Summer 2020 brought an array of challenges, blessings, and everything in between. For the first time, Summer Quarter on campus—which was supposed to be held mostly on campus—went completely digital. This digital delivery included synchronous courses, asynchronous courses, use of Zoom, and different sorts of hybrids.
Despite the drastic change from having students on campus for Summer Quarter, we experienced an outstanding number of participants. Nearly 100 pastors participated in one of the 15 offered Summer Quarter courses!
While participants recognized the loss of in-person fellowship and outside-the-classroom learning, attendees were thankful for the flexibility and variety of the online opportunities. A few of the pastors shared:
“I greatly appreciate the accommodation to the circumstances and flexibility of the professors. Overall, the technology worked well and provided a great classroom experience.”
“I thought the online option was a great opportunity for growth while also eliminating the difficulties of travel and absence from place of service.”
Due to the high numbers of enrollment and positive feedback, Grow in Grace is looking into offering more online and Zoom classes for our future continuing education opportunities.
A reminder that we will hold no on-campus Summer Quarter in Mequon in 2021. (On-campus Summer Quarter will return, God-willing, in 2022). Instead, as happened in 2019, the seminary will partner with districts beyond the Southeastern Wisconsin District to offer district-wide satellite events. The seminary’s continuing education office (Grow in Grace) asked the other eleven synodical districts if they would be willing to devote a regularly scheduled conference for these satellites events. In that way pastors could take a course at a conference they already are in the habit of attending. In 2019 over 600 pastors were able to take a summer quarter course! We pray that we will have similar strong attendance in 2021.
