Course Development and Student Success I Online Biblical Language Program
[Thesis]
LaRose, Sarah Blake
Lozano, Gilbert
Anderson University
2019
162 p.
D.Min.
Anderson University
2019
This study examines factors that influence student success in online biblical Hebrew courses at Anderson University. The study defines success in terms of both the mastery of Hebrew language skills and maintenance of positive attitude about the study of language. The study is conducted using participatory action research. An ethnographic format provides a thick description of the instructor's choices and interventions, stress factors experienced by students, and qualitative experiences of students in fourteen online Hebrew courses offered between the summer of 2015 and fall of 2018. Students in this study experienced a significant degree of life stress and anxiety about studying Hebrew. The study reveals that instructor intervention was beneficial in assisting them to maintain motivation and progress in their study in spite of significant life stress. Positive attitude and satisfaction with the course is demonstrated in student communications on discussion boards, comments on homework, emails, and in surveys and interviews which followed completion of courses.