Program

Education Doctorate

Number of Pages

146

Year Approved

2024

First Advisor

Michael Lindstrom

Second Reader

Krista Soria, Barry Sullivan

Abstract

The purpose of the qualitative phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of Asian theological students as they transitioned from face-to-face to online learning while enrolled in an onsite theological degree program amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Like all other institutions, theological schools had to move their faculty and students to remote online learning rapidly in response to the safe-distancing and lockdown measures introduced by government across the world to manage the pandemic. In that way, the pandemic brought about the first online experience for many teachers and students in theological studies in Asia. While this remote online learning was an exception rather than the norm, the students’ experiences would form their perceptions about online learning, especially those without online learning experiences before the pandemic. The eight students who participated in the in-depth one-to-one interviews in this study shared valuable occurrences and insights of their online learning experiences during the pandemic. The data that emerged provided important understanding of the perspective of Asian theological students about online learning. The result pointed to their preference for a hybrid learning mode in the future.

Degree Name

Education Doctorate

Document Type

Doctoral dissertation

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