Your ministry portfolio may look different from the portfolio of another student. Why? You’re in different academic programs.
New academic programs launched in 2007 reflect major ministry portfolio design changes. The result is that portfolio expectations differ GREATLY among academic programs. How to keep from getting confused?
Study the portfolio materials and instructions you received …
Every Rockbridge Seminary course has written learning exercises- usually one research paper that is uploaded as a document and one or more written exercises that are submitted through an assignment textbox.
Almost every term, at least one student asks for more clear instructions for the written learning exercises; particularly, form and style guidelines and an idea about how much of the grade should count toward form and style. Faculty have asked for better guidelines from the seminary too.
At their last meeting, the Academic Council approved new writing guidelines for Rockbridge Seminary courses. Beginning with the May Term, these writing guidelines will be attached to each course syllabus.
Rockbridge Seminary believes HOW you write is important- so much so that approximately 30% of your grade for written learning exercises will be determined by it. Here’s why:
Effective ministry depends on effective communication, whether you are writing a ministry training article, constructing an e-mail to the church family, or making an announcement in a worship service. Writing well and clearly will help you learn to speak well and clearly. On the other hand, poorly written communication that contains errors in spelling, grammar, and punctuation can reflect poorly on you and your ministry. Worse, unclear communication can cause confusion.
View the new guidelines:
Research Paper Writing Guidelines
Assignment Textbox Writing Guidlines
Providing Rockbridge Seminary students with learning tips, ministry resources, and course upgrade news
Beginning with the May 2009 Term, all courses will move from the present 100 point grading system to a 1000 point grading system, giving professors more flexibility in providing assignment feedback.
To receive a “Satisfactory” grade in a course under this new grading system, you must earn 800 points or above through the learning exercises assigned by the course. If you earn less than 800 points, you will earn an “Unsatisfactory” grade.
Providing Rockbridge Seminary students with learning tips, ministry resources, and course upgrade news
The Academic Council of Rockbridge Seminary recently approved upgraded mentor guidelines that give students more freedom to choose mentors that support their learning goals. Plus, a new mentor information handout will give mentors more information about what is expected of them (download new handout for mentors). Finally, a sample of a completed mentor assessment form will help mentors understand more clearly what is expected when they complete the form. These changes come in response to feedback received by students.
The following paragraphs will be inserted into syllabi beginning with the May term in addition to mentor guidelines that are remaining the same:
A mentor may be in full-time or bi-vocational ministry, may be semi-retired from ministry, or may be a non-vocational ministry leader who has professional and leadership skill sets that relate closely to the course. Your mentor may be in your church, a ministry leader in another congregation nearby, or in another city. The seminary does not discourage women students from recruiting male mentors due to the ministry coaching nature of the mentor role as defined by the seminary, assuming appropriate relational boundaries are protected with integrity.
A mentor should have a seminary degree or, if not, the appropriate educational, professional, and ministerial experience to help you meet your learning goals.
Providing Rockbridge Seminary students with learning tips, ministry resources, and course upgrade news
The Rockbridge Seminary course titled “Preaching/Teaching for Life Change” has been upgraded in response to evaluation feedback from students and professors:
Download the upgraded Course Syllabus for additional information.
Providing Rockbridge Seminary students with learning tips, ministry resources, and course upgrade news
Rockbridge Seminary is designed for learning IN COMMUNITY. Sure, an online correspondence school might be simpler, for you and for us. But that would miss the richness of Kingdom insight and perspective gathered from fellow students who represent a vast geographical, cultural, and ethnic diversity. Learning bubbles have a way of making us think that our way of ministry is the only way and the best way. Learning in community broadens our understanding of what God is up to in the world.
Understandably, the virtual classroom provided by Rockbridge Seminary is designed to support learning IN COMMUNITY rather than learning by correspondence.
Several terms back, a student observed on a course evaluation that downloadable files of lectures provided at the end of each unit sometimes lacked features provided in those same files when they were embedded into the course pages. Reading this, I realized the need to clarify: the files at the end of the unit are provided only as a service to students and are NOT meant to be used as a substitute for engaging the learning provided on every single course page.
