Online Divinity Degrees: Two-Dimensional Preparation for a Three-Dimensional World

First, on the light side, you want to take the young man’s pulse as he’s with four lovely young ladies, but his attention is on his phone. Somehow it seems like a Mormon speed dating picture or something.

But to the point, I would agree that an entirely online education might suffer the same thing illustrated in the picture. That conceded, I think that Bible colleges, seminaries, and churches alike seem to have some trouble in finding the je ne sais quoi that differentiates someone with an excellent theological education from a pastor. No need to throw spitballs here, we all got trouble.

Wallace is correct … assuming the individual engaged in on-line seminary education remains in an on-line vacuum apart from any involvement in his local church. That is not at all the case for reputable on-line seminary programs.

He is 65 years old.

He is 65 years old.

So you are saying he has quite a bit of experience in education and what might be needed?

I recognize that not everyone can take classes with peers. There are some individuals who have had significant life experiences which allows them to forego the benefit of human interaction. And I think there are some degrees that don’t require the same interaction as theological degrees.

Yet, I can’t imagine doing an entire MDiv and preparing for pastoral or cross-cultural ministry from one’s bedroom. I’m sure this dates me. I received my MDiv in 1982 after four years of study. During that time I was active in a solid church. I would not trade those times in class, friendships made, and coffee break for online studies. How well I remember the heated theological discussions, arm wrestling, and rancid coffee with donuts on the honor system. Frankly I can’t imagine wanting to teach online classes unless it were a live class and others tuned in online. So I’m with Wallace on this one and think those who disagree don’t know what they missed or are missing. Granted if someone is active in a solid church with significant interaction and mental challenge then online education can’t be ruled out. But it is more education than training. I speak as one who has never done any online classes except to keep my therapist and criminal justice certifications. And there are research degrees where something is studied that can’t be learned in a classroom or there are few specialists who know anything about what is being researched. I think of the European PhD model. It’s almost pure research and although you will need courses on research methods (quantitative, qualitative, etc.), documentation, and proposal, most of the work will be done with books or internet resources with supervision from an advisor, input from readers, and a defense.

Well said, Steve.

As an online Christian educator, I can agree with a lot of what Wallace refers to. This in particular I have seen:

Increasingly, students want to have it all: work 40 hours a week, take a full load at school, and raise two preschoolers with their spouse who is also working full-time. It’s a recipe for disaster

Somehow, by being “online,” students seem to forget that they still need to devote hours of time into a course (and more if multiple courses). We run condensed sessions (which are 1/2 a term length, and thus twice the “pace” of a full term class), and if a student takes just one 3 credit hour class, they should expect to spend about 20 hours a week on the course (both “in course”; i.e. watching lectures, etc., and “out of course,” doing research, studying, etc.). So if two courses are taken per session, that’s about equal to 40 hours. If on is trying to maintain a 40 hour a week job, then expect 60-80 hour weeks if the course is doing what it is supposed to educationally. That does not include family time or any ministry time (if that is not already part of the 40 hour a week job). So “going away” to concentrate on school can have an advantage (though there are those who worked through traditional forms as well).

But I think Wallace also errs at some points. For one, his parallel

In many respects, online education is like a letter from an apostle. John told the ‘elect lady’ in one letter and Gaius in another, “Though I have many other things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper and ink, but I hope to come visit you and speak face to face, so that our joy may be complete” (2 John 12; see also 3 John 13–14). Paul wrote to the Romans that he longed to visit them (Rom 1.10–11); meanwhile, his letter would have to do. Distance education—whether an epistle or a video course—is not to be cast off as so much refuse, but neither is it ideal.

Now I do find the parallel itself reasonably accurate, but his criticism of the written word not being “ideal” seems to be (an unintentional, I’m sure) slap in God’s face, given that He chose to communicate/educate with most of His family (historically) through writing, that is, through the Bible. Now I grant the Holy Spirit is also at work in conjunction with the Bible, but that is true even of online education. So the type of “personal” interaction that Wallace is advocating for in Christian education between 3D people is not present when one is just studying God’s word without a human teacher, yet I do not believe God sees this as a deficient means of education.

Instead, I think there are distinct things that are more effective in-person, and some more effective online. He hints at this some, yet clearly favors the in-person. But I think that favor is because he is viewing education as purely or perhaps fully as discipleship, whereas education is only one part of discipleship.

Here is what I mean. Discipleship, by definition, involves following the master. This does require a very personal interaction. And here, I tend to agree more along the lines of Tyler, full discipleship is in the province of the church (or I would say more specifically, individual Christians within the church). But part of “making disciples” does include “teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:20), and that means two things: teaching (knowledge acquisition) and observing (not “watching,” but “keeping” or “obeying,” so doing what one knows), with the latter best learned through that following. But the former, “teaching” as the gaining of knowledge, is primarily what the seminary is for.

