Effective pedagogy in the capstone course or integrative seminar.

An 8-Week Online Capstone Experience

James SpencerMoody Bible Institute

After a 2005 market research study revealed that adult audiences preferred acceleratedcourse and program formats, Moody Bible Institute began revising its online coursesto better serve adult students. In 2009, BI4495 Biblical Studies Capstone (BSC), thecapstone experience for the online Bachelor of Science in Biblical Studies (BSBS),was converted to an 8-week format.

BSC course objectives require students to:1. Analyze and critique the work of a contemporary theological scholar or

position;2. Research and compose one’s own doctrinal position;3. Create theological arguments aimed at the transformation of the modern-day

church’s ministry practices;4. Apply the results of exegesis and theology to one’s own personal life.

Objectives are addressed via a comprehensive project which includes a review ofecclesiologies from various interpretive perspectives, the formation of a biblicallybased ecclesiology statement, and the application of biblical interpretation and doctrineto each student’s personal life. Objectives 1 and 3 are reinforced through discussionquestions which foster conversation about issues relevant to the contemporary globalchurch, ecclesial practices, and the influence of context on the formation of doctrine.

Discussion boards are asynchronous (ADB’s) and utilized as a place of weekly,ongoing questioning and critique with students being encouraged to reflect on tensionsbetween ecclesiological statements and actual church practices, as well as being con-fronted by the varying perspectives of other students in the course. ADB’s are rootedin theories of learning encouraging the construction of knowledge through group inter-action and are designed in a structured fashion with questions being provided by theinstructor on a weekly basis. Students are asked to provide an original posting repre-senting their thoughts on a given issue and to respond to and interact with the postingsof at least two other students. ADB’s support the learning objectives of BSC with eachdiscussion question designed to challenge student thinking in relation to one or moreof the learning objectives noted above.

In conversation with course texts and with contemporary events students are askedto reflect on the manner in which ecclesial practice and the concerns of a particularculture inform and embody doctrine, as well as identifying potential areas that mightsupplement ecclesiological statements in order to produce a more robust treatment ofthe church’s identity and functions. Insights drawn from these discussions are thenincorporated into student treatments of ecclesiology. Because one of the aims of thecourse is to construct one’s own theological arguments, students are expected to reflectcritically on their own understandings of the church while interacting with issues ofcontemporary culture and other ecclesiastical traditions. ADB’s provide a venue for

IN THE CLASSROOM

Call for Papers

© 2012 Blackwell Publishing LtdTeaching Theology and Religion, Volume 15, Issue 2, April 2012184

such reflection as student perspectives interact with the views of others in the course.Creative thinking about doctrine is encouraged as students develop unique statementsthat resist uncritical adoption of more standard doctrinal formulations. ADB’s are notdesigned to encourage contradiction of more conventional doctrinal formulations, butprogressive thinking about what it means for the church to be the church and how, asyoung theologians, students may contribute to and transform the life of the church.

For example, students are asked to analyze the current economic crisis in the U.S.having already been introduced to various “contextual” ecclesiologies from Asia, LatinAmerica, and Africa, as well as those formulated from feminist and postmodern per-spectives. Students are then asked to reflect on the manner in which the church’sobligation to the world poor should form the character of the church and inform state-ments of doctrine concerning the church. This interaction often prompts conversationabout the influence of context on previous doctrinal formations, the situated nature ofunderstandings of the church, and the way various aspects of the church’s characterare highlighted in relation to specific social issues.

While individual instructors may utilize modified criteria, a rubric is availablefor instructors to assess student posts with the following categories: writing quality,timeliness and initiative, continuity and contribution, critical interaction, synthesis ofprevious course discussion and content, use of rhetoric and argumentation, and theexhibition of virtue. Faculty who have taught the course in previous semesters reportedthat the ADB’s are an integral part of the course and that the interactions betweenstudents represent a powerful learning experience in which, as one instructor stated,“they are exposed to experiences and perspectives on the church, its ministries, and itsidentity that are different from their own . . . the discussions are ultimately echoed inthe other assignments within the course.”

Students are also asked to offer their thoughts on the effectiveness of the course infostering learning in line with the course objectives. Student comments are generallypositive with many students citing the discussion board to be a key component inhelping them think through the various components of doctrine. One student comment-ing on the communal nature of doctrinal formation noted, “Multiple voices call forattention in doctrine and its creation. Yet, this course has, by use of key questionsets and wide-ranging engagement, allowed me, and hopefully everyone else takingit, to lead this chorus into a harmonic methodology encouraged by community andgrounded in faith.” Students also note the benefit of interacting with those from othercontexts. One student commented that the “different ecclesiologies both within thisclass and within the readings” were significant factors in the development of his owndoctrinal statement.

The ADB’s included within BSC offer a useful way of inspiring original thoughtand creating student dialogue and exchange of perspectives concerning the characterof the church. ADB’s have been shown to be effective via student and faculty reportswith both reporting that the discussions influenced their perspective on doctrine asrepresented in other assignments in the course. Despite, or perhaps because of, itsaccelerated, non-traditional nature, BSC offers students a unique, multifacetedcapstone experience that pushes them to pursue biblical and doctrinal integrity whileaccounting for the situated nature of the church and the need for fresh conceptualiza-tions of what it means to be the ekklesia.

An 8-Week Online Capstone Experience

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