Studying Online

Hope offers all SALT courses online. The University enjoys superb online teaching capabilities through a partnership with eCollege, an online service provider based in Denver, Colorado. The eCollege system provides a separate website, or “eCompanion,” on which instructors post the syllabus, resources, assignments, and other materials for each course. Faculty and students also communicate with each other through this website. The system includes student and faculty training tutorials, as well as a Help Desk providing 24/7 technical support.

Through the eCompanion, Hope instructors can do virtually anything they could do in a face-to-face classroom setting. Online courses typically include, for example, audio/visual lectures with PowerPoint, threaded discussions, quizzes, group assignments and other projects, readings and other resources, and/or links to library materials.

Face-to-face instruction offers many benefits, and Hope has built that element into the SALT program in the form of on-ground mentors (described below). However, there are several significant advantages to making SALT a primarily online-based initiative:

• Hope has assembled an excellent faculty consisting not only of full-time educators, but active professionals in various fields. Online technology brings these instructors, with their vast experience and expertise, straight into each student’s home or office. The online approach offers students valuable opportunities for personal interaction with a variety of Christian leaders.
• Transporting teachers to students, or students to teachers, can be time-consuming, limiting (in the sense that an instructor cannot be physically present in two places at the same time), and very expensive. The online approach reduces educational costs, enabling Hope to charge lower tuition rates. It also allows SALT participants to study with a variety of church leaders from around the world, benefiting from the shared ideas, perspectives, and networking opportunities.
• Smaller churches, or Christians working in more isolated regions, may not be able to assemble a large enough group of students to make an on-ground course viable. However, the online system enables such students to join a larger class by means of the course website.
• Accelerated courses require credit students to log into the eCompanion nearly every day in order, for example, to post their contributions to ongoing discussions. However, students may choose the times of day most convenient for them, whether it be morning, afternoon, or the middle of the night. Online, asynchronous learning allows students to study together in spite of differing work schedules, family responsibilities, and even time zones.
• Every time Hope International University opens a new on-ground teaching site, it must register that site with the Department of Education. When it offers at least half of a degree program at a new site, the University must also go through a lengthy and expensive Substantive Change process with its accrediting bodies, which includes sending evaluation teams to the new site at the University’s expense. However, Hope is already approved to provide online studies anywhere in the world. Accordingly, it can launch an online SALT program at any time, at any place, with no additional expense, and with minimal on-ground preparation.

On-Ground Mentoring

To complement the online learning, Hope equips local church leaders to serve as onsite mentors, who typically meet with students one day per week, for 90 minutes, for the duration of the five-week course. Students work through the course materials, completing their readings and other assignments, prior to meetings with their classmates and the course mentor.

The mentor’s task is not to teach the course or to grade assignments. (Hope’s online instructor serves as the “professor of record” for the course, which is important for accreditation. That person is responsible for guiding students through the course materials, answering their questions, and assessing their growth.) Instead, the mentor’s purpose is to help students apply what they learn to their lives and to the ministry of the local church. Toward this end, Hope provides Mentor Notes that include discussion questions, group activities, exercises, and other practical suggestions for helping students to own, integrate, and use the knowledge and skills they gain through the SALT program. Mentors may then adapt or supplement those materials to put their own unique stamp on the course, in accordance with the church’s philosophy and local needs.

Participation in these on-site sessions is optional. (Some students may find it impossible to attend due to schedule conflicts or because they live far away from their classmates.) However, Hope strongly urges church leaders to arrange such sessions and serve as mentors. Actively encouraging students to move from principle to practice, from concept to character, from listening to leading, greatly multiplies the value of the SALT program to students and to the church.