Description 

Teaching online is no longer an emergency adaptation. For many theological schools, it has become a permanent and evolving dimension of the teaching life. Yet many faculty members find themselves navigating tensions: how to cultivate meaningful dialogue and theological depth in digital spaces, how to nurture community and formation across distance, and how to engage rapidly emerging technologies such as generative AI without losing the human heart of theological education.

This workshop invites faculty from across all seasons of career into a collaborative cohort exploring how to teach well online in ways that remain faithful to the deepest commitments of theological education. Participants will examine how practices such as critically reflective dialogue, embodied learning, spiritual formation, and pastoral attentiveness can translate into online learning environments. At the same time, the cohort will explore possibilities that online learning uniquely offers: asynchronous reflection, global collaboration, multimodal storytelling, and new forms of student agency.

Rather than presenting a single “correct” model for online teaching, the workshop creates a learning community where participants experiment together. Drawing on the wisdom already present among faculty, participants will share teaching practices, test new approaches, and reflect together on the theological, pedagogical, and ethical questions emerging in digital learning environments. Particular attention will be given to how faculty might engage generative AI responsibly and creatively as part of their teaching practice.

The workshop unfolds through five online sessions from January through June 2027. Throughout the process, participants will bring one course or learning activity from their own teaching context and gradually redesign elements of it for online learning.

Participants will leave with practical strategies for cultivating relational, dialogical, and imaginative online classrooms as well as a renewed sense of vocation for teaching in a rapidly changing educational landscape.

Goals

Participants in this workshop will:

1. Explore how core commitments of theological education—dialogue, formation, and critical reflection—can be translated into online learning environments.
2. Experiment with pedagogical practices that foster community, presence, and embodied learning in digital classrooms.
3. Reflect on the opportunities and ethical challenges posed by emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence in teaching and learning.
4. Design or revise a concrete element of their own course to enhance the quality of online or hybrid teaching.
5. Participate in a supportive community of theological educators reflecting together on the evolving nature of the teaching vocation.

Eligibility

Participants must be/have:

• Full-time tenure track or continuing term relationship with one school.
• Teach graduate students in religion, religious studies, or theology in an accredited college, university, or seminary in the United States, Puerto Rico, or Canada. If working in related fields, the applicant must be teaching primary courses focused on issues of religion or theology
• Institutional support and personal commitment to participate fully in all workshop sessions.
• Hold a job description or contract that includes at least 50% teaching responsibility.
• Applicants must already have a doctoral degree at the time of application.
• Participants should have some experience teaching online or hybrid courses or anticipate doing so in the near future.

Application Materials

1) Contact Information

2) Essay

Applicants should submit a brief essay (750–1000 words total) responding to the following four prompts:

• Describe a challenge or opportunity you are experiencing in teaching online or hybrid courses.
• What questions about teaching and learning in digital environments would you like to explore with colleagues?
• Describe one course, assignment, or teaching practice you would like to rethink during the workshop.
• What do you hope to contribute to a collaborative cohort of teachers reflecting on online teaching?

3) Academic CV (4-page limit)

4) Letter of Institutional Support: A letter of institutional support for your full participation in this workshop from your Department Chair, Academic Dean, Provost, Vice President, or President. Please upload this recommendation directly with your application per the online application instructions.