How did 天美视频鈥檚 first fully online course get developed?

Dr. Misty Anne Winzenried: In Winter 2020, even before we were aware of how the COVID-19 pandemic would shift us into the realm of remote teaching and learning, 天美视频 launched our first large-scale, fully online course, BTI 504: Tell Me the Stories of Jesus: A New Testament Survey with professor Dr. Celene Lillie.. We were already recognizing the value of and need to pilot online courses and the advantages to students were clear including increased flexibility to their schedule, reduced commute time, and our ability to bring in scholars from outside of the Seattle area to interact with our students. Last year, Dr. Celene Lillie worked collaboratively with us to design a course that would showcase her expertise in New Testament scholarship and engage students in an interactive, contextualized, and reflective learning experience from a distance.

When we made the decision to finish our Winter term coursework online due to COVID-19, Dr. Lillie’s students were already practiced at engaging one another and learning in an online environment. And because the course鈥檚 final project was a video assignment, students could share their work more easily with one another and with broader audiences.

What questions guide your engagement with the New Testament scriptures and what did you hope your students would explore?

Dr. Celene Lillie: How do we interpret the Bible responsibly? It is this question more than any other that guides my work, whether in church, classroom, or research. But this question is always coupled with a second: How does the biblical text meet the calls and cries of my life, the communities of which I am a part and those I interact with, and the larger world? These questions might be wed by asking: Who and what is my interpretation responsible to?

When we began 天美视频鈥檚 first online introduction to New Testament class in January of 2020 (and, oh, that seems like lifetimes and worlds ago), these were the questions that shaped and held the class. My hope was in asking questions about how the Christian Testament intersected with the ancient world, our own lives and faith journeys, our communities, and the wider world (and where responsible interpretation falls at the nexus of these) we could begin to create a sense of trust and community鈥攄espite the newness of and sometimes resistance to the online container.

One of the places I hoped the class would explore, and maybe even begin to find, was their unique interpretational voices through the group exegetical project. This project was designed to use the nodes of responsible interpretation (personal experience, ancient context, community engagement and accountability) to creatively explore a passage of the group鈥檚 choosing. Due on the cusp of national quarantine in March, I didn鈥檛 know what the future held for the projects鈥攂ut their reality exceeded my wildest expectations.

What lingers with you from the student鈥檚 final video projects?

Dr. Celene Lillie: From serious to humorous, academic to artistic, the creativity, thoughtfulness, and care with which students engaged their work together was deeply moving. I wish I had the capacity to share all of their projects with you, but the two here will give you a taste. In the months that have passed, I have often thought about these projects and drawn hope and inspiration from them. I also find myself wondering what might emerge from this creative space now: in the ways we are facing death and grief together; in the ways so much of the world has risen up to shine a light on inequity鈥攑articularly in the lives of our Black siblings; in the ways we continue to lean on our sacred texts to make meaning and sense of our complex world; and how we use these sacred words as inspiration and hope to bring into being Jesus鈥檚 vision of the kin-dom.

Visual Exegetical Projects

Raising Lazarus: John 11

Created by Rileigh Murray and Michael Forrester

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Delirious, we stumble over the crest and onto what feels like another planet. There is no other way to describe this first glimpse of The Enchantments than otherworldly. Suffice it to say, there is a reason that I submit myself willingly to such physical and mental agony to be in that place. I have yet to find anywhere like it, and they lay hidden in the very mountains that I am now observing, the same mountains that watched over me as a child in the Leavenworth Valley. I completed my first through-hike in 2016 and have returned every year since. It鈥檚 as if I didn鈥檛 have a choice. I would beg my sister to never let me do this again while on the punishing ascent of Asgaard and be choosing which month would be best the following year by the time we were in the parking lot waiting for our uncle with melon as a treat for our struggle.

But this year was different.

We hiked mostly in silence. My sister stopped and took in views longer than normal. I was antsy, hiked ahead, waited, and looked around quickly.I just wanted to go home, to be done.

I realized that we were saying goodbye.

We dropped out of the Core Zone and started our descent, expertly navigating the trail and avoiding the accumulated mistakes of past years鈥� mishaps and wanderings. We plunked ourselves down for our ritual of whiskey, gummy candy, and lightening our pack of remaining snacks before the grueling plunge back to the valley floor.

鈥淒o you want to do this again next year?鈥� she asked in between gummys.
鈥淵ou know, I鈥檝e been thinking that I鈥檓 done,鈥� I replied as I sipped whiskey.

