Date of Award

10-2008

Document Type

Project

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

Department

Seminary

Abstract

Online programs are a growing phenomenon in adult education. Many Christian colleges and universities use this method to meet the educational needs of non-traditional students. A drawback of online education is the challenge to address the spiritual needs of students in a virtual environment. This project will propose an approach for fostering spiritual formation in asynchronous, adult online educational programs.

Section 2 will demonstrate the problem of fostering spiritual formation in online environments including the following issues: the demographics of the project, an organizational analysis of the project, and historical timelines of online adult education.

Section 3 will explore how other schools have approached this problem and evaluate their solutions. In addition, it will evaluate the educational level, number of courses, length, content, and educational delivery system of the courses offered as alternative solutions.

Section 4 will substantiate the claims that underlie the approach proposed in this project by presenting educational theory, spiritual formation concepts, and possible tests and measurements. Online students experience spiritual formation, either intentionally or unintentionally. Asynchronous, adult online education provides an opportunity for Christian colleges and universities to reach their online students in a holistic manner.

Section 5 will present the project that was developed. It will also report on the successes and areas of improvement for the project.

Section 6 will present the project specifications including cost, number of students, workload, number of credits, course content, structure, educational aspects, and administrative aspects.

Section 7 will describe effective revisions of the project and will explore the future of online education and spiritual formation.

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