This brief document introduces the overall concept or design philosophy of our "Distance Discipleship" (DD) / "Distance Education" (DE) project.
Download this "Course Development" software
First and foremost, the aim of this project is to assist current and future Christian leaders to grow in spiritual depth, to develop Christ-like character, not merely to accumulate theological knowledge. To pursue this aim, we have chosen to use the term "Distance Discipleship," so a better acronym is "DD." In order to truly disciple people, we must emphasize mentoring in a person-to-person, and whenever possible in a face-to-face mode.
The mentor is concerned with the process of spiritual and moral development and the application of lesson content to real-life situations even more than the aquisition of knowledge. All modes of delivery of our courses have provision for mentoring. Considering our target audience, our budget and the budget of those we intend to turn the finished package over to, we decided that our system should be "light-weight" and easy to develop and maintain courses in many languages all over the world. The tools for development should produce easily-maintained standard HTML, and should also be free or very inexpensive. This should eliminate the desire to "pirate" - illegaly copy software that requires the user to purchase a license.
We have incorporated techniques that can be used with all segments of our target audience:
1. Those using a learning center and dial-up or high-speed Internet access,
2. Those with fast, inexpensive stand-alone Internet access,
3. Those with slow or expensive stand-alone Internet access,
4. Those with a computer but no Internet access,
5. Those with no computer, no Internet access.
Most DE packages are aimed at segments 1, 2 or 3. WebCT, for example, is targeted only at people who have fast, inexpensive Web access. Older technologies such as University of Phoenix Online educates students who have stand-alone (segments 2 and 3) Internet access.
We aim to deliver our DD package over the WWW on a per-lesson basis or as a download of compiled or zipped HTML modules, on CD-ROM or diskette in compiled or zipped HTML form, over a LAN in a learning center with 8-10 workstations in open HTML format, and in printed booklet form. By using the browser-email interface and journaling with Wordpad for segments 1-4, and a personal notebook for segment 5, we can deliver our courses efficiently and effectively to national Christians all over the world, assisting them in the task of FILLING THE WHOLE EARTH WITH THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE GLORY OF THE LORD by evangelism, discipleship and church planting.