We were ending.

Of course, we told each other we would return again one day, but in our silences, we had come to a mutual understanding that something was different. There are myriad of reasons why this year was the last for a while: the high amount of traffic on the trail, the familiarity of the sights, the absence of mistakes, and therefore, challenges. Personally, too, my mind was no longer challenged in the same way. The past had absolutely been a physical challenge, but also a mental one as I learned to quiet my mind through the 14 hours and get back into my body. I looked forward to this time to reset every year鈥擨 needed it. This time, though, I was just present to what was around me.I had come home to my mind.

As I sit now, I realize that I had thought that this meant the mountain had nothing left to teach me. I had learned my lessons, I had passed the test.

But this, now, is the final lesson: To leave, to end, to finish, to say goodbye.

It seems no coincidence that in the same year that I end with The Enchantments I am also ending my time as a student. I am no longer being called back to the mountain in the same way that I am no longer being called back to the red brick building. Or, if it is a calling, I am refusing to go (sorry, John Muir, but I鈥檒l keep listening) because I know how important it is to end now.

In my final month in the building, I had written an essay about endings. I meant to submit it to the blog; it was a eulogy to my time as a student and employee at the school. I wrote about how frantic I had become at the end, trying to prepare for the future after school while missing out on what was in front of me. I was antsy, like I had been in the Enchantments, just wanting to skip to what was next and avoid the pain in front of me. The way forward, as I learned in the mountains, was to slow down and be present to the wonder around me. So then I wrote about how I would see groups of friends together around the old coffee-maker altar (how many times have we fellowshipped there?) and how I would have a jolt of awareness that this would no longer exist in a few months. It was ending. I was leaning into savoring the precious moments I had left.

We all know what happens next: COVID-19. We have all collectively had the breath knocked out of us in our particular griefs that have opened up from this pandemic. I feel speechless and gasping still, all of the words I had wanted to say feel empty and painful. The old essay is full of hope and goodness and poetry. It is not wrong, but it is no longer representative of what this particular ending means to me, to many of us.

So instead, like I do every summer, I return to the mountain which remains steadfast and faithful in a way only nature can right now. If I can summit that mountain in search of beauty despite the pain, I know I can end my time as a student and the plethora of endings and meanings that come with that simple act. And I can say: thank you. Thank you for allowing me to tread on your sacred and fragile terrain so that I may become whole again. Thank you for letting me fall in love with the world and myself again. Thank you for teaching me about my strength. Thank you for allowing me to curse you and stomp on you and still be welcomed into holy places. Thank you for being my prayer when I could no longer pray. In the words of the President of 天美视频, 鈥淭hank you, thank you, thank you.鈥�

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Along with many households, we too have spent much more time cooking and cleaning than in springs past. And these quotidian tasks have helped to bring a sense of rhythm and calm in the midst of crisis. I began this 鈥渟tay at home鈥� order with the hope or na茂ve expectation that we would be back to some sort of normal in a matter of weeks. After that initial period there has been a strange distortion of time, in one moment compressed, other times elongated. It is hard to tell one day from another, hard to remember if that conversation or event was yesterday or last week. We have been in a state of perpetual waiting.聽

The Oxford dictionary defines waiting as:聽

Noun: the action of staying where one is or delaying action until a particular time or until something else happens. Origin: Middle English: from Old Northern French waitier, of Germanic origin; related to wake. Early senses included 鈥榣ie in wait (for鈥�), 鈥榦bserve carefully鈥�, and 鈥榖e watchful鈥�.聽

Like the rest of the world, our work and social lives have been curtailed. We have delayed most of our usual actions, cancelled trips and refrained from our typical spring hiking, biking and paddling鈥攚aiting for the 鈥渟tay at home鈥� order to be lifted. But we have also observed, watched more carefully鈥攂oth the natural world unfurling in all its spring glory鈥攁nd one another. I have observed and inquired how it is for my son to be living at home again after six years away. I have seen him not as my boy, but as an independent young man in all his strength, kindness, wisdom and grace. We have been together every day. And I have loved that part of this otherwise unsettling pandemic.聽

Emotions too have been both expanded and condensed鈥攄ismay, anger, fear, joy, loss, uncertainty, grief and delight. They will come suddenly and at times in a confusing mix; tears followed by joy, anger replaced by grief, the monotony of bad news met with the delight of simple pleasures shared. Without the distractions of the world鈥檚 busyness, my family has known one another in a fuller, deeper way. I have received help and containment in the frustrations of online teaching and unreliable internet聽 connections. My son has taught me new computer skills and technology tricks. My husband has moved furniture and built me a standing desk for my makeshift classroom. I have been free to laugh and cry and worry with them. I have shared their burdens, and they have shouldered mine.聽

