Virtual Faith

At Eastern University, faith is a serious matter. Most students attend chapel services every Wednesday morning, and a Bible-study course is required. When the university began offering distance education five years ago, administrators and faculty members wanted to make sure they could recreate the evangelical institution's campus environment online.

But cyberspace offers no equivalent of the university chapel, no joyful hymns or moments joined in prayer. The university's online students never see each other once they've completed a daylong orientation session on the campus here. So faculty members must figure out how to transform online exchanges into a medium for spiritual and religious growth.

With scarce funds and limited technical support, Eastern University has put together a small but growing distance-education program that reaches 360 students in the United States and around the world. At the same time, university officials say they are staying true to the college's original mission of promoting spirituality by offering distance students a virtual Christian community.

Eastern University offers distance-education programs in two formats. One is an Internet-based domestic program, geared toward working adults who want to complete their degrees. The second is aimed at community leaders in the third world, to whom the university teaches business skills and ethics through courses offered by e-mail and CD-ROM.

In both formats, Eastern administrators say, the university attempts to replicate the close relationships between faculty members and students on its campus. It puts distance students in small groups, or "cohorts," whose members work together closely, and it encourages discussion of faith in all courses -- even those about business and computers. Courses on the Bible and meditation are mandatory for all distance-education students, just as they are for students on the campus.

Many of the challenges Eastern has faced in creating a distance program are identical to those other institutions have confronted. Some Eastern University faculty members are finding that their workload is increasing as they spend hours responding to students' e-mail messages and participating in Internet chat-room discussions. The university also experienced the frustration of attempting to develop home-grown software for online courses before settling on a store-bought program from Blackboard.

But other challenges were unique to its faith-based mission -- such as replicating the fellowship of the on-campus experience even though distance learning is, by and large, an asynchronous, solitary undertaking.

Eastern University's experience with distance education is fairly common among religious institutions, says Dan Klassen, director of the instructional-technology program for the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. "It's at the starting point at this point," he says. "They're trying to integrate faith into all types of learning."

The distance-education program started in 1997, when Eastern began offering videotaped courses. Two years later the university started making online courses available to working adults in the United States. Around the same time, Eastern began its international distance-education program through e-mail and CD-ROM.

The university now enrolls about 3,000 students, of whom 122 are taking courses online in the United States and 238 are part of the international distance-education program. Eastern offers four degree programs at a distance and provides several additional core and elective courses online.

To replicate the campus experience online, the university asks distance-education students in the United States to meet fellow students and professors on Eastern's campus for a one-day orientation. Faculty members travel overseas for group meetings with the international distance-education students.

Colleen Di Raddo, director of distance and technology-enhanced learning at the university, says Eastern University's mission to create a personal, Christian education at a distance sets it apart from secular institutions venturing into distance education. "We're not interested in jumping on the bandwagon," she says. "We are neophytes."

Many of the students who take online courses from Eastern are working adults who have never completed their bachelor's degrees, says Pat Williams, director of the management-information-systems program at the university's School of Professional Studies. The university attracts students to its distance-education program through traditional marketing and word of mouth. It also advertises in churches and on Christian radio. The students who take Eastern's distance courses are typically looking for a Christian education. "They're concerned about ethics, and they're concerned about morals and Christian standards," she says.

Eastern began 50 years ago when it separated from the Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary here in St. Davids, which is just west of Philadelphia. The university, called Eastern College until last year, has since dropped its formal links to the American Baptist Church to market itself to Christians of all denominations. The university continues to describe itself as "committed to an evangelical and theologically conservative position."

The picturesque campus here is nestled among trees, ponds, and small winding roads. Old stone houses and cottages serve as academic facilities and student centers. About 1,000 students live in the residence halls.

Requirements for professors are strict. Every faculty member has to sign a nine-part doctrinal statement annually that includes proclamations that the Bible is divinely inspired and that Jesus Christ is the Lord and Savior, although non-Baptists are not required to attest to the statement's provisions about baptism.

"Where we put the requirement is with the faculty," says Harold C. Howard, the university's provost. "The faculty must be enthusiastic about the mission."

Many faculty members at Eastern who teach distance courses say elements of faith distinguish their courses from those offered by other institutions. Marv Meyer, a biology professor at Eastern, has always included discussions on morals and ethics in his environmental-science course, called "Earthkeeping." He converted it to an online format so as many students as possible could take the course through Eastern.

"I didn't like the idea of them taking the class at a community college, where they learn the nuts and bolts of the environment," Mr. Meyer says. "I want them to understand that this is God's creation and have awe and respect for it." Although it is a science course, religion is discussed in the online chats. Students sometimes cite Scripture and mention realizations they've had through meditation.

During an online discussion about how sunlight hits different areas in a natural environment and how plants respond, one student wrote: "Just as the plants in my ecosite are growing well, despite the fact that they are not in the spotlight, I too can grow in Christ even while I am not on center stage. The difference is that plants and insects have a more limited capability to adapt to different environment and niches, while humans are much more capable with help of the Lord Jesus Christ."

