BE201OL - Spring's Unfinished Business
In hindsight, it would have been preferable to have written this a month or so ago but as my previous post indicates, I was preoccupied with trying to find a solution to another challenge. That said, better late than never and as I try to teach my own children, it's important to finish strong - especially in the face of disappointment and adversity. I'll continue to write here of course, however I haven't quite decided how or what that is going to look like moving forward. Regardless, it's time to take a look back at BE201OL to reflect on my experience and proffer some advice on how to get the most out of this course.
BE201OL - The Story of Scripture
As I did for ST104OL, I'm going to simply present a scorecard and then touch on some of the particulars. For each aspect of the course, I'll use a five-point grading scale with 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest. Hopefully, this will give you a better idea of the overall experience.
Summary Ratings for BE201OL:
| Satisfaction with Professor | 4.5 |
| Satisfaction with Graduate Teaching Assistant | 5 |
| Satisfaction with Selected Texts | 4 |
| Satisfaction with Time Commitment | 5 |
| Satisfaction with Class Interactions | 2 |
| Quality of Assignments | 5 |
| Difficulty of Grading | 2 |
| Fairness of Grading | 5 |
| Amount of New Material Learned | 4 |
| Difficulty of Course | 2 |
| Overall Satisfaction | 5 |
I was told that I would enjoy taking a course from Dr. Yarbrough and I can happy share that this held true. He was very passionate about the material and brought everything into clear focus through a well organized and engaging presentation style. It may surprise you that I rated my satisfaction of the GTA higher than Dr. Yarbrough, but the truth is I had far more interaction with the GTA than I did with the professor. That's not a complaint by any stretch - in fact, it's more of a testament to high quality of engagement from the GTA in the online format of this class.
I had a bit of an epiphany while taking this class. Often, we spend all of our time studying very narrow portions of Scripture or theology and then we struggle on how to piece it all together. We develop a very good understanding of all the parts, but we fail to grasp how those parts formulate the whole of the story of the Bible. This class ties it all together in plain and simple language which greatly expands one's joy in understanding and studying Scripture. I also found the learning to support and improve my evangelistic endeavors. While all Scripture points to Jesus Christ and the gospel, it's really helpful to be able to frame the gospel within it's scriptural context. I can honestly say that this course has caused me to read, study, and defend the Bible differently - in very good ways.
This class is engineered for your learning and success. It's not an overly challenging or difficult course because it's not designed to be. It's designed to teach important concepts in ways that ensure you will remember them. Averaged over the course of the semester, I spent about 9 hours a week on this course (lighter than average thus far) - but the class is very back end loaded so you'll need to plan and prepare ahead of time. There is quite a bit of reading but it's balanced well across the semester and the video lectures are consistent with what you'd expect by now. Those 2 elements along with a one hour webinar session account for 40% of the final grade, leaving the writing assignment and oral exam making up the balance at 60%. So I'll discuss those last two in a bit more detail.
Written Assignment
There are 4 options for the written assignment; create a chart of the story of the Bible, develop a creative project of the story of the Bible, write a theological paper about the story of the Bible, or write an argument for the Bible. Each option requires a written review of The Whole Bible Story by William Marty.
Take special note that Marty's book is not included in the reading plan, so you need to plan and budget for that on your own. Once you know which assignment option you are going to pursue, I recommend reading Marty's book and writing the review per the assignment option's instructions around the midpoint of the semester - just to get it taken care of - I did not do this but hindsight is always 20/20.
As I'm not overly creatively inclined, don't know how to write an argument, and didn't want to fiddle with graphical charting programs; the choice to write a theological paper was pretty easy for me. This was no small undertaking though as it's a proper 15 page research paper. For my thesis, I wrote, "This paper shows that the truth of Jesus’ claim in John 5:46, that Moses wrote about Him, is clearly affirmed when considering what the Jews believed about the writings of Moses at the time of Jesus." I knew early on that I'd be writing a theological paper so I started doing my research after the first third of the course. This was crutial - do not wait until the end of the course to start your project! Once all of the research was done, I was able to formulate my arguments and structure my paper. Aside from some momentary bouts of writer's block, it came together pretty easily and I had plenty of time for edits and rewrites. Overall, I methodically worked on the paper over about 6 to 7 weeks. I'd advise a similar approach.
Final Examination
The final exam for this course is really cool - did I just really say that??? You have 45 minutes to record your telling of the story of Scripture to someone (anyone you want - family member, friend, etc.) and then a 15 minute reflection on your experience with the course. No notes, no video editing, just tell the story and reflect. It's not as scary as it sounds. If you accept upfront that you're going to look like a total dork in doing so - and that it won't go as you totally planned it - you'll be fine.
I actually chose to record my final exam by delivering the message to my church after our Sunday service. One of the best things about studying at DTS is how I've been able to transform my educational experience through my own studies into an educational experience for the other members of my church. I had a great time doing so and yes, I totally looked like a dork and made a few mistakes. I lived.
What I Didn't Like
Honestly, there's not a lot to pick on regarding this course as it has really been one of the most practical and impactful courses I've taken. This was both surprising and refreshing. Refreshing in the sense that it never really felt like learning - it just was. As usual, I don't like the fact that 60% of the grade rests in two assignments due in the waning weeks of the course, but if you plan ahead and prepare it's not really of much concern. Certainly less stressful than my summer ST104OL course.
What was missing for me though were the class interactions. This course is pretty much a solo effort. Important to note though, the GTA was great and I exchanged a number of emails with him so you're not really alone. While not a problem for me per say, I just think it would have been nice to have a couple more dialogs or interactions with the other members of the class. It would have been neat to hear how other students found the class and to see how God used this course to shape their understanding of the story of Scripture.
So How Did I Do?
Please keep in mind that I was only a part-time student and I only took three credits for the semester.
I mentioned above that this was not a very challenging course and it was not designed to be. It was designed to impassion the student to study and understand how the story of Scripture all seamlessly fits together. The final grade was never really in doubt for me as Dr. Yarbrough and the GTA did a great job setting us up for success. While I received an A+ for the class, the grade is more a reflection of how well Dr. Yarbrough and the GTA prepared me as a student to gain the most from this class. And I gained a lot more than I expected to.
No comments:
Post a Comment