Sandra Hack Polaski Assistant Professor of New Testament, Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, Richmond, Virginia

Society of Biblical Literature Best Practices in Teaching Workshop S19-103, 19 November 2005, 4:00-6:30 p.m. Rooms 411 & 412, Downtown Marriott, Philadelphia Tips for Teaching Greek Online The presenters will share examples and insights from their experience teaching NT Greek online using two different courseware platforms (Blackboard and Moodle) and in two different seminary settings. Topics will include online pedagogy, integrating Greek with other coursework, online group dynamics, managing instructor workload, Greek fonts, student computer support, and using audio recordings. PowerPoint Presentation These sound files relate to slide 34, on the literary structure of Matthew 11:20-30: Susan Jeffers reading Matthew 11:21 - slowly Susan Jeffers reading Matthew 11:21 - a little more quickly Marilyn Phemister reading Matthew 11:20-22 This web page was last updated 12/26/06

Susan Jeffers Adjunct Faculty, Bethany Theological Seminary and Earlham School of Religion, Richmond, Indiana

NOTE: For a low-cost, self-paced not-for-credit online introduction to New Testament Greek, taught by Susan Jeffers using the same Mounce textbook and workbook as in her regular for-credit courses, visit Self Paced Online Biblical Greek Course - Summer 2006.

Courseware Platforms, Course Delivery Software

An institution wishing to provide online courses will generally implement a particular courseware platform for use in all online courses. The examples we presented:

Blackboard - Sandra's examples of Greek I & II at Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond use Blackboard, as do a couple of Susan's examples of continuing ed courses. To see a bit of Blackboard "live" do this:

(1) Go to the web page blackboard.btsr.edu
(2) Click on "Login"
(3) Click on "Preview" (middle left)
(4) Click on "Courses" (upper left)
(5) Click on "Biblical Studies" (under "Course Catalog" on the right)
(6) Scroll down and click on "New Testament Greek I-II (Web-based"

If you were really a student in the course, there would be announcements and general information posted, and all the buttons at the left would be available. As a guest, feel free to take a look at the syllabus, book list, and list of "Web Sites." Susan says: Anyone preparing to teach NT Greek for the first time would be very well served by studying Sandra's syllabus and other resources!

Moodle - free, open source. Susan's examples of Greek I & II, Greek III Independent Study/Reading course, and a continuing ed "Intro to Biblical Studies" course all use Moodle on the Bethany Theological Seminary server.

Blackboard vs. Moodle
A Comparison of Satisfaction with Online Teaching and Learning Tools; report from Humboldt State University

Instructors often supplement their institutional courseware with their own standalone web pages, such as Susan's "Learning Biblical Languages" page and pre-course assignment for Greek I.

Presentation Outline

1. Platforms and Course Formats

Sandra - detailed example using Blackboard for Greek I & II (completely online, self-paced format).

Susan - brief example using Moodle for Greek I & II (hybrid course, online with 1 day f-t-f at beginning and end of term; weekly format); a bit more information from last year's course is online: Course Profile and Greek 1 initial assignment.

Susan - introducing biblical languages in continuing ed Bible courses, such as the Brethren Academy's Intro to Biblical Studies course and the Susquehanna Valley Ministry Center's Matthew course.

Tips:

* If you have input into which platform your institution chooses, or if you don't have such input
* If you are free to choose your course format (online, hybrid, traditional classroom; self-paced vs week-by-week), or if you're not

2. Tech Support

Tips: Make sure your tech folks are on-board, and how to get by with little institutional tech support

Sandra - Access and Navigation instructions for students
Susan - b-greek; moodle.org discussion boards

3. Choosing how to display and type Greek: Coping with Fonts

Sandra - Greek fonts in Blackboard
Susan - ways to function without students installing fonts (continuing ed courses)
1. pdf attachment with embedded fonts; if you don't have software for "printing" to a pdf, pdfFactory and PDFCreator are inexpensive, easy-to-use options
2. <img src> jpg files of Greek words and phrases

4. Course design - self-paced vs weekly

Sandra - possible scenarios
Sandra - details of Blackboard self-paced Greek I & II course design
Susan - course design for student-led Greek III reading course
Susan - weekly cycle course design for weekly scheduled Greek I & II

5. Miscellaneous Tips - keeping backups, etc

Imaginary student userID for testing and "modelling appropriate behavior"
Audio recordings (see below), handwritten Greek
Use your textbook and associated materials as much as possible; minimize "lectures"
Find ways to keep students engaged with one another and you; e.g. "At the Well" & participation points
Introduce text critical issues early

6. Best & Worst Experiences - and how to have more of the former and cope with the latter

Resources

Marilyn Phemister's audio New Testament online or via MP3 CD; free to copy or use; the only drawback is that it uses the Westcott-Hort text of the GNT rather than the UBS/NA text. However, a CD is available for $15, shipping included, with Marilyn's entire GNT recording plus the written text to go with it. Contact Marilyn (windmill65@yahoo.com) or ccel to order.

Making one's own audio recordings can also be a great aid to learning Greek - for instructor and student alike! An inexpensive headset with microphone, some simple sound manipulation software and a CD burner, and you're all set! Susan uses the GoldWave shareware digital audio editor, but there are plenty of options out there!

Zondervan also sells audio CDs of Greek New Testament selected readings.

Here are a couple of stand-alone web pages Susan has used for introducing the Greek alphabet and sounding out words. At this point, however, I'm making CDs for students, rather than relying on sound files student must download from the Internet. And, because it's dificult to make the accents and breathing marks display properly in html, I'm using jpg or pdf files rather than typing Greek text directly into my web pages.

Greek Alphabet

Sounding out Greek words

Sounding out Greek phrases and short sentences

Reading along with a longer Greek Bible passage

Biblical Language Pedagogy

"The Hebrew Teacher: Guru, Drill Instructor, or Role Model" by Charles David Isbell. Article posted on the SBL Forum website.

Online Greek Courses

Greek I & II online - 2006-07 academic year - Bethany Theological Seminary
Susan will next be teaching Greek online starting late August 2006.

Susan is also considering offering a self-paced online Greek Summer School June-August 2006, at nominal cost, not under the auspices of a seminary, for motivated students who hope to "test out" of their institution's Greek I and/or Greek II course, or who just want to learn Greek with some help but not the expense and structure of a for-credit course. If you think you might be interested, please contact Susan as soon as possible.