By the May 2009 Term, every course will carry the following statement where files are provided at the end of a unit:
Do not use downloaded files as a substitute for reviewing any and all online classroom course content. Downloaded files often do not have working links and other features embedded into the online classroom version. These downloadable files are provided to students as a service only.
Providing Rockbridge Seminary students with learning tips, ministry resources, and course upgrade news
If you have taken the course “Understanding Other Cultures”, you may have given us feedback on how to improve the course. Just in time for the March Term, the course has been upgraded. Here’s how:
1. New Textbooks:
2. New Learning Exercises:
View the upgraded course syllabus for “Understanding Other Cultures.”
Providing Rockbridge Seminary students with learning tips, ministry resources, and course upgrade news
How many forums should Rockbridge Seminary classes have in each unit? That’s a question we’ve worked at answering since moving to the new online classroom over a year ago.
As you know, the Rockbridge Seminary learning design emphasizes a vibrant, highly interactive learning community using an asynchronous format. Participation in the forums is not an add-on learning exercise to check-off but an essential element to creating a successful online learning experience. Finding the right number of forums for the new online classroom structure was important.
If you took a class around a year ago, you may have had 4 forums in a unit. Whoa, did we get feedback on that!! 4 was backed off to 3, but it still seemed too many. Most units now have only 2 forums. For now, 2 forums appear to be a sufficient number to build a learning community. One student writing on a course evaluation several terms back suggested we go to just 1 forum. Our thinking at this time is that 1 forum is not sufficient.
We hope the fewer number of forums will give additional margin to interact when appropriate with the professor in the Professor Connect Forum now found at the end of each unit.
Over the next two terms, each unit will receive an additional forum called the Student Connect Forum. Here are the forum instructions:
Share unit-related thoughts, ideas, and comments with fellow students in this OPTIONAL open thread. Student connect postings are not eligible for points.
One more change we made based on evaluation feedback. The “graded” forums in Unit 8 (the final unit) were pulled and replaced with a single optional forum.
In summary, by the May Term course units will typically have 2 student forum, 1 Prof Connect forum, and 1 Student Connect forum. Unit 8 will contain only an optional forum.
Providing Rockbridge Seminary students with learning tips, ministry resources, and course upgrade news
The Touchstone course (“Developing the Focused Life”) has been taught 30 times since Rockbridge Seminary was launched, more than any course in our curriculum. It was the first course taught (January 2004) and has been taught every term since. Touchstone has not only been tweaked more than any other course, but also has served as a laboratory for course design as the Rockbridge Seminary learning approach emerged.
Still, with all of these tweaks, the course needed an upgrade to give it (based on student evaluation feedback):
1. More focus
2. More substance
3. A rearrangement of content so that the mentor materials could be closer to the front of the course
Over the last two terms, Touchstone has undergone an upgrade addressing these three needs. First, a required textbook has been added: The Making of a Leader by J Robert Clinton. Clinton’s book provides the foundational material on which the three self-discovery workbooks are based and will give the course more depth. Second, the course materials have been rearranged so that the self-discovery workbooks are completed during Units 2, 3, and 4. That moves the mentor materials into the first half of the term. Third, units 2-4 are more focused, with forum discussion questions and surveys building on the readings and workbook exercises. Materials in Units 2-4 that are not pertinent to the workbook or textbook learning exercises have been removed.
Providing Rockbridge Seminary students with learning tips, ministry resources, and course upgrade news
Getting evaluation feedback from Rockbridge students about their learning experiences is strategic for us.
Near the end of each term, students evaluate how well their courses contributed to the learning journey. These comments are compiled and shared with Academic Council members the following term.
I know … you suspected no one read the course evaluations, much less paid attention to them. Nothing could be further from the truth. Every term, changes are initiated by the Academic Council based on an assessment of student feedback.
Unfortunately, there hasn’t been a good way until now to let students know how their feedback is making a difference in learning and course design. This blog will help us close that loop.
Every week or so, I’ll blog about design upgrades we are making, not only to keep you informed but also to demonstrate how we consider you a partner in making Rockbridge Seminary the best it can be.
If you are not completely satisfied with the online seminary learning experience after beginning your first course, Rockbridge Seminary will refund your tuition in full.
Angela, Pastoral Staff, California (read more stories)“...the Rockbridge style of learning is far superior to the other seminary experiences we have had.”
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