Joy Hooker 

2012-Present - Elim Ministry Training College

 

I completed my Master of Theology during 2012 and graduated in December 2012. Throughout 2012-2014 I continue to do ad hoc lecturing at Elim Ministry Training College as required.  I also teach Time Management and Strategic Planning with the onsite interns (level 5) and collaborate with the Deputy Principal to teach Church History (level 4) each year. (See Graduate Attribute 2 for Lecturer Evaluation Forms on these topics)

 

 

 

In 2012 I was approached by Elim Ministry Training College to take up the position as Dean of Interns, being responsible for the level 5 internship programme.  This was a paid position for 12½ hrs per week and included pastoral care and mentoring of learners, administering the programme, and marking assessments.

 

In late 2012 I was appointed as Courseware Creator for a new level 4 online internship programme at Elim Ministry Training College.  This was in addition to the 12½ hours as Internship Dean.  The Distance office at the College consisted of the Principal (Online) and myself.  I was tasked with developing the whole level 4 internship programme virtually from 'scratch'.  All I was given was the subjects to be covered and the number of credits per subject.

 

Once I created the 2013 course I was tasked with updating it for the 2014 year.  This included adjustments to assessments and reformulation of one of the topics.  (Case Study 2 includes creating, evaluating and updating this course.)  Details are outlined in Case Study 2.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In November 2013 I was asked to undertake a contract for the National Leadership Team of Elim, writing a course for the training of Elders throughout Elim’s 39 churches in New Zealand.  This required me to resign as Internship Dean in order to make hours available.  The Elders training manual was completed in conjunction with Mike Griffiths (the National Leader) during the first half of 2014.

 

By May/June of 2014 I was heavily involved with curriculum mapping as a precursor to programme development under NZQA’s TRoQ initiative.  All qualifications in our sector are to be expired and replaced with New Zealand qualifications.  I was appointed Programme Developer in July 2014 and given responsibility for developing new programmes for Elim Ministry Training College.  This will be completed in two phases:

• Restructuring the onsite level 5 Diploma (internship) programme as an online programme for 2015.Full course documents needed to be developed for approval by NZQA. (Case Study 1)

• Full course documents for the four programmes Elim Ministry Training College plans to have approved by NZQA under the new framework for 2016/17.

 

Several other projects will also be completed during 2014:

• Assisting the Director and Administration Manager in writing the College’s 2015 Investment Plan (due 31 July 2014).

• Collating data and writing reports required for EER in October 2014.

 

Key Events

Several major personal events occurred in 2012.  In January, the vision in my right eye began fading in and out.  I was rushed into hospital and diagnosed with idiopathic intracranial hypertension (high brain pressure).  Managing the effects of high brain pressure has been an ongoing issue as I slowly recover.

 

Being appointed Courseware Creator brought tremendous challenges.  I started my contract in early September 2012 and the Principal (Online) was employed 2 weeks later.  As he had no experience in tertiary education and was tied up with setting up the online aspects and marketing, I was left with sole charge of the whole programme development, which was due to begin in late January 2013.  I formulated the rationale, organised the structure, wrote lecture notes (including lecturer and student notebooks), created powerpoints, prepared assessments and loaded everything onto Moodle (the learner management system).  I found myself working just ahead of the students.

 

Working with the National Leader of the Elim movement to create the Elders training course was a tremendous privilege.  As a result of the programme and course development work I have already completed I have also been asked to take leadership in formulating a pastors training programme during 2015.

 

Key Influencers

eTeacher Biblical Online Language Academy

As part of my Bachelor’s course I had studied both Hebrew and Greek (the original languages the Bible was written in).  I didn’t want to lose what I had learnt, and took the opportunity to enrol in an online class taught by eTeacher.  These were live online classes once a week with students from all around the world.  Our workbooks had the powerpoints that were being used and a place for our own notes.  This became the template for the workbooks I created for our online programme.  All the main points are on the powerpoint slides, but learners are encouraged to take responsibility for their own learning by writing their own notes during class.

 

Key Learning Acquired

In my role as Dean of Interns I was expected to provide pastoral care and act as a mentor for the learners under my care.  As a primarily task-oriented person, I realised I needed to grow in this area.  I made a conscious decision to learn all I could about caring for others in an educational environment.

 

While I enjoyed the programme development process for the level 4 internship programme, the stress of completing everything on my own was demanding.  Deadlines for completion of units meant some work was rushed and support was limited.  I learnt to evaluate resource material quickly make decisions rapidly.  I was able to call on skills I had learnt through my formal training and learnt to trust in my own judgment.  I sought advice from those in my professional network, particularly regarding recommendations for resource material in areas I was less familiar with.  As a result my confidence grew and I honed course development skills.

 

My role in collaborating with the National Leader of Elim in writing the Elders training course was to “put legs on” the

National Leader’s vision.  He had a lot of ideas as to what could or should go into the course – far too many to cover in

the eight lessons allocated.  I very quickly learnt to ask a lot of questions.  One of the first questions was “What does a

trained Elim Elder look like?”  He rapidly gave me 12 specific points.  These became the learning outcomes that drove

the course content.  I’d asked this question intuitively, without really realising why.  It was afterwards that I understood

course development was beginning to become second-nature to me.

 

As I approach further course and programme development, graduate/learning outcomes, taking a top-down approach,

and robust curriculum mapping are the things I have learnt to put into place first.