Discussions in other online courses including those in business, nursing, and other topics also emphasize ethics and morals. "We don't preach, but you can tell where the instruction is coming from," says Mary T. Boylston, an associate professor of nursing at the university.

Eastern University isn't the only institution to market its Christian education long distance. Many Christian colleges and universities are aggressively expanding their distance-education programs, mixing faith and instruction for their students. Liberty University and Regent University, institutions run by the religious broadcasters Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson respectively, both have created large distance-learning programs. The Jesuit Distance Education Network, or JesuitNET, started two years ago as a consortium of Jesuit colleges and universities. It was organized by the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities, and has extended its reach to many places in Latin America.

Limited Resources

As a small university, however, Eastern hasn't made paying for elaborate online-education programs a priority. It's a sore spot for the faculty members who want to create online courses. But professors who are interested in distance education can usually find help from fellow faculty members, says Peter McLallen, director of administration at the School of International Leadership and Development.

And many faculty members are content to stick with the traditional method of teaching. The School of the Arts and Sciences, for instance, offers few online courses, says David A. Fraser, dean of both the School of the Arts and Sciences and the School of International Leadership and Development.

Many professors, he says, are more likely to use some Internet-based technology in the traditional classroom, creating hybrid courses, than they are to try teaching entirely online. "I don't think they believe you get the same quality education in an online course," Mr. Fraser says.

Then there is the problem of deciding what aspects of campus life to replicate online. In addition to attending the Wednesday chapel services, students on the campus can seek out the university chaplain. Along with 20 students who work for him, he helps students with personal and religious issues. But the university is still looking at how to make the services of a chaplain available to online students.

To some extent, the online cohorts into which distance-learning students are grouped provide the support that, on the campus, is offered by the chaplain or by classmates. The students in each cohort give assistance when someone struggles -- if a student gives birth during the semester, for instance, others in her cohort will help keep her current on course work. Students remain in their cohorts for their entire college career. Eastern's international program also uses cohorts, which sometimes consist of students in different countries.

Administrators have found that the cohort approach is especially helpful for students who did not finish their bachelor's degree the first time they went to college. "Cohorts really help people when they're in crisis," Ms. Di Raddo says.

Barbara Hughes, a recent graduate from Eastern who earned her bachelor's degree online in management-information systems, says the members of her cohort helped each other when work became overwhelming. "We built a strong sense of community in our group," she says. "We built a strong bond and friendship together."

The friendship has lasted even now that she's done with college. Ms. Hughes, who lives in Delaware and has a job managing computer systems for hospitals, still keeps in contact with some of her classmates through e-mail.

'Against Our Ethos'

The overseas distance-education program came into being after the university had been enrolling international students on campus for years. Officials noticed that those students often stayed in the United States after completing their degrees. "Some people come here and don't go back, and that's against our ethos," Ms. Di Raddo says. "We're draining the brains of other countries."

So faculty members and administrators decided to form partnerships with international Christian organizations that help third-world countries build their economies. Eastern University offers courses to these nations through its School of International Leadership and Development.

Joy Alvarez is a distance-education student in the leadership and development school who is working on an MBA. She lives in Thailand and works for World Vision, a Christian training organization that is one of Eastern's overseas partners.

Ms. Alvarez says the university's distance courses help her train people in developing countries in Asia to not only learn business, but also to follow a model of ethical behavior -- whether they are learning to be ministers or accountants.

"Eastern has committed Christian faculty who are able to model Christianity in their life," Ms. Alvarez says. "You can teach how to balance sheets, but you cannot teach honesty."

Professors at Eastern say teaching the overseas distance courses isn't always like teaching on the campus. Occasionally faculty members learn that their overseas students are being threatened by those who don't approve of the faith-based services the students perform for the organizations that employ them, says Stan LeQuire, an instructional designer at Eastern.

"It's not just a matter of education," Mr. LeQuire says. "It's a matter of life and death."

One student was working in Rwanda, Mr. LeQuire says, trying to make peace between two rival groups. Extremists sent death threats to the student, but he continued with his work until one day he was shot and killed while meeting with some members of the rival organizations.

"We have students who are gunned down while they're serving Christ," says Mr. LeQuire. "It makes your job rather sobering at times."

Students living in third-world countries sometimes also face famine and economic depression. Professors find that a student may have to put homework aside to work instead on saving the student's community from starvation.

"Of course his paper is going to be late," Ms. Di Raddo says. "We write them and say, 'When might we expect it?' and, 'You're doing the right thing.'"

Other times, students lose e-mail contact with the outside world, making it impossible to contact their instructors. All the professors can do is be patient and offer help when the students get back in touch with them.

"The fact that we're small, we can interact among ourselves to make this work," says Mr. McLallen, of the international-leadership program. "Everybody who is here is signed on to this mission."