Reimagining Christian formation in online theological education

As theological colleges offer an increasing range of study programs online, questions remain about whether graduates of theological colleges are adequately formed for Christian life, leadership and service if they complete theology degrees entirely online. This is the challenge facing the educational designer and faculty members at Ridley College, Melbourne, Australia as they reimagine the design of online degree programs to enable and enhance the spiritual, ministry and character formation of students. This chapter describes a doctoral research project based at the college which is exploring Learning Design principles and practices that can be applied to online course design to address student formation. Drawing on insights from learning theory and educational research in the field of Learning Design the project is designing, implementing and evaluating online degree programs, units of study and learning tasks in three cycles over three years at Ridley College, with a view to identifying Learning Design principles and practices for student formation. This chapter describes progress in two key areas: The first relates to the identification of types of learning that are helpful for formation and how this impacts on design decisions; the second relates to the question of how to evaluate the impact of the implemented learning designs on student formation. The chapter closes with some brief comments on the implications of the first evaluation cycle and insights gained for future implementation cycles.