CiT Morten Mumo Rasmussen and The Online Professor
In this project we will explore to what extent Bible Online Learner (BibleOL) can continue to be used for online learning through the Global Biblical Hebrew course material and seek to adapt it to an existing course material. We want to compare our new approach with results obtained in traditional class instruction.
The Hebrew Bible professor in charge of Biblical Hebrew studies at AIU, Dr Jamie Viands, wants his second year students to improve their skills in Biblical Hebrew.
We are therefore offering interested students the opportunity to use The Online Professor’s Global Biblical Hebrew course material for learning to read Biblical Hebrew with proficiency (the mudule GBH 1-1 Reading) and for learning a beginners’ Biblical Hebrew (the module GBH 1-2 Grammar and vocabulary 101).
The role of Morten Mumo Rasmussen is to assist in peer-based learning. As an experienced facilitator for BibleOL he volunteers to provide onsite face-to-face support for fellow learners as individuals or in teams.
At AIU the new teacher of Biblical Hebrew, Dr Gabriele Poupolo, is using the widely distributed primer by Gary D. Pratico and Miles V. Van Pelt, Basics of Biblical Hebrew. He is also exploring what other teaching material may offer, and he is curious to see if and to what extent BibleOL may enhance the learning of Biblical Hebrew at AIU.
The Online Professor is now creating practical resources for the Basics of Biblical Hebrew learning material to the extent that this is possible. This bundle of a grammar, a workbook, vocabulary lists and recorded lectures uses a traditional Grammar-Translation Method and therefore relies on lectures, traditional concepts of grammar and various exercises construed to fit the content developed for the primer.
BibleOL and the Global Biblical Hebrew course material is very different from this traditional approach. Our new persuasive and practical Corpus-Driven Learning Method is fully centered around exploration of the Hebrew Bible and practical and engaging activity from beginning to end. All reading, grammar and vocabulary is introduced step-by-step for practice and automatization through BibleOL. Only the most frequently used forms and words are learned and gradually automatized, and the learner is constantly in contact with the Creation story of Genesis 1.
It is the vision and mission of The Online Professor (TOP) to enhance Biblical Hebrew for Bible translation and for training of instructors for East Africa and beyond. The ultimate goal is to certify TOP Trainers, i.e., local facilitators trained by The Online Professor to facilitate local learning teams using BibleOL.
It is absolutely crucial that Hebrew Bible driven learning is adapted to a local academic context and also supported by qualified instructors, even if the course material will work perfectly well online.
The Director of Nida Institute for Biblical Scholarship, Dr Reinier de Blois, serves as the advisor on global operations for The Online Professor. He has recommended the project for implementation at AIU and facilitated the contacts.