The Online Professor: An Under-Utilized Learning Resource?

Providing Rockbridge Seminary students with learning tips, ministry resources, and course upgrade news 

I wonder sometimes when I read course evaluations if Rockbridge Seminary students fully understand the tremendous resource they have in their course professor.

Rockbridge Seminary assigns a professor to every course you take. We are not a correspondence school where you work alone or at your own pace. Neither are we a school where you know your professor only through web-based video lectures.

Rockbridge Seminary professors are engaged almost daily with their students providing learning support. True, we do emphasize the “guide on the side” role of the professor when it comes to facilitating online forums in the virtual classroom. It’s too easy for a professor’s post to hijack a forum discussion rather than letting knowledge develop within the learning community of students. Coming from a traditional classroom lecture environment, a new student might be surprised by this learner-focused approach and expect the professor to be more directive and involved in classroom discussion. For more background on why we believe this represents best practices for online learning, see Facilitating Online Learning: Effective Strategies for Moderators by George Collison and Collaborating Online: Learning Together in Community by Rena M. Palloff and Keith Pratt.

But being a facilitator is only one role for Rockbridge Seminary professors.

The larger role is that of learning mentor/teacher. The Rockbridge professor has been recruited, trained and assigned to a course based on his or her academic and ministry credentials. Rather than viewing an online professor as simply a class manager, think of him or her as a learning mentor who is available to support you as you progress along the learning map built into each course.

Use the “Ask the Prof” forums found in each unit if you need:

1. Feedback on challenges you might face in applying what you’re learning in your local church
2. Additional resources to take your learning deeper or broader
3. More insight into the professor’s experience and perspective related to a course topic

Using the “Ask the Prof” forum lets other class members benefit from your question and the professor’s response. More times than not, one or more fellow students share your question or issue.

Rockbridge Seminary offers a number of learning resources to students. Not one has more potential value than the professor.

Related posts:

1. Learning in Community or Learning by Correspondence?