3.1. Units

To earn the Diploma, the student must complete three compulsory units and five electives.

...

Each unit in the DBT consists of weekly interactive lectures (intro video, reading material), set readings, and short quizzes that are automatically graded.

3.2. Assessment

In terms of assessment, all units have a set of quizzes (either weekly quizzes of about 8 questions each, or five quizzes across the semester of 20 questions each), and a major final assessment (essay or reflection). If the final assessment is an essay, then there are also two graded development workshop activities during the semester:

...

·         An essay structure workshop

Workshops

In each of these workshops, students submit a piece of work and then grade their peers’ submissions. As a tutor, you will also mark each submission, giving a reference score for each submission’s quality. Based on your mark, students get a second score, based on how accurately they marked their peers’ assessment. The aim of these workshops is to ‘build’ towards the final essay. Thus in addition to the grade, your feedback on each submission is instrumental in helping students write better essays.

...

·         BSD05 Paul and His Letters

Forum Discussions

Other units do not have these exposition workshops, but assessed forum discussions instead. These can either be related to a primary document or a more general topic. You will grade the participation of each student based on their contribution and engagement in the forum.

...

·         CMD02 Making Disciples

HREC

Two units (CMD01 Engaging with Islam and CTD04 Apologetics) require students to engage with people from the wider community who are not Christians and to reflect on this for their major assessment. This requires them to fill out a Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) application. The HREC process includes a quiz and various forms to be submitted. If you are tutoring in one of these units, please follow up with all your students to ensure that they have the quiz and ‘notification form’ completed by Week 5, so they can proceed with their work on time.

3.3. The DBT Semester/Course Schedule

DBT semesters, like Moore College face-to-face teaching semesters, are 13 teaching weeks and usually start on the same dates. Each semester follows this pattern:

...

Marking Weeks – The two weeks after Final Assessment Week, is when you will need to grade and give feedback on all final assessments. During this period, you will have to submit grades to the Registrars.

3.4. Our students

Our students range in age and life stage from fresh out of high school to retired. They are located across Australia and around the world. In terms of academic background, they range from having completed secondary education only to higher research degrees. Some are highly skilled in reading, writing, and thinking in the ways of Western academia, while others are strangers to such discourses and ways of thought. And some will be highly confident (for better or worse), while others will doubt their abilities and skills, or be overwhelmed by the work.

But all are brothers and sisters in the image of God and have been admitted to the DBT because we believe they have the ability to learn and to pass the course.

3.5. Our tutors (you!)

Please read the following alongside your Position Description from Moore People and Culture.

Expectations

As a DBT tutor, your goal is to facilitate students’ completion of the course and to provide them with academic support as needed. Here are a few hints.

Pastoral and academic care

·         Keep an eye on all your students. Most will do fine, but a couple might fall behind on quizzes or suddenly disappear from any online engagement. Please follow up quickly with a personal message.

...

·         Students who are in their first semester (note: that’s all students in the Biblical Theology unit) will need extra encouragement, and some will need help with technology and assessments.

Variable workload

·         You are contracted to work up to 2 hours per week. A recent survey (Dec 2020) suggests that most tutors average that over the semester. However, like all teaching, your workload will vary, with some weeks very light, and some heavy.

...

o    Responding to all communications from college personnel, especially the Academic Dean, the DBT Tutor Coordinator, and the Registrars.

·         Enrolments[GWC1] : We are endeavouring to set our enrolment process so that students have an incentive to register early, so that we open no new classes after the start of O-Week. We may allow students to join classes that are not full  until the end of Week 1. But no classes will start in Week 1, and any new students will commence by the end of Week 1.

Grading and feedback

·         Feedback on development workshops and on forums is valuable formative feedback to students.

...

·         See the Tutor FAQ’s on the Tutor Resource page of the MOD for more info on marking assessment and using Teams.

Assessment extensions

·         Medical: Students should submit documentation to registrars.

·         Compassionate: Students discuss with tutor, who can recommend to registrars. Registrars then advise student and tutor of final decision.

Mondays

·         Message your students on TEAMs every Monday morning of the semester, reminding them of upcoming work:

...

·         Read and acknowledge (by way of emoji) the weekly message from the DBT Tutor Coordinator or the Academic Dean.

Your first semester

·         Ask for help as you need. You are a valuable team member, and we want you to thrive.

...