Units

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

Compulsory units:

·         BSD01 Biblical Theology (first)

·         BSD02 Reading the Gospel of Mark

·         CTD01 Church History 1

Elective units:

·         BSD03 The Twelve Prophets

·         BSD04 The Pentateuch

·         BSD05 Paul and His Letters

·         CTD02 The Written Word of God

·         CTD03 The Cross of Christ

·         CTD04 Apologetics

·         CMD01 Engaging with Islam

·         CMD02 Making Disciples

·         The elective units must include at least one unit each from Biblical Studies (BS), Christian Thought (CT) and Christian Ministry (CM). These are additional to the three compulsory units.

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

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 reading workshop, and

·         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.

Some units will have additional workshops, unrelated to the major assessment, that focus on the exposition of material.

Units with exposition workshops:

·         BSD01 Biblical Theology

·         BSD02 Reading the Gospel of Mark

·         BSD03 The Twelve Prophets

·         BSD04 The Pentateuch

·         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.

Units with forum discussions:

·         CTD01 Church History 1

·         CTD02 The Written Word of God

·         CTD03 The Cross of Christ

·         CTD04 Apologetics

·         CMD01 Engaging with Islam

·         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.

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:

·         Orientation Week

·         Week 1

·         Week 2

·         Week 3

·         Week 4

·         Week 5

·         Research Week 1

·         Week 6

·         Week 7

·         Mid-Semester Break

·         Week 8

·         Week 9

·         Research Week 2

·         Week 10

·         Week 11

·         Week 12

·         Week 13

·         Final Assessment Week

The important dates every semester are:

Orientation Week – The week before you start getting paid. Students can access syllabi, readings, and assessment instructions. If you would like, you can send a brief general message introducing yourself this week – though there is no obligation for you to do so.

Week 3 – The final week students can change subjects. They need to contact the registrars to change a subject.

Census Date – The last date students can drop a unit without incurring a Fee-Help debt. You will need to remind students of Census Date as it approaches, especially students who might be struggling in their work. If a student wishes to withdraw, please direct them to the Registrars. Census dates tend to fall late April and late August.

Research Weeks – Two per semester. You are available to students, but this is time for them to work on assignments and readings, with no lectures or set readings. These are usually around Weeks 5 and 10.

Mid-Semester Break – Bear in mind that most of our students will be working or otherwise busy, so may not be able to take a week away from their studies. Tutors are expected still to check Teams and email daily, and to reply to students.

Final Assessment Week – Immediately following their final regular week. Major Assessments are due Friday 10pm (Sydney Time) in this week.

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.

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.

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.

·         Encourage your students to stay consistent in their quizzes from Week 1 onwards, and their participation in workshops and forums. Getting behind can be detrimental to completing the course.

·         Keep an eye on quiz scores: Low scores may indicate a struggling student. A gentle query may reveal important struggles.

·         If you come across academic issues you are not sure how to deal with, please contact Gordon Cain, who is Moore’s Academic Support Coordinator and the DBT Tutor Coordinator, via TEAMs or email. Gordon is employed two days per week, so he might take a couple of days to reply.

·         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.

·         You are responsible to schedule time for:

o    Grading and feedback during the semester – e.g., forums and workshops.

o    Grading and feedback on your students’ reflections or 1500-word essays after the Final Assessment Week. Grading is due within two weeks of submission.

o    Answering student queries within 24 hours.

o    Checking both Teams and email daily for student correspondence.

o    Assisting students with their assessments, as needed. The College’s Academic Support Coordinator supports you, and you support the DBT students.

o    Attending our DBT tutor meetings. These are twice a semester and often occur during the DBT Research Weeks.

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.

·         If you have to make a choice, pour more effort into feedback for formative assessments than into feedback for the summative, final assessment. The formative can be implemented and make a final difference. Feedback on the final assessment shapes future semesters. Pour more energy into the formative if you must make a choice.

·         However, our students are generally keen. Please provide thoughtful feedback on their final assessments too.

·         Good feedback should include (if at all possible) a couple of comments on what they did well, but also, one to three key areas for improvement. Focus on where they can make their biggest gains.

·         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:

o    Forums, quizzes, and workshops.

o    Encourage them through the stages of the semester.

o    Also, set them a single, clear question to consider or apply as they work through the week’s material.

·         Check that the quiz and readings are all uploaded and accessible.

·         Check that students are up to date with quizzes and other 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.

·         Expect this to go all right – most of our students continue till the end of the semester, and most pass.

·         Expect a few adjustment bumps if this is new to you. That’s normal.