosts the course elements
on its server, and delivers them on call, but also enables the course designer
to make continuous updates. Also, course elements can be selected by the faculty
of any institution for inclusion in traditional as well as online classes. In
this way, streaming media can be staged into traditional classes and into online
courses as well.
In 2002, “Religions of the World” will be offered for enrichment—without
college credit—and as a college course through Chattanooga State Technical
Community College (www.ChattanoogaState.org). I expect to provide my online students the same level of inquiry
and academic satisfaction as my traditional students enjoy—perhaps at an
even higher level.
James L. Catanzaro is the president of Chattanooga State Technical Community College, Chattanooga, Tenn. He can be reached at catanzar@cstcc.cc.tn.us.
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