Booth College to showcase learning options during Online Open Week
Booth College to showcase learning options during Online Open Week
7 November 2016
In 2016, 76 per cent of Booth College's higher-education students were studying online.
The excitement and possibilities of "boundless" education is what Booth College hopes prospective students will experience during their inaugural Online Open Week, which starts on November 14.
The week-long event unashamedly signals a new era in Booth College's history and its determined intention to be at the cutting edge of online theological and vocational education.
"Today's Booth College does much more than train Salvation Army officers," says Principal Major Peter Farthing. "We equip employees and soldiers and other Christians as well. But also we are determined to be a provider, not just for The Salvation Army but for the wider community and the wider church."
"One of the key ways we are reaching out is through distance and online learning. In today's world we are not limited to campuses and bricks and mortar. We can offer boundless education and training."
“In 2016, 76 per cent of our higher-education students were studying online,” says Director of Distance & Online Education, Erik Lennestaal. “We have just had an online student graduate from Booth College in Kenya and another student who is studying their Master of Divinity in the United Arab Emirates.”
The college, which currently has 700 students around Australia and multiple overseas locations, now incorporates higher-educational degrees, vocational training and accredited skill set courses, certificate and personal development courses along with residential programs such as the Salvos Discipleship School and The School for Officer Training. The college is a provider for a diverse range of students looking for professional skill courses, such as financial counselling, business administration, community services, leadership and management, hospitality and even horticulture.
Chaplain Paul O'Keefe says studying at Booth College was the closest he's come to "real life experience" in a study course. Chaplain for the Salvation Army at DeeWhy RSL, Paul says the 12-month Chaplaincy course equipped him for his current role and his work as a lay minister in other organisations.
"It was an outstanding course, tailored to the work of chaplains. Everything I studied was applicable to the work I now do. It is the closest course I have ever done to a real life work experience."
While Booth College has been offering distance education for more than 20 years, in the past two years they have focused their energies on transitioning most of their courses online, incorporating online tutorials, mini-lectures, interactive forums, video conferencing and access to ebooks and ejournals.
Participants in the Online Open Week will experience a range of online activities and experiences. “We want the Online Open Week to be an authentic experience of what it would be like to be an online student – to show people what is possible,” Erik says.
Academic Dean for the School for Christian Studies, Evelyn Hibbert, says equipping people in their local context is a key driver for Booth College’s movement into the online arena. “We don’t want to extract people from their context but to equip them right where they are,” she says. “You could study online with a group of people meeting in a café in Wagga Wagga or in a lounge room in Darwin. Online Open Week will give potential students a taste of that experience.”
Wollongong Corps Youth and Community Worker, Sarah Walker, is enrolled in Booth’s Master of Divinity program. She says she prefers the face-to-face classroom environment but finds the online access enables her to juggle the busy ministry life at Wollongong with her studies.
“When I miss a class, the online platform gives me the opportunity to catch up on my lectures and I have the chance to interact with other students in the chat forums,” she says.
One of the challenges of online learning, says Erik, is recreating the the personal interaction of a classroom environment. Along with online forums and residential intensive courses, Booth College has also piloted the idea of a localised learning communities. “It’s an additional level of learning where students meet together with a facilitator to do that journey of learning together,” he says.
First piloted in Brisbane, Booth College is hoping that localised learning communities will be established in other cities as well as regional and rural locations across Australia.
To participate in Booth College’s Online Open Week (14-20 November), register HERE. If you are interested in training to become a Salvation Army officer, go to salvos.org.au/makeyourmark.
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