You don’t need to move to Portland to receive a quality education. Multnomah has made it easy to complete the M.Div. or MA degrees where you are through a combination of delivery methods.
What makes Multnomah’s distance education courses so distinct?
Multnomah Biblical Seminary has invested in videoconferencing technology that allows the seminary to conduct classes at fixed site locations. The courses conducted by videoconferencing are recorded and saved for online use in the term that the course is offered to residential students. This means that the online content is identical to what residential students receive when the class is held. Furthermore, by recording “real-time” courses, the instructors can present material that interacts with and is pertinent to current events.
By design, online students receive the exact same content as residential students. Another way to understand what we’re doing is to imagine that an online student is just like a residential student who misses class and has asked their classmate to record the class for them.
Online students interact with faculty through forum discussions. The online forum is equivalent to the learning opportunity residential students experience by being able to ask questions and interact with the professor in class.
Multnomah Live
Multnomah Live features Multnomah faculty teaching classes videoconferenced to teaching sites in Reno, NV and Seattle, WA. This state of the art system captures the richness of Multnomah’s legendary “life on life” learning in an interactive, real-time setting.
Multnomah Live Online Courses
Supported by Multnomah Live and Multnomah Connect (our industry standard learning management system), our courses bring you into a virtual classroom.
Intensive Courses
One- and two-week courses on the Portland campus in Jan Term and Summer School allow students to conveniently complete residence requirements. Click here to see a schedule of courses for Jan Term 2013 and Summer School 2013.
Why this approach?
Multnomah offers a learning experience that is as close as possible to being in the classroom. We provide this because:
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It is responsible stewardship of the investment our students are making in their education, and
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We want to serve those students that are unable to be physically present because of the ministry and/or life circumstance God has called them to at this moment in time.
Furthermore, using recorded videoconferencing content allows us to:
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Offer the highest quality education our faculty can provide by being current with the latest academic scholarship,
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Give consistent content. For instance, questions asked by online and residential students are over identical material they have seen and heard. This means students can interact with one another as peers without gaps in classroom information, and professors do not have the challenge of remembering what was said in multiple settings.
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Take advantage of improvements faculty make between times the classes are taught, whether it is from year to year or week to week. Further, faculty interaction with online students can shape what is taught in the following week’s class.
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Provide consistent instruction because the resident faculty understand and live out Multnomah’s vision and ethos, and
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Leverage technology to create a learning experience that is not widely available. We are aware of only one other ATS-accredited seminary that provides online education the way we do.
Designed for Busy People and In-Ministry Students
Our convenient one-day a week schedule helps you make the most of your time. Courses are offered on a two-year rotation, which helps you plan your program with a clear path to the finish line.
Degrees Offered
Distance education programs currently available at MBS-Reno/Tahoe and MBS-Seattle are…
Students can take up to half of their degree programs with courses taught in Reno and Seattle via Multnomah Live and with local adjunct instructors. The other half can be completed with online courses and courses offered at the Portland campus during Jan Term and Summer School.
For more info, check out the Distance Education FAQ.
How much of your degree can be done online?
Currently, a student can do up to 50% of their course work online. Multnomah is seeking permission from its accrediting organizations to make it possible to do 2/3 of the course work online and 1/3 in residence.
The residential course work can be done by attending week-long intensive classes offered in January and June.