Distance Learning Program Celebrates 10 Years
by Laura Lehman Amstutz
Professor Lonnie Yoder interacts with one of his distance students via the internet. This semester makes the fourth time Yoder has taught the online course, "Pastoral Care," since it's creation during the 1999-2000 school year.
HARRISONBURG, Va. — Ten years ago this month, Eastern Mennonite Seminary embarked on a new educational path – to provide distance education via the Internet to students.
The first distance learning course, “New Testament: Text in Context,” was offered in January of 1997. The course, taught by Dr. Paul Zehr, now retired, was conducted entirely via an email listserve.
Technology has Changed
Technology has come a long way in the last 10 years, and so has EMS ’ distance learning program. From that first class, EMS has moved to offering courses via a computer program called Blackboard, which includes a discussion board and allows professors to post syllabi and course assignments online.
Each year, EMS has added at least one new course to its program, so that today 13 seminary courses are offered online. Students can even elect to get a certificate of theological study online by completing 10 distance courses.
While few students have elected to receive the certificate, many roll over their online credits into the master of divinity or the master of arts in church leadership degree. Four 2006 graduates took at least some of the courses online.
Students use Distance Courses to Finish Degrees
Two 2006 grads, Angela Wenger Yamanaka of Harrisonburg, Va., and Carolyn Rudy from Belleville, Pa., took many of the courses required for their MACL degrees from other countries. Yamanaka, who was ministering in Japan , took several courses online, then came to EMS in the fall of 2005 to finish her degree. Rudy took several courses on campus, then left for a Mennonite Central Committee assignment in the Philippines and completed her degree online.
“I loved that I could take one course at a time,” Rudy said. “I felt I could really sink into the subject more and not just skim the surface, which occasionally happened when I took courses on campus.”
“A distance learning class seemed to be a good way to check seminary out without a lot of commitment on my part,” said Brenda Benner, another 2006 grad, “like moving or commuting from Somerset , Pa. , on a weekly basis.” Benner did finish her master of divinity by commuting from Somerset for three years, but the online courses helped her decide that seminary was an avenue she needed to explore.
“I really enjoyed having classmates living all over the United States and the world,” continued Benner. “Angela and I were classmates in one online course - and she was in Japan!”
Distance Learning Provides New Ways to Reach Students
The seminary offers two online courses each semester and one in the summer.
One hundred and ninety-two students have participated in the distance learning program to date. The drop-out rate for distance education courses in general is quite high, around 40 percent; however, the drop-out rate for EMS ’ distance learning courses is much lower, around 8 percent.
“Our distance learning program gives students who couldn’t participant in traditional seminary study a chance to earn seminary credit from wherever they happen to be in the world or in life,” said Don A. Yoder, director of admissions at EMS.
For more information on distance learning at EMS visit www.emu.edu/seminary/distancelearning or contact Yoder in the office of seminary admissions, 540-432-4257 or by email:
