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Virtual Learning |
Real Learning: Virtually Anywhere
The Founders of the Marianist Family
Their Life and Times
William Joseph Chaminade has written that new times call for
"new ways" to communicate the faith. At the North American Center for Marianist
studies, we have taken his words to heart and developed a new approach to presenting the
Marianist charism, at any hour of the day, in any part of the world, for adult learners
with busy schedules.
Through a partnership with the Institute for Pastoral Initiatives at the University of Dayton, we have a developed a virtual learning course (VLC) on the Marianist Founders, complete with traditional course elements: a pre-test, required readings, questions for class discussion, statements upon which to reflect and draw new understanding or practical applications, and (of course) a test at the end of each segment of the course. Students learn about the lives and times of Father William Joseph Chaminade, Adèle de Batz de Trenquélleon, and Marie Thérèse de Lamourous.
By using message boards and e-mails, students stay in regular contact with the instructor and each other. Participants can post photographs and short biographies, so students get to know each other. Through the interactions during the course, students come to know and expect who among the class will be the intellectual, the pragmatist, the one who adds humor to the discussions, and the one who will ask the difficult question that even makes the instructor stop and think. It is a learning community.
This new venture has long been a dream at NACMS. Our primary mandate falls within the Marianist Office of Instruction; we are charged with providing programs, publications, research, and resources and background on Marianist Life--the stories of the early foundations, the special characteristics of the spirituality, and practical ways communities can form and be sustained.
"Founders of the Marianist Family: Their Life and Times" is a five-week course. For each session, class size will be limited to 12 participants; the course fee is $40.00 for those associated with Marianist groups and communities. Registration and application for continuing education credits are handled through the University of Dayton. Facilitators currently include Carol Ramey, Daniel Jordan, and Sister Eileen Cehyra, FMI.
NACMS plans to add other courses on Marianist studies and on spirituality and history. Additional facilitators for the classes are being trained.
To view more information about the VLC classes, go to
www.udayton.edu/~vlc.