learning center

In February of 2002, a new Learning Center was installed in Odessa Seminary. This was a joint project between Odessa Theological Seminary (OTS) and MAF and will serve as the basis for a Distance Education thrust into the Ukraine, Armenia and Central Asia. It is our largest Learning Center to date.

Mike Holman and Vladimir Korzunin, from the MAF team, went to Odessa for 10 days to install the system and to train the team that will be overseeing the center. The OTS DE Coordinator, Victor Kalashnikov, was trained in network administration and email/econference system management. His two student support admins, Pavel and Boris, were trained in how to add files to the server. Training went very well and they have a solid understanding and ability to administer the system.

The installation was very successful and the students are enthusiastically using the 2.5 gb of Biblical Reference materials and our new Bible study. They are elated at having access to the new private email and reference materials. With this network, all faculty and students have private email accounts and private file space on the server, which connects to our Moscow server for mail service.

Three of the OTS faculty: Sergei Borushko, Dr. Ray Trantham, and Victor Kalashnikov have committed to doing the Analysis, Design, Development (content and collaboration chunking), Construction (using our frame standards and Dreamweaver), and Delivery of a course. Richard Morris and Ron Banks of MAF will support their efforts in this area.

MAF supplied:

• 1 large server consisting of the following:
  • 80gb of drive space
  • 400mhz processor
  • 256mb ram
  • Modem.
• 6 other workstation machines
• $100 for network installation materials.

OTS supplied:

• OTS DE Coordinator, who will be responsible for the oversight of the network
• Two students for administration of the network
• Some existing machines
  • 5 faculty machines
  • 2 library machines
  • 6 study center machines
• $1500 for monitors, UPS and network hardware. [1000 plus equipment shipping costs from the seminary and 500 from faculty donations (Ray)].

We now have:

• Fully operational Learning Centers in Moscow, Tver, Obenisk, Krosnodar, Kiev, and Odessa Theological Seminary
• Krosnodar Rehab, and Voronezh to be installed by April 1
• Chelobinsk to be installed by June 1 (all hardware and desks have been purchased)

We also have requests for learning centers in Omsk, Armenia, Tyumen, Bryansk, Rybinsk, Tula, KKursk and Novi Sibersk. They are just waiting for funding.

When asked to share his testimony, Andre, a young man in Central Asia begins, "The Lord found me when I was 16." Since that time he has been busy about the Lord's business, going to seminary, learning computer skills, and working. He goes on to say, "The Lord...has given me desire to implement EVERYTHING I have, know, will ever know for His glory."

The hunger to learn and the desire to share what he has learned in the Lord's service are evident. Without an EdTech Center established close by, he would be less likely to have the opportunities he now has to satisfy his longings.

Because a lot of the tools and reference materials for creating DE courses are in English, his good grasp of the English language has helped him to learn quickly. At our EdTech Center, he has been able to learn Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, and DE Course Design. Andre caught onto all of the programs and design principles very well. He is now filling the role of Learning Center Coordinator at our first learning center in Central Asia. It is hoped that sometime this summer he will have the opportunity to facilitate (lead) a course. The seminary he is attending, is excited about moving all of their materials to a DE format. That means he is going to have a lot of course construction work ahead for himself.

Andre goes on to say, "Recently, I was praying for God's leading on my life. While praying I looked back on how God equipped me with different skills. I was not able to pay for anything. The Lord provided finance both to pay for the English second year course. He gave me opportunity to study His Word and principles of His Kingdom and ministry. He blessed me with access to computers and skills to learn them. I have seen the need in education of church leaders. Someone told me about DE and I find it a very good idea. If we could deliver it to far away places like villages, where there is a lack of education of leaders and no opportunity to leave their home to go study, it will benefit the Church very much. I don't have a miraculous call to DE, but for sure I do feel God's gentle leading. I realize there is much work to be done and that it is challenging, but God's deeds do not fail. So I am into it laying all hopes on our foundation, which is Jesus Christ. I know He will take care of the people, financial, technical sources and timing as well."

Can we afford not to continue to develop EdTech Centers, if this is the quality of hearts that can be impacted?

History of this Learning Center

Over two years ago at our first distance education training in Central Asia we had members from Campus Crusade for Christ attend who were working in a remote city in a neighboring country. They expressed strong interest in implementing distance education in their city. They had developed a computer center as a small business for the believers from the local Church and were hoping to use the resource to benefit the believers as a whole in their city. The Director of the CCC efforts desired to see this tool used for training of Christian leaders. It took just over two years from that first seminar that they attended before we were ready to go to their city and install a learning center. The computer center there consisted of 10 computers and they had us purchase a server for them in preparation for the installation.

Computer Setup of Learning Center

Bakha and Tim traveled to their city first in June for a survey trip and then in the middle of August for the installation. Bakha oversaw the installation of the server. The setup went well. The technical setup went very well during the first two days despite the fact that we had to modify slightly our standard setup in order to make it work within their existing computer network.

Tutor Training

On Thursday, Tim led an all day workshop for Tutor training. About 8 potential tutors attended. The seminar had been advertised to local Churches and they had been asked to send one or two leaders to the training. All of the tutors were young, but each held different positions of leadership within their churches including one that was an assistant pastor.

The training was divided into two major parts. The first part was principles of adult education and learning how their role as tutors of DE courses for adults differs from the traditional classroom setting many had grown up in. It helped them understand that they are not as much a teacher as they are a guide to help the students discover and learn on their own. The second part of the seminar focused more specifically on the DE learning environment and how to maintain an effective ‘cyber classroom’ environment. During this part we used the new learning center setup to simulate discussion within a classroom where questions were posed by the instructor and responded to by the student. During this simulation Tim also simulated lack of attention by the instructor as well as effects of over involvement and criticism by the instructor.

We also evaluated a number of case studies and discussed how the tutor could recognize existing problems in those case studies and improve the situation to make it more effective for the students. The goal was to help the tutors understand that they need to be flexible and adapt to the students and at times modify the discussion questions and course procedures in order to create a better learning experience for the students.

Overall the training was very successful. Evaluations at the end of the seminar were very positive. Most felt the information was well-balanced and clear. The next step is for each of the people who went through the seminar to participate in a DE class together to build experience with the DE environment. One of the students was chosen to act as the Tutor for this first class, but all understood that he was learning the process just like the rest of them.