Relationships and Influence (Part 3 - Online Teaching)

by Steve Huerd

Last year I began teaching an online master’s level course.  At first I admit to being overcome and even intimidated by all the technology and the speed at which I had to learn it all.  Being that I was located a thousand miles away from the university where I was teaching, the only real instruction I received was watching online videos dealing with how to use blackboard.  And, of course, I had problems!  However, with patient email interaction with the university, I was finally able to communicate with my students.

I somehow obtained pictures of my students’ faces and immediately printed them out in color along with other vital information so that I could put a name with a face.  At the outset, it seemed like there was no one out there, only dark blackness!  I was posting all of this information, syllabus, pictures, etc. without seeing anyone or hearing anything back.

Then one by one, they started to respond with, “Hey, is this such and such a class?  I just found out that I was taking this course and …”  The first assignment I gave them was to pick out who the prof was in a group picture I had put on the main page.  I wanted them to put my name with my face.

A couple of students “forced” me to initiate with them individually since they hadn’t initially responded to my online stimulus package.  During our first “discussion thread interaction,” there was hardly any interaction at all.  So, I decided to apply my old coaching philosophy of coming down hard the first week of practice and laying down my expectations.  I told them, “I can’t give you full credit here since you didn’t interact with at least two other people in here.”  They responded well to that and I began to see much more traffic the following week.

In an effort to further establish relationships, I offered times for them to Skype with me but no one responded.  Then I knew that the “relationship” I had with them was just going to be different and there wasn’t a whole lot I could do about it.  So, I threw caution to the wind and just kept encouraging and constantly sending them relevant materials right up to the end of the course.

The result?  I received good instructor ratings with one student commenting to another professor that this course was in the top two he had taken during the whole master’s program!  The next semester another student from that initial cohort signed up for another online course I taught.  To this day, I’ve never met any of these students in person, but at least I know I made a small difference in their lives!

Line of Research

by Sharon Warkentin Short

            In the course of my doctoral studies, I observed a variety of attitudes toward their dissertations among professors, authors, and colleagues. One of my instructors, for example, commented that after she finally finished her dissertation she wanted to take it outside and bury it. The author of a book I read remarked that she wished the library copy of her dissertation could have been bound on all four sides. Some—perhaps many—doctoral graduates set their finished manuscripts on a shelf with a grateful sigh of relief and move on with their lives.

            For others, however, dissertation studies produce a more profitable outcome: for these scholars, the monumental amount of work that they poured into literature reviews, investigations, and analyses endures in an ongoing journey of learning, writing, and teaching about their area of research. Another professor I know, for example, regularly uses data from her research in the master’s courses that she teaches, and she involves her students in collecting new data using the interview protocol that she designed for her investigation. Similarly, the instructor of my qualitative research methods class described how she continued to build on the research that began with her dissertation. This professor encouraged us to establish a “line of research” based on our dissertation work to which we intended to continue contributing all our lives.

            A great deal depends, of course, upon what subject one chooses to research. I am blessed to still be fascinated by the topic of my research, and to still enjoy working with this subject matter. My dissertation has already provided me with meaningful content to present in the form of papers at two different conferences, in addition to a research report already published in a journal and a chapter in a newly-published book. I look forward to developing and extending my findings into a book that will benefit a larger audience than the small sphere of scholars who currently have access to it.

            Not that the journey so far has been completely straightforward and linear! The dissertation topic that I finally investigated was my third attempt. I entered my Ph.D. program with one research issue in mind, which I continued to pursue for most of the first year. In my second year I jettisoned that idea completely and took off in another direction, for which I wrote a 75-page dissertation proposal before concluding that that topic was not tenable either. The third try, finally, had that proverbial “charm” that has kept me engaged and intrigued ever since.

            In short, dear doctoral student, follow your heart, keep looking for something that excites you for the long haul, and don’t be afraid to change direction if necessary. Certainly it is important to get that dissertation done, but it is even better if its completion inaugurates a lifetime of fruitful scholarship.

Relationships and Influence (Part 2)

By Steve Huerd

One of the criteria by which college ranking organizations classify different institutions is class size.  The thinking behind this is the smaller the class size, the more personal interaction the student will receive with the professor.  Thus, personal access and instruction from a knowledgeable professor becomes premium when considerations are being made.

Yet, even within these smaller classrooms, having good relationships between the professor and the student is naturally implied.  There’s an old adage that says, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much care.”  This truth definitely applies to mentoring relationships as the perceived quality of the relationship between the mentor and mentee is possibly the single most important factor to mentoring effectiveness.

I believe the same is true in teaching.  If a student intuitively knows that his or her professor not only is an expert in their field, but that he/she also cares about them individually as a person, then they tend to allow the professor greater access to their inner thinking.

