Another good consideration of how online courses from Catholic universities could, and perhaps should, retain aspects of their Catholic identities in online courses. One thing I would add — from my limited understanding — is the ability for an in-depth reflective process online that would be akin to the beholding process of engaging with one’s self, others, and the cosmos. Given the time and space possibilities in online courses, such reflection could be encouraged to really engage with any topic of a course, and thereby lead to greater learning, greater understanding, and greater appreciation.
What is it that makes an education Catholic?
Can one get a Catholic education online?
Would a degree from an online program be any more or less Catholic than one from a “traditional” college or university?
As I was thinking about this post for today, I wanted in particular to draw on insights from Brian Flanagan’s post about the models of Catholic higher education. Brian very helpfully noted that most of the “Catholic Identity” debate centers on disagreements between Immersion and Persuasion models of Catholic education. As I looked at those models, I thought about my own institution and where it might fit. Saint Leo University is partly a “Diaspora” school, in that our student body is predominantly non-Catholic and we are a (mostly) regional draw. We are also more of the “Cohort” type of school: while we maintain a structured core-curriculum of liberal arts study, many of our…
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