Distance Learning | News

Holy ApostlesTo Offer Massive Open Online Courses

• By Mike Hohenbrink
• 08/08/12

Holy Apostles College and Seminary will begin to offer massive online open course (MOOC) programming through a partnership with Edvance360 and the Catholic Distance Learning Network involving two certification programs for the fall 2012 semester.

The two programs include Online Teaching and Learning, taking place August 27 to October 26, and Teaching Research Design, scheduled for October 29 to December 7.

The material will be offered at no cost to students, who can take one or both courses, and will be made available to more than five dozen Catholic seminaries, hundreds of Catholic high schools, and almost 200 non-Catholic theological schools.

After completion of the course, students will receive a certificate of completion issued by the National Catholic Education Association (NCEA) for continuing education units.

In addition, certification is available from the NCEA Seminary Department for those interested. A tuition fee of $500 per student applies.

The offering is designed to foster collaboration among scholars and students and will utilize services from Norfolk, VA-based Edvance360, an eLearning provider, as well as the Catholic Distance Learning Network outreach of the Seminary Department of the NCEA, which was created to advance the education of future priests via a distributed learning framework shared among all member schools.

"We chose to partner with Edvance360 because we found their tools to be robust, yet easy to use," said Sebastian Mahfood, director of distance learning at Holy Apostles College & Seminary. Students taking these open courses will not require special training to use the Edvance360 tools."

Educators in the field of theology may sign up for the offering at hacsmooc.cc.

Holy Apostles College and Seminary currently offers two online master of arts programs covering theology and philosophy as well as online coursework for undergraduate level students.

Based in Cromwell, CT, Holy Apostles is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges. Founded in 1956, the school currently offers two online master of arts programs covering theology and philosophy as well as online coursework for undergraduate level students with an enrollment of approximately 400.