We all intuitively determine who we can trust and who we can’t, sometimes without even saying a word to that person.  People’s actions publically display certain levels of trust; either inviting us to be real, to use caution, or even to be fearful.

When a teacher has shown signs of being a trustworthy person, then those around them begin to allow them access to their thinking.  This relational trust, then, enables the professor to have more influence in their students’ lives and thinking.

Granted, no one can have close, personal relationships with all their students in every class, but by simply being aware of the relational factors present within the classroom, our effectiveness as instructors is greatly increased.  Our teaching then becomes better leveraged through relational influence resulting in greater impact upon the minds we seek to sway.

Promoting Self or Sharing Knowledge?

 by Sharon Warkentin Short        

Most people would agree that individuals who brag about themselves are obnoxious. “Showing off,” “tooting your own horn,” even “calling undue attention to yourself” are generally deemed unacceptable social behaviors. Descriptors such as “blowhard,” “loudmouth,” and “windbag” come to mind, and none of them are complimentary. This negative sentiment about “putting oneself forward” can create considerable dissonance for someone who is seeking employment and is suddenly expected to become an aggressive self-promoter.

            In his book Become a Recognized Authority in your Field in 60 Days or Less, author Robert Bly (2002) describes the marketing of oneself as establishing one’s “guru status,” and in his book he outlines a strategy for positioning oneself as a “guru” in a particular field. In Bly’s words, “Gurus are not born, they are ‘manufactured’ through self-marketing and promotion.” (p. 21).

            Many job seekers might find such strategies odious. We do not want to be the kind of people who boast about themselves! Fortunately, in this situation a subtle shift in perspective can make a world of difference. Bly explains that what he means by a “guru” is someone who has gained significant mastery over a specific discipline, and is able to communicate this knowledge “in a clear, understandable, and useful manner to a well-defined target audience” (p. 9). Bly goes on, “You build your reputation as an expert in your field by giving your knowledge away [emphasis added] in a variety of forums—articles, books, seminars, speeches, newsletters, e-zines, Web sites, and information products” (p. 41). If building a professional reputation in order to gain a desirable position can be redefined as sharing one’s useful knowledge with others, then the odium of “marketing oneself” is greatly diminished.

            I can enthusiastically endorse the premise of becoming an expert in a well-defined niche and then sharing that knowledge in many different ways. If that is what a guru is, then bring it on! What I can not get excited about “selling,” “marketing,” or “promoting” myself. I am not a commodity to be bought and sold, nor do I want to be regarded and treated as such. Sharing my knowledge, though, is an altogether different and more positive mission. That sounds like something I would be glad to do.

Relationships and Teaching (Part 1)

by Steve Huerd

Everyone wants to influence someone’s life when they teach.  Teaching is, after all, the passing of knowledge from one mind to another with the intent to help and improve another life.  But, what makes for effective teaching?  While there are many writings dealing with pedagogical techniques and tips out there, there is comparatively few dealing with how relationships affect teaching efficacy.

In my recently published dissertation, I argued that spiritual development occurs through personal, trusted relationships.  In other words, most people choose what to believe religiously through being influenced by those with whom they have personal trusted relationships.  These people could be their parents, extended family, key nonparental adults, friends, etc.  Thus effective transmission of faith and religious values, which most definitely includes knowledge, is passed along relationally from one person to another. 

This makes sense because we are all created in the image of God to be relational beings connecting with one another.  Even within the universe as a whole, truth is personal, found in the person of Jesus Christ.  This is in contrast to the notion that truth is merely a collection of facts or knowledge that fit reality that must be drilled into every young mind. Even Jesus noted that, “this is eternal life that they might KNOW you” (John 17:3 emphasis mine) implying relational knowledge as being the highest form of knowledge for eternity.

Thus there appears to be an inseparable link between knowledge and relationship as God created them.  Knowledge can exist outside of relationships, but it gains its full meaning and significance through relationships.  Indeed, even the entire universe has a relational connection to Jesus being created “by Him…through Him and for Him” (Col. 1:17).

This truth has profound implications for how we teach in Christian education.  For if knowledge is best communicated via relationships, then the types of relationships we have with our students will affect how they interpret the knowledge we are attempting to teach them.   In fact, I would argue, that the healthier and stronger our relationships with students are, the better they will receive and hear what we have to say.  This has been true in my experience in ministry all these years of working with students and I believe it is core principle essential to pedagogical efficacy at every level.

