For a year now, I have been working through some ideas on how to ensure that a Catholic higher education institution, such as my own, maintains its Catholic identity when offering more online courses and programs. In particular, I wanted to work through how to ensure that the focus on communities and relationship-centered teaching and … Continue reading Online Learning Communities with a Catholic Flair
Tag: social justice
Catholic Identity and Online Education
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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Community in Online Learning: Thoughts from EDUCAUSE
Every year, there is a special gathering of individuals interested in improving the technologies of higher education. Faculty, IT administrators, inventors, entrepreneurs, the Big Dogs (i.e. Google, Microsoft, Dell, etc) convene for several days of talks, presentations, pitches, sales, and ideas. This get annual, international together is sponsored by EDUCAUSE, a nonprofit dedicated to improving … Continue reading Community in Online Learning: Thoughts from EDUCAUSE
Creating Classrooms for Social Justice | Edutopia
The author, Dr. Dell'Angelo, makes some great points about how to use the idea of social justice to structure course content and course design. Her work also aligns with what I have been looking at in terms of applying Catholic social teaching and approaches to higher education to online learning communities. I am glad to … Continue reading Creating Classrooms for Social Justice | Edutopia
Online Learning Communities: A Dominican Conversation
At my school on Tuesday, September 23rd, Dominican University hosted our fifth annual Caritas Veritas Symposium. These symposiums are times for our community of faculty, staff, and students to reflect upon the university's Catholic mission of care and truth, of working to create a more just and humane world. There are presentations, discussions, and activities … Continue reading Online Learning Communities: A Dominican Conversation
An Autoethnography of Collegium – Applications for Higher Education
As reported by The Atlantic, secular beliefs are on the rise among young people, and conservative Christians are withdrawing from secular society whilst demanding their religious beliefs be tolerated, even if it means discrimination and intolerance. And this week's Supreme Court ruling in favor of Hobby Lobby and other similar businesses that are owned by … Continue reading An Autoethnography of Collegium – Applications for Higher Education
An Autoethnography of Collegium – Final Day
Final Day: Thursday, June 26th Here we are, at the end of a very long week. Long but fruitful. I do not regret coming, although I will be very happy to once again be sleeping in my bed, with the nice padding. After days of discussing, debating, defining what is Catholic intellectualism, Catholic social teaching, … Continue reading An Autoethnography of Collegium – Final Day
