Surveying New Testament survey: The impact of demographics and modality on an introductory New Testament course

Abstract

Both adult and traditional students at Indiana Wesleyan University take an introductory New Testament course in conventional, compressed, and accelerated formats and through online and onsite settings. This wide variety of demographics and modalities raises the issues of if and how the various incarnations of this course facilitate the achievement of course and institutional learning outcomes. This investigation surveys the pre-test, post-test, and final paper scores of students in each version of the course. An interpretation of the findings concludes that the course positively impacts the learning of all types of students. However, it also suggests that traditional students who are more familiar with the Bible may be better served by what are typically deemed andragogical approaches while adult students who are less familiar with the Bible may be better served by incorporating what are often deemed pedagogical approaches.

Keywords

• online
• onsite
• traditional
• adult
• accelerated
• compressed