|
Online Learning: Transforming Higher Jewish Education Broward County, Florida residents Mike Masarek, Sandra Lilienthal and Michael Simon are classmates. But their graduate school campus is located more than 1000 miles away at Gratz College, a trans-denominational college of Jewish studies founded in 1895 and based in Philadelphia. And their fellow students in the Gratz Online M.A. Program in Jewish Studies hail virtually from across the globe. “First of all, it [online learning] allows students from virtually all over the world to interact with each other, and this can greatly expand our understanding of the diversity of contemporary Jewish life,” says Dr. Ruth Sandberg, Leonard and Ethel Landau Associate Professor of Rabbinics, who has taught in the Gratz Online program since its inception in Fall, 2000. “I can have an ongoing discussion with an online student over several days, something that is not always possible on campus,” says Sandberg. “This intensive online relationship between teacher and student can come closer to the traditional Rav/student relationship of the ancient Rabbis than in an on-campus course.” Sandberg recalls how an online conversation in her “Judaism and Christianity” course about the problem of conversion to Judaism in the ancient Rabbinic period led to further discussion about the difficulty of integrating Jews by choice into the Jewish community. “One student engaged me in a long conversation about her own conversion experience, and how she never understood why it was so difficult for her [as a Jew by choice] to integrate into Jewish life – until she took my course!” |
Distance learning has transformed education. The virtual classroom has expanded the scope of the traditional brick-and-mortar classroom, creating unimaginable opportunities and possibilities for graduate-level Jewish education.
Second, without the time constraints of traditional classrooms, distance learning enables the flexible use of a wide variety of media, such as PowerPoint presentations or feature films. Third, online learning fosters significant interaction between teachers and students.