Background
The LDS Church is concerned about the religious education of its youth. To that end, the Seminaries and Institutes division of the church provides religious instruction to 9th through 12th graders. The purpose of the instruction is to provide daily personal spiritual reinforcement for each student.This instruction is delivered in three ways. In areas where LDS population is more dense, arrangements have been made for students to be released for a period of time during the school day so they can walk to a nearby church building to receive this instruction. In more remote areas of the world, students are asked to attend a class prior to school during the early morning hours. In yet more remote areas where church membership is even more sparse, the method of class delivery is called “home study.” For a home study student, a manual is provided and it is hoped that the student will work on daily lesson activities four days each week at home on their own. Then on a fifth day, they are to bring their work to a face to face class session and experience a more traditional class experience during that period with other home study students.
This third method of delivery, “Homestudy”, has experienced less success in real numbers than the other two delivery methods. Actual reported completion numbers are low, in the 40% range. However, this number is compromised further by students completing the entire course in blocks as short as two weeks, usually at the end of the school year. In addition, the fifth day activity is successful only part of the time, as student’s schedules hinder their actual attendance. Further, assignments from the workbook are not quickly responded to, if ever so the student gets little if any feedback, and often students view the class more as a check off than a serious learning opportunity.
In recent years, several attempts have been made by the church to find ways to use technology to improve the experience for these students in remote areas. It was felt that the internet might provide an excellent tool to deliver content and bring students together who would otherwise be too remote for regular face to face meetings. The first approach attempted, which was the use of email list serves, failed. The next attempt had content being delivered online as a resource and local teachers learning to fashion lessons much like they would do if teaching a face to face class. While there was an improvement in participation, it was modest. Teachers had a difficult time mastering the learning management system technology for lesson creation. Therefore, they spent so much time creating lessons, they found themselves with little time to respond to, engage with and encourage students in their online efforts. Therefore, it was decided that another approach was necessary.
It was at this point, that the opportunity to engage in an internship on this project presented itself. While I had put in a large number of hours for at least 2 months prior to the offer, purely on a volunteer basis, the internship would provide a one year opportunity to move the entire project forward from start to finish on several levels. Looking back, I divide the experience into three phases. Click on the labels below for a more complete explanation of each phase.