And I have baked pie. I enjoy cooking and baking, but experienced bakers will tell you鈥攑ies are a lot of work. The first night of my son鈥檚 homecoming, I had a pecan pie waiting for him. Then there was a key lime pie to celebrate the warm weather and completion of a huge yard project. Next came a deep-dish apple pie, because I had the apples in the fridge and it鈥檚 his favorite. And finally, on his last night home before starting his firefighting job鈥攕trawberry rhubarb鈥攂ecause the rhubarb in the garden was big enough and it seemed like the proper ending to a spring meal in the backyard. My son said, 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know we had rhubarb.鈥� 鈥淵up, growing behind the kale.鈥� You see, I rarely make rhubarb pie鈥攏o wonder he wouldn鈥檛 know it grows in our garden. As we were talking, it occurred to me that through our pies, we had experienced a year鈥檚 worth of pie in our forty-something days together. In these weeks of quarantine鈥攊n this space of compressed and distorted time鈥攚e had covered all the seasons with our pies. Apple pie for fall, pecan for winter, strawberry rhubarb for spring, and key lime pie to represent summer.聽

In this season of waiting, observing and watching鈥攚e have tasted goodness. We have eaten from the natural world and partaken in its rhythms in a more mindful way. We have felt God鈥檚 presence as we wait for relief, redemption, and restoration of something we have lost. And we have been more mindful of each other. We have been there for one another, held each other in the uncertainty as we watch and wait for what is next. What鈥檚 next? For me, that will be a blackberry pie in July. I hope to share it with many, many people I love.

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Faculty had already begun teaching online March 16, moving a fully in-person school to a fully online learning institution in under ten days to finish out the Winter Term. Prior to this transition, the school had offered a few online courses but had yet to take any major steps toward expanding course offerings online.

鈥淲e believe this is the best way forward to reduce uncertainty and anxiety and establish a reliable, high-quality method of instruction and academic progress for students at 天美视频 through the spring,鈥� said in a recent communication to the school community. 鈥淭he support, collaboration, and grace for each other under stressful and uncertain circumstances is to be applauded.鈥�

鈥淎s an institution, we are working hard to balance the wide range of needs that different students have. To strike a balance, we have encouraged all of our faculty to reduce the length of synchronous Zoom class sessions, post some learning activities online asynchronously, record and post Zoom sessions for students afterward, and maintain flexible attendance policies,鈥� stated . Along with moving her own course online, Dr. Winzenried worked with Academic Services, IT, and the Library to support faculty in their move to online learning.

鈥淥ur faculty have been working incredibly hard to shift their face-to-face courses to an online format. I am proud of their creativity, courage, and commitment to provide quality instruction online even in the midst of this global pandemic. We are all learners here鈥攆aculty and staff are learning alongside students what it means to be a learning community together, even when we can’t be face to face.鈥�

, echoed Dr. Winzenried鈥檚 sentiments. 鈥淚 am proud of the tenacity and resilience our community has shown in this pivot to remote learning in such a short period of time. Students have shown us such grace and patience in this season. I have been so impressed by the thoughtful questions and comments from students and alumni, which shows a commitment to learning together.鈥�

Departments from across the institution came together to make online learning not only available for students, but accessible for all. The Library staff is ensuring students are able to access resources necessary for coursework, and the IT department is available via an online help desk for students in need of technical support.

鈥淲e know that is a big concern for our students. In addition to posted reading, links to available digital versions of required books, recommended texts, and other useful resources have been added to class pages on MyCampus,鈥� explained .

Members of the Office of Students and Alumni are providing a number of opportunities for students to connect virtually, maintaining the school鈥檚 emphasis on building relationships during this period of remote learning. There is also a dedicated Online Learning Support page for students to reference as they continue to navigate the transition to gathering for classes online.

For the time being, any decision to reopen the building will be determined in the days ahead in accordance with state policy.

鈥淒uring this strange season, may we be in prayer for our students, our school community, our Seattle community, and our world. May we offer grace and compassion to one another as we continue to jump with two feet into the enterprise of online learning, and may we welcome the unexpected opportunities that emerge.鈥� Dr. J. Derek McNeil

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