Course Syllabus

Instructor: David Worley, PhD  -  E-mail: dworley@iliff.edu  -  Phone: 303-765-3107  -  Office Hours: by appointment or via phone

Course Synopsis

This course offers an introduction to the critical questions, disciplinary perspectives, and skills needed for outstanding engagement with the Iliff curriculum/faculty (specifically) and graduate theological education (generally).  It serves not only as an introduction to Iliff, but also to broader issues of theories, approaches, and disciplinary boundaries within the field.  This course is designed to be particularly useful for students in their first two terms at Iliff and will primarily use brief audio interviews related to each of the six curricular areas along with archived long form interviews of individual faculty.

Books for the Course

There are no required texts for this course. All readings will be posted to the Canvas site as needed.

Course Objectives & Learning Goals

• To introduce students to the historic and contemporary development of theological and religious studies.
• To provide guided opportunities for reflection on connections and disjunctions between various areas of study within theological education.
• To introduce new Iliff students to individual Faculty expertise.
• To enable students to develop a sense of identity and place within Iliff and theological education more broadly.

Evaluation & Grading

This course is offered for letter grade.  The following is the