Online Non-Discussions

by Sharon Warkentin Short

            One of the strengths of online education that especially attracts me is its potential to stimulate deep interactions between professors and students and among the students themselves. When class time is not restricted to the several hours a week during which students and instructor gather in a college classroom, good discussion does not have to end because a bell rings. The conversation can keep going as long as anyone has anything to add. Furthermore, students do not need to feel frustrated because other students’ questions are using up valuable minutes. Individual students’ concerns and requests can be handled via private emails without taking away any time from the presentation of course content, and confused students can ask for clarification as many times as they need to. Finally, students who are not good at speaking “off the cuff,” or who feel self-conscious about speaking up in a class setting, can formulate their contributions in writing and can take as much time as they need to present clearly what they want to say.

            However, it occurred to me recently—to my surprise—that this very advantage of online education might also work against student participation in meaningful discussions. Precisely because learners and teachers are not present together in the same physical space, professors are not able to call on reluctant respondents in the same way that they might in a traditional classroom. Students are insulated in cyberspace from the looks and prompts that a professor might use to get them to speak up. Similarly, because they are not sitting together in the same room, students do not feel the awkward silences that can ensue when nobody attempts to answer a professor’s questions. When a course is presented via the internet, the non-responsiveness and the silences can go on for days!

            How can online instructors compensate for the absence of these incentives to get students involved in meaningful dialogue? Several suggestions come to mind:

1. Professors can still call on students through personal emails, encouraging them to add their ideas to the ongoing discussions. “I’d like to hear what you think” could be just as motivating if stated in an email as stated in a classroom.
2. Instructors can set a pattern of positively acknowledging every contribution without dominating the discussion. A simple “Thanks for sharing that thought” or “Good question! What do the rest of you say?” lets the respondents know that someone is actually reading the dialogue and appreciates their efforts.
3. Establishing a series of deadlines for responses might help to keep conversation moving. A professor might remind the group, “By Tuesday at midnight we need one idea from each of you about this topic.” Then several more deadlines could be set for responses to the initial items.

            Instructors do have some leverage when students are being graded on the frequency and quality of their input, but even so, stimulating genuine communication among online course participants is relentlessly hard work. The very structure that enables students to participate whenever they choose from wherever they happen to be also allows them hide from instructors and classmates alike, and to safely not participate in the discussions at all. This reality presents a new and unexpected challenge for online educators.

Why Don’t They Get It!

by Steve Huerd

One of the greatest moments in a teacher’s life is when their students “get it” and the light bulb comes on.  Sometimes you can see it in their faces, in their assignments or perhaps in their review of your course.  There’s something inherently satisfying seeing tangible evidence that you made a difference in someone’s life.

But what happens when they don’t get it and you can’t seem to get through to that young mind?  You know the truth you are sharing is critical to their understanding, yet they just don’t seem ready to hear it.

As teachers in Christian education, we are like the Apostle Paul who said to the Corinthians, “we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truth to those who are spiritual” (1 Cor. 2:13).

Last week I was teaching a large group of high school students in a foreign country on a mission trip and I desperately wanted to share the gospel with them.  However, the national staff told me if I did this publically in this way, it would not be received well by the students due to cultural differences.  They might be open to hearing it one-on-one but not in a large group setting, and especially if I preached it to them.

I consented, relinquishing my own ambitions, and shared only a small portion of my personal testimony regarding the importance of God in my life.  Immediately afterward two of their national staff thanked me for planting the seed in the student’s minds and said my approach was very effective.

Yet I struggled within myself thinking, “why can’t I just share the gospel with them…this is what they need!”  Yet, the truth was simply that they were not ready to hear it in that way.  Paul likewise, experienced similar frustration with the Corinthians, “I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it” (1 Cor. 3:2).  Even Jesus, in speaking to the disciples, had to curtail his teaching, “I still have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now” (John 16:12).

As Christian teachers, we should be aware of the limits of our teaching upon young believer’s hearts.  Sometimes our students are just not ready to hear all the wisdom and insight we have to offer them.  Therefore we must make adjustments in our teaching when appropriate.  These somewhat painful and inconvenient adjustments should flow from our love for our students.  When they are not ready to hear, we must limit ourselves as teachers so as not to overburden them.  No one learns calculus in first grade and no one can “comprehend the thoughts of God except of the Spirit of God.”

Stage Plays and Distance Learning

by Sharon Warkentin Short        

       Very early in my explorations into online teaching and learning, I encountered an illustration that proved to be a defining moment in my comprehension of this new educational medium. The article described how motion picture technology was at first used mainly to film stage plays for viewing by audiences who were not present at the actual performances. Movies, in other words, were simply a means of watching live stage productions second hand. Over time, of course, the unique capabilities of motion pictures have been developed and refined to generate dramatic experiences impossible to achieve on any stage.

