Nazarene Bible College (USA)
TL;DR:
This FAQs page provides students with guidance for succeeding in the Nazarene Bible College Global Evangelism and Communicating the Gospel in a Pluralistic World courses. The answers to student questions lay out expectations for participation, assignment timing, reading requirements, attendance and grades. It also clarifies flexibility regarding midnight as a due time, options for early submissions, "incomplete" grades, use of supplemental links, and criteria for choosing missionaries or mission publications for assignments.
Note: The course web pages on the official Nazarene Bible College site will contain expanded written instructions, including rubrics for each assignment.
"This class has reset my thinking and challenged many of my previous thoughts about missions." -- Thom Fish, pastor
Searchable PDF of Discovering Missions textbook
"I love the regular rhythm of assignments due Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. I find that extremely helpful in staying on top of assignments. The text and lectures are typically thoughtful and interesting." -- student response on end-of-course evaluation
Yes, it will.
I use Mountain Time when considering daily submission dates. I allow some flexibility for night owls: work submitted by 3 or 4 a.m. Mountain Time can count toward the preceding day.
Yes, the reading reflections can come in early. Having some in early helps the discussion get going.
The only thing I don't really like coming in early is the weekly summary. Submitting the summary too early means it cannot reflect the full week's reading and discussion. So, I'd prefer that those not come in until at least late Friday afternoon.
I count postings by the date they are posted. So, a conversation that began last week can continue into this week with your contributions being counted for this week.
Scribe is a classroom. In the classroom you are expected to listen attentively to what other students say -- even if you disagree or think they're saying "dumb" things. Each contribution adds to and carries forward a discussion. Not reading all your classmates' posts would be like coming to a classroom with a book or cell phone in which you bury your head and only occasionally emerge to say something before returning to your book or cell phone. That wouldn't be good traditional classroom etiquette. Lack of attention to what others in the classroom say is not good online classroom etiquette either.
It is not considered proper classroom behavior to say one's piece and then "check out" by putting on headphones or getting out a book to read. For this reason, I ask that you not post your weekly summary until after you have read everything submitted by other students and the professor that week. I started asking students to be completely up-to-date in their reading of other students' posts by the time they post their weekly summary after a student in a previous class openly said he wasn't bothering to read any of the contributions of several of his classmates because they never had "anything significant to say."
The reading reflection is due early in the week prior to much class discussion. It focuses on your reflections on the assigned reading (text, professor's lecture, and other articles). The weekly summary may look at the text, but it could also center on what other students had to say in class discussion or even on insights gained from doing the special project of that week. In this way, the Weekly Summary is much broader than the Wednesday reading reflection (although not necessarily longer).
Writing a weekly summary encourages you to revisit the textbook and other assigned readings. This review can help you retain the material and recognize ideas whose importance became clearer during the week's discussion.
One objective of the assignment is for you to look at material available for promoting missions in local Churches of the Nazarene. Therefore, if you are part of the Church of the Nazarene, you should report on NMI Central. If you are a member of another denomination, you may choose a similar regular publication about your own church's overseas missionary work (or you can look at and evaluate what the Nazarenes are doing).
No. Someone who has served with another mission board will qualify in terms of fulfilling the objectives of this assignment.
That's correct. The "5 out of 7" can include Sunday.
I was trying to ask that you have read all the posts submitted up to that point in time. For instance, the first person to post their end-of-the-week summary will not have read any other people's weekly summaries, while the last person to post that assignment will have had the opportunity to read everybody else's end-of-the-week summary.
Here's an online PDF copy of that material. Remember that the object of doing this is not to learn the material. The object is for you to evaluate this as a discipleship tool for churches to use with new converts.
You did get attendance credit for being "present" five days out of the week. The participation score refers to reply posts. Therefore, there are two "five days out of seven" requirements. One is for attendance (submitting an assignment or a reply post). The other is for participating in class discussions via reply posts. You submitted reply posts on three days, so you received participation credit for three days.
Think of those resources as additional if-you-have-the-time supplemental material. How thoroughly you investigate them will depend on the time available and your level of interest in deepening your understanding of course content.
Good question. It refers to a total of the two parts. However, students usually go beyond that number since they must answer one question from the textbook, in addition to their reactions to the material they read that week. I also know that some of us are wordier than others. Some can give meaty, thoughtful, and succinct responses in 250 words. Others may take 400 or more words to say the same thing. :-)
Whatever its length, your reading reflection should show thoughtful engagement with the assigned material, rather than ideas you could have written before doing the reading.
An "incomplete" grade indicates that required work remains unfinished; course credit is pending completion. Consult NBC's current academic policies for how an incomplete affects your GPA, the deadline for completing the work, and the grade that will replace the incomplete if the work is not completed.
An incomplete can give you a chance to finish required work after unforeseen circumstances prevent you from completing assignments on time. It is, in a sense, a kind of "grace" extended to you. You must still complete the missing assignments by the agreed-upon deadline.
Two possible consequences deserve attention:
Confirm how NBC's current academic and financial-aid policies apply to your situation.
"One thing that I enjoyed about this class is that it forced us to get out and talk to people and learn through interviewing and discussing with others rather than just reading and writing." -- M.B., Nazarene Bible College student
-- Howard Culbertson, hculbert@snu.edu
"This is a great course that opened my eyes to the struggles Christians face around the globe. It gave me an understanding of the real need for missionaries worldwide. It's still hard to fathom that there are over three billion people who have not heard about Jesus." -- student on end-of-the-course evaluation
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