ADC on the Go

Higher education continues to evolve. Over the past two decades, distance education has morphed from lone students doing correspondence courses on their own, to large online course oerings by major universities. Many seminaries adopted online oerings early, focusing on the ability to reach many people. While this ‘quantity model’ may have been the choice for some, Acadia Divinity College (ADC) moved ahead more cautiously. While we recognized that expanding distance education with a massive online model may have reached many, we were not prepared to sacrice quality for quantity. Part of the ADC student experience is intimate classroom settings and especially face-to-face teaching and interaction.

Because of this commitment to keep pedagogical standards, ADC made an intentional choice to not oer asynchronous online courses. We resolved to keep all courses directly connected to the professor with face-to-face learning. Yet, ADC knew that students’ lives and realities have changed, and the College is committed to innovating our educational delivery without compromising standards. Our rst innovation was “Virtual Seats”: this allowed students anywhere in the world to join into our weekly residential courses through video conferencing functionality. This means that they are ‘virtually’ present in the weekly classroom session, with the ability to interact in the room like every other student. While this format is now more common in higher education, ADC was one of the rst seminaries ever to use this delivery style. “Virtual Seats” is now ubiquitous in weekly ADC courses, with almost every course having virtual students joining in. Over the past decade, the technology has vastly improved, and with our refurbished building’s latest technology, ADC’s classrooms are now the best on campus and enable an exceptional student experience.

The next innovation in Acadia Divinity College’s distance education is ADC Go. An ADC Go course is a hybrid course, providing the highest flexibility possible for students without sacricing our teaching standards. A typical ADC Go course moves in a week-by week format throughout the semester. During each week, students have the normal expectations of reading and assignments. It also requires them to watch approximately 1.5–2 hours of video lecture each week, the bulk of which are professionally recorded lectures given by the professor. The professor and students also commit to an agreed-upon time to meet weekly in the evening for one hour via video conference. This format allows for people who work during the day to take courses and allows anyone in the world to take courses with us. We have had students throughout the Atlantic region, through Canada, in South America, and in the Philippines take ADC Go courses. This hybrid format allows the students to schedule their coursework according to their own schedule, but still maintains the face-to-face interaction with faculty and fellow students.

ADC Go courses are offered every semester, and the courses offered in this format are chosen to allow students to complete the entire Graduate Diploma in Christian Studies, which is equivalent to the rst year of the Master of Divinity program. With ADC Go, our courses are now available to anyone no matter where they are, and with both this format and virtual seats, students can engage in full or part-time studies no matter where they live.

Dr. Danny Zacharias is the Associate Professor of New Testament Studies at Acadia Divinity College, as well as the Director of Distance Education, the Liaison to NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community, and the Director of Hayward Lectures.