There is much to be learned, and generally IMO best learned (in our sinful world where we [i.e. any one of us teachers] are not the perfect teacher that Christ is) in the context of a diverse set of people in the body of Christ that a seminary employs (rather than learning it all from one person, the pastor; though the pastor should still be a key educator, but here we are also talking about MDiv students, so those already or intending to be pastors). This knowledge acquisition is very suitable for online format. It is like the various Rabbi’s who would teach in the time of the apostles (Wallace forgets that part of the knowledge gained by the apostles was before they ever met Jesus, but was by attending readings and discussions of God’s word, not necessarily “following” fully those so educating). Making sure the knowledge is integrated into obedience is the challenge, but that should be a challenge primarily of the local church/local believers, more than the seminary.

Still, it is challenging in the online format to monitor the spiritual life of the individual. While I agree that is primarily the responsibility of the church (and specifically the pastor), there is still a responsibility of Christian teacher to Christian student in their relationship with respect to the spiritual life of that student. In this, I agree that 2D will never fully compensate for the relationship that 3D (to use Wallace’s terms for online vs. in-person) can obtain between two people.

I wish seminaries would have more interaction with the pastors of students for the whole educational scenario; and then in the case of pastors taking courses, interaction with godly men in the church to help keep the pastor accountable to integrating what is learned into some form of obedience (part of exhorting one another, Heb 3:13, 10:25). But this would also require more effort on pastors and/or elders/deacons as well as school officials to make that interaction happen.

But my main point is that seminary is primarily for education, not full-fledge discipleship. Mixing the goals of one and the other mixes the roles that the seminary and the church should be doing. If a teacher is in a position, in-person, such that they can also act in a discipling role, great (the command is for Christian individuals to make disciples, not the church corporately), but if not, don’t force it—just educate—and that can be done online effectively.

[Larry]

He is 65 years old.

So you are saying he has quite a bit of experience in education and what might be needed?

Sure, that is it. You nailed it.

The answer is simple:

• There are advantages and disadvantages to online education
• There are advantages and disadvantages to resident education
• The local church should have primacy. Sadly sometimes has abdicated its role.
• Online education is a new phenomenon birthed (alongside many many other things good and bad) by the Internet
• Some students adapt to online education better than others - they match this profile (click to enlarge)
• Some educational institutions have been able to adopt online education … others have faltered.
• Ultimately it may be a productivity issue: An instructor teaching many students online is a better productivity model than one teaching few (I know a story about a faculty member at a now closed Christian college who taught two students)
• In 1978 I only had the residency option: I left my job, my wife left her job. We sold our house here and moved here. It worked out fine for us but it was a very expensive transition.

The seminaries who don’t offer on-line education options are the ones who trash on-line educational options.

When they ‘convert’ and offer on-line education options, these same schools tout the advantages of on-line education options.

was that of being what was then considered cutting edge in post graduate education. That is to say, my seminary education structure and schedule reflected an evolution that was not entirely traditional in following a 2 or 3 credit class format for an entire semester. The desire to accommodate and encourage busy pastors and missionaries to enroll for graduate school level seminary training led my alma mater to develop a module approach, where a student would take a 2 or 3 credit course in a 2 or 3 week module. It was compressed, and involved a ton of work in a crunched time period, usually including massive amounts of collateral reading as well as papers. The school also began 1x a week classes, where guys could travel in and take a full day’s class on a Monday or Tuesday, thereby not having to resign and move to the town where the brick and mortar campus was located. This was a hybrid system, prior to online options available today. Positives: helped me be able to work, start a family, stay involved in a local baptist church and do ministry, pay down debt, go to school on a cash basis, mature in life skills, and get a high quality M.Div. Negatives: sometimes there was not enough time to really process all of the information received and interact at a deep level. Overall, it was a non-conventional approach that was intended to help guys learn and serve at the same time. With a few bumps in the road, it seemed to be an ok approach. All profs had to have been a pastor or missionary in the past, thus helping our educational experience be not only academic in nature, but pastoral, evangelistic, and discipleship oriented as well. It ended with a full year internship in a guided learning environment under seasoned pastors where learning met experience coupled with evaluation. I have embraced this model in my own pastoral ministry, and continue to see the ongoing fruits of integrated learning, discipleship, and supervised responsibility.

A few comments on on-line seminary based on my 6-year on-line M.Div. experience:

• The quality of the on-line education you receive depends a lot on the professor teaching the class. The profs who were more engaged with students on-line and were organized in their teaching materials / methods made for better learning experiences for me.
• I worked a 45-hour / week job, had 4 kids (two of which where teens), served as a deacon and ABF teacher in my church, and took between 4-8 credit hours a semester. It was a lot! I had to prioritize my time. The time spent on reading, writing, and studying for seminary did negatively affect my family relationships. I would not want to do this on an ongoing basis. However, my family and I knew this was only a temporary situation. We made it work.
• There are ways to plan and prioritize your on-line seminary studies that will allow maximum flexibility. When I discovered how to do this, it made life much easier during the semester for me and my family.
• Some people / schools are opposed to on-line seminary education because they fear it and/or view it as inferior. Others embrace it and see it as a tool to increase their reach and to provide educational opportunities to folks who could never uproot and relocate.
• Some schools who offer on-line seminary education dumb down the curriculum and make the experience less rigorous. Stay away from those schools. Some pastors want a dumbed down education because they only care about getting the degree. Stay away from those pastors.