As I have continued to research online courses and programs offered through many different colleges and universities, I have encountered a vast variation in what schools consider “distance education.” Some of the schools seem to use internet technology to offer classes in roughly the same manner that movies were once used to present plays: the live experience is recorded and made available visually and audibly to people who were not actually there. Online resources are used, in other words, to allow students to participate in actual classroom experiences second hand. When internet capabilities are employed in this way, most of the unique strengths of online education remain unrealized. As authors Conrad and Donaldson (2011) comment: 

New media offer a wealth of opportunities for interaction, yet many times are employed in a non-interactive mode that tends to focus on creating an online lecture. (p. 4) 

The participants’ experiences end up being similar to sitting passively in a classroom and listening to a monologue—only worse. At least in the classroom, the lecturer can respond to visual cues conveyed by the students, and the listeners can respond to the speaker.

            The alternative, which expert online educators vigorously promote, is to explore, develop, refine, and capitalize upon the capabilities inherent in internet technology to accomplish learning tasks that would be impossible (or at least much more difficult) in live classes. Collaboration on documents and projects, for example, is vastly simplified using online tools. Students as well as instructors can act as generators of knowledge using online resources (Conrad & Donaldson, 2011).

            Most educators (including me) are only beginning to discover the riches of teaching methodology possible online. The application is clear: let’s not limit our online teaching activities to what we are able to do in a classroom. Let’s not get stuck screening stage plays when we could be creating cinematic wonders!

Conrad, R.-M., & Donaldson, J. A., (2011). Engaging the online learner: Activities and resources for creative instruction. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Waiting on God 
(For An Academic Position)

by Steve Huerd

Within the pages of Scripture, we find many saints who had to wait upon God to fulfill their life calling.

The Wonder of Waiting.  Abraham had to wait for a son, Joseph had to wait to see how his dreams would be fulfilled, Moses required forty years of preparation, Caleb finally conquered Hebron after waiting forty years for an entire unbelieving generation to die in the wilderness, and the list goes on and on.  Waiting is one of God’s primary tools he uses to shape us into the kind of men and women he desires us to be.  God often gives us dreams, aspirations, and desires of what he wants to do through us to bless others.  It is during these years of waiting where God builds Christ’s character in us (Rom. 8:29) through sifting and pruning us (John 15:1-5) that we might truly know him and become even more fruitful.

The transition zone on California's Big Sur coastline.

The world and many who wish us well continually tell us, “You must do this and that” to get to where you want to go.  You need to complete your education, be published, attend the right types of academic communities, intentionally build strategic relationships, and so forth in order to make yourself the best candidate you can be possibly be.  Granted, there must be a balance between the waiting and preparing oneself, and these two need not be separate entities (though often it seems that even with the best of human preparation, there remain long seasons of just waiting upon God)  


Tony Stolzfus, who serves as a professional pastor's ministry coach claims:

In God’s economy, the power of your ministry is a function of the depth of your processing. In other words, the more deeply Jesus' character gets worked into you, the more you have to give. The more years God has to sift you and refine you and prune you for greater growth, the more potential you have for world-changing impact.”

The Divine Perspective About Our Academic Careers.  The biblical examples mentioned above along with particular verses seem to affirm these truths.  For example, the Psalmist declares, "Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain" (Psalm 127:1-2)  David also claims "And in thy book, they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them."  Paul states that, "We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God has prepared beforehand" (Eph. 2:10).  These and other verses surely affirm that God has prepared a specific place for us to accomplish the good works he has prepared for us.  God sovereignly works on both ends, both for those seeking academic positions and for those seeking to fulfill them, to accomplish his agenda with the person of his choosing.

Often we fret and worry, becoming impatient with God and demanding for him to grant us the position we feel we deserve.  Yet even in waiting, there is danger as Stoltzfus states, “It is so easy to end up resisting the very thing that will take us where we want to go! We are protesting and squirming and trying to get out from under the knife, while God in his mercy is saying, ‘If I let you go now, you will never become what you are capable of becoming.’ If we truly demand release, God will honor our request and let us go forward into a shallow shadow of our call, but He is in no hurry to release us from the wilderness.”

Pondering upon these thoughts causes me to rethink my perspective and relax knowing that a loving God is working behind the scenes in ways I can’t see.  It causes me to read again Andrew Murray’s classic book entitled “Waiting Upon God,” while journaling my thoughts and prayers. 

I find that I have to continually remind myself of this perspective time and time again when I become anxious and insecure.  When I do trust in him, I can take one day at a time, experiencing the peace he promises in Phil. 4:6-7.  I want to yield myself fully to the Master Surgeon, giving him full access to all areas of my life letting him take the time he needs to shape me into the professor that I believe he is calling me to be.