Exclusive Interview with Dr. Andrew Peterson, Educational Technology Consultant
Dr. Saba: You have been helping seminaries and other faith-based institutions to become robust educators at a distance for a long time. What attracted you to this work?
Dr. Peterson: Distance education is a practical application of theological curriculum to self and God’s world according to biblical standards. And it requires extensive and consistent logistics. I believe in the good and beauty of this wisdom and its usefulness. This calling is a way to get God’s Word and its exposition out to the church and many students in the community.
Distance education is a practical application of theological curriculum to self and God’s world according to biblical standards. And it requires extensive and consistent logistics.
This learning “to think God’s thoughts after Him” is a reliable path to true wisdom. The work of biblical training and practice is facilitated by online education with right content and practices. I also like the pace of the progress in the field and global outreach where many engage with an ongoing process of progress in the recruitment of talent and the innovation with educational technology. There is a worldwide effort to extend Christian teaching and service to people of all ages. Mastering material from the Old and New Testament and the early church helps the person and those nearby and faraway. The seminary adds mentoring and exams as adjuncts to the instruction. Mentors add reading assignments and comments on papers and quizzes. There are forums online for learners to communicate in writing and orally. At the end of a degree program, a capstone production is assigned. The paper is written according to the best of formal requirements. After many courses completed, then an overall paper is produced by the student and reviewed by the mentor, a professor and some from the student community with deep expertise in the field. Seminary education is composed of a strong verbal description of the world via biblical materials and commentary. It is a great boost to an individual’s thinking and analytical processes. The reading, writing and interaction with others supports happiness as well as growing in the life of the mind and the soul.
Dr. Saba: How do you measure the success of seminaries and other faith-based institutions to reach their learners via various methods of distance teaching and learning?
Dr. Peterson: Verbal testimonies and enrollment numbers attest to the success of this education. Over the past several years, new programs of data analytics have demonstrated better retention and added student feedback to make that more robust. In Christian education there is the advantage of having the Bible to compare for standards of process and as well as content in relevant topics. Ongoing, various accreditation agencies and churches have approved these programs and courses. Also, record enrollments are products of consumer choices about their education for ministry. For example, despite the “pandemic,” Western Seminary is seeing record enrollment this year. Because of three decades of developing and offering an online campus, the school was ready to recruit and admit students in early 2020 to online programs for their seminary education. Even with this great increase in students, satisfaction with the education is reported to be very steady. The several master degree programs continue to be offered and progress is made by students through the curriculum on to graduation. Dimunition of quality has not been noted and efficiency of course delivery is steady. Formal accreditation is maintained with the oversight bodies and learners remain enrolled and taking courses from the legacy course schedule. Professors continue to run classes with their practices of checking and grading and some new instructional designs. Yet, all education ought to have an assessment with a human intuitive element rather than a mechanical rule and the best intuitive standards.
Dr. Saba: You are currently involved in a research and development project to improve instructional design methods for distance teaching and learning. What motivated you to start this project?
Dr. Peterson: With the computer revolution unfolding, the methods of data analytics have transformed every industry and discipline. Many years ago, as an educational psychologist in a mental health center, I saw the possibility of enlisting computers to bring the young person a new environment without their long-lasting fear of failure for reading and math and other subjects. We want to apply this process to many aspects of recruitment, retention and evaluation of academic programs in higher education, too. Also, predictive analytics are very cost effective and more so over time with the added bonus of new insights for curriculum designers and academic planners. We have a program of research and publishing about analytics. The sharply rising costs of education (including the cost of student attrition) and the current constraints on college operations posed by the COVID-19 pandemic pose massive challenges to school administrators. New ways must be crafted to meet these challenges, and many of them require the input of information gained from data analytics operations. Operational analytics modeling operations for student retention and even donor development offer a large potential to assure the financial survival of the school. Millions of dollars have been retained for Western Seminary by reducing the student churn rate from 80% to 49% in 4 years, based on results of two student churn models. Without those monies, the school might very well have had to close its doors. Learning analytics operations can provide critical information to optimize the learning environment and student performance in it. Student performance models can illustrate key practices of successful students to increase the performance of other students. While operational analytics must be data-driven to optimize the business operations of the college, learning analytics must be competency-driven to succeed in moving the “center of gravity” of student performance upward. As students learn more, they will find greater success in the job market and recognize the great worth of the educational system based on analytics that provided it. “Kisling, Reid; Nisbet, Robert; and Peterson, Andrew. (2021). The Coming of Age of Data Analytics in Higher Education. Strategic Enrollment Management Quarterly (AACRAO), 9, (1), April.” The goal is to use the latest software methodology to improve growing the student body and improving year to year retention toward strong graduation rates and career success. As feedback to the learner is reported throughout the education in the courses, a solid foundation is built within the program and in the career after graduation. (155) The funding from grants by Christian individuals and organizations such as In Trust has enabled us to hire expert consultants to do the blueprints and coding for analytics.
Also, predictive analytics are very cost effective and more so over time with the added bonus of new insights for curriculum designers and academic planners.
Dr. Saba: What are the primary components and features of this project?
Dr. Peterson: The major components of the instructional design project are an accredited online campus and lay Center for Leadership Development. Each of these two divisions has an experienced staff for administration and technical support. Design features are contemporary methods for interactions among professors and students as well as e-materials in support. Of course, great customer service is necessary for personal relationships and the problems that arise for remedy. And four types of instructional design are considered and studied in this project: (1) traditional letter grades, (2) competency-based education (CBE), (3) learning data analytics, and (4) challenge based learning (CBL). Note: here are the ten steps of CBL, whether online or in-person.
TRADITIONAL LETTER GRADES have the advantage of a “tried and true” standard. But educational research and personal experience raise concerns about reliability and validity, its longstanding prescence, not withstanding. Many have good ways to cope with these concerns.
COMPETENCY BASED EDUCATION is based on the good idea to increase validity by starting with a survey of the criteria observed in the future field of application of the skills and knowledge as the “competencies.”
LEARNING DATA ANALYTICS has emerged as a branch of educational analytics. The course is programmed to track and reply to processes and achievements as the learner progresses forward in this mastery learning approach.
CHALLENGE-BASED LEARNING prizes student motivation and intrinsic interest and problem solving efforts through the learning environment. We are considering use of this inquiry approach in the next round of development.
CBL Step 1. Essential Question (definition and importance of the big idea for possible transformation in society)
CBL Step 2. Important Challenge (compelling proposal video)
CBL Step 3. Guiding questions (‘need to know’ sets of inquiry)
CBL Step 4. Guiding activities (research work for investigation)
CBL Step 5. Guiding resources (research assets for investigation)
CBL Step 6. Determining and articulating the solution (aligned to check the effects of the solution)
CBL Step 7. Taking action by implementing the solution (run the test)
CBL Step 8. Assessing the solution effects (assess the test result)
CBL Step 9. Publishing the solution and sharing it with the world (dissemination by writing and other media)
CBL Step 10, Public feedback back to you and more biblical discernment about this particular Challenge and the test of the proposed Solution. (237)
Couch, John D. with Jason Towne. (2018). Rewiring education: How technology can unlock every student’s potential. Dallas, TX: BenBella Books, Inc. Apple Inc.’s First Vice President of Education.
Dr. Saba: How can interested institutions and researchers support your project and collaborate with you?
Dr. Peterson: We look forward to others who share their experiences and findings in teaching and learning in graduate education. As we participate with professional organizations and publications, we learn from others and help them to move forward, too. For example, a value and acceptance of better and more flexible grading is a benefit to all teachers and, thus, students. Applying and reviewing a variety of better assessment methods supports the efforts of all. And of course, we can always collaborate with other thought leaders and stakeholders to fund and evaluate new technology projects with input from the community. Plus, collaboration across international borders is of great interest. Once the language barrier is addressed a seminary is in a good position to reach out to partners worldwide. Even video conferencing makes the communication yet better wherever the time or place. With a common culture such as Christianity the ease of learning together is even better for the benefit of all. The global outreach of the school has grown over the past century and it is expected to continue. Course work in biblical studies, systematic theology, church history, practical counseling, Christian education as well as dissertations and more will be available for students around the earth. The cross-cultural experience and intercultural content makes for a rich education. Faculty from many nations instruct with this wide-ranging background, for example, Wan, Enoch. (2011). Diaspora Missiology: Theory, Methodology, and Practice. Please contact us to find out we can help one another.
Dr. Saba: We just put a year of disappointment and disenchantment, in many respects, behind us. Some believe that the pandemic was a boost to distance education. How do you measure the future of our field.
Dr. Peterson: I agree that the troubles of this past time have actually resulted in a great increase in the quantity and quality of distance learning at all age levels and in all disciplines. It is true that in the pandemic season, it is educational technology that has been the star to continue the teaching and learning process in graduate education. More than algorithms, online education adds efficiencies and communication that lead to intellectual and emotional advancement as long as powered by the ethics of love and work. In 2020, we see schools where enrollment, retention, revenue and graduations are up. When the content has been excellent, students have learned well and prepared to serve in the field of their churches and homes. Also, attention to personal engagement with teachers and students is vital. It is critical to provide an educational product that has a high view of ethical provision in substance and service, such as privacy, for example, “Peterson, Andrew. (2018). Data analytics and ethics (Guest chapter with Robert Nisbet, Gary Miner, and Ken Hall with John Elder in Handbook of Statistical Analysis & Data Mining Applications). Burlington, MA: Elsevier, Academic Press. In addition to great technology, design and content with good ethics is the required formula for online education at every level. The future is very bright for educational efforts that that celebrate freedom, liberty and progress with the efficiency of technology. Educational technology allows for much collaboration so that the creativity and productivity of teamwork serves the free-market.
Dr. Andrew Peterson
Dr. Peterson’s current professional work includes business consulting and educational technology with Digital Vistas Carolina, LLC, including VP for Educational Innovation and Global Outreach with Western Seminary (Portland, San Jose, Sacramento, Seattle, Online Campus.) He founded and directed distance education for graduate theological education from Charlotte, North Carolina for Reformed Theological Seminary, Virtual Campus from 1997 through 2014. Andy developed that online program for the education of hundreds of graduate students at a school in the Southeast USA, Reformed Theological Seminary. The student body continues to be worldwide. This formal degree program made the most use of distance education of any accredited seminary in the world at the time. Using online promotion, sales, and delivery, positive net revenue was gained, RTS/Virtual had over 30 courses, including church history, systematic theology, biblical studies, pastoral counseling, Christian education, and language instruction.
Andy’s professional road map was been from licensed psychologist in Pennsylvania at a community mental health center, to professor of psychology for counseling and teacher training courses for Grove City College, a four-year liberal arts college north of Pittsburgh, to professor of practical theology at Westminster Seminary in California and educational technologist at Santa Fe Foundation in Solana Beach, and then to University of California, San Diego to establish the first Multimedia Development Center for faculty development of digital presentations in 1995 (just as the Internet hit!). While in southern California, he consulted with businesses and schools on the use of educational technology. He continues to do that with the “virtual campus” concept now as well as doing business reviews and board services. Long-term professional themes are education, counseling and business with help from theology as well as technology. Tours in higher education have been at Western Washington University (BA, Psychology), University of California, Berkeley (MA, Educational Psychology), and University of Pittsburgh (PhD, Educational Communications and Technology).
