Palau #3 - Distance Ed Classes

My main reason for going to Palau last week was to finish my Genesis Exegesis class. I have 30 students in the class. Three are in Palau (pictured), ten in Chuuk and the rest are on the Guam campus. The class consists of 8 two-hour lecture discussions (which I lead on all three sites) and the rest of the class, including homework, quizzes, discussions etc, is all done on line and by email. It is a new experience for some of the students to do a class on line but most of them adapt pretty well. Last week I finished the final three sessions in Palau and the final session on Guam. Now it is up to the students to get all the rest of their work in over the next three weeks.

It is a bit of a stretch for me to teach two classes (one traditional methodology class on the Guam campus too) with all the other things going on, but I would hate to give it up. The distance education format allows me to travel around and talk to students on all the sites and I get a little better understanding of the unique challenges they face in each of the islands. The on line format also allows students from different places to interact, which provides for interesting discussion and opens them up to new ideas and different ways of doing and thinking about things. I enjoy reading the students papers every Saturday (my set-aside day for grading). I learn from their exegesis of the passages and am always encouraged by how they are applying what they have learned. We are hoping to expand our DE program in the near future.