Asbury Theological Seminary received a $33,000 grant from the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion. This grant allows students to explore and prepare to teach online courses prior to graduation to prepare them for a job post-graduation. This grant is a dimension of the Lily Endowment and begins June 2017 to June 2019.

 “Asbury Seminary is a flagship institution in online teaching, and it has been our desire to connect this rich online teaching resource with the Ph.D. degree program to give these students exceptional training in online teaching,” Dr. Kima Pachuau, Dean of Advanced Research Programs, said. “The project, designed by Dr. Marmon and Dr. Hale, will give opportunities for Ph.D. students to work side-by-side with their professors from course planning all the way to operating online classes and assessing class works. We are extremely thankful to Drs. Marmon and Hale for the excellent project and Wabash Center for the generous funding.”

Asbury Seminary’s project is entitled “Getting in Line with Online Learning: Ph.D. Apprenticeships in Online Education.” Asbury Seminary plans to use its funding to prepare qualifying Ph.D. students to work with a faculty member in their discipline by teaching an online course. During the first semester of the course, students observe a faculty member teaching an online class and vice versa second semester.

Dr. Dale Hale, Director of Distributed Learning, and Dr. Ellen Marmon, Professor of Christian Discipleship and Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program, co-direct this program. The Seminary’s Instruction Design Services will assist in ongoing training throughout the duration of the grant.

The Wabash Center supports teachers of religion and theology in higher education through meetings and workshops, grants, consultants, a journal and other resources to make accessible the scholarship of teaching and learning. All Wabash Center programs are funded by Lilly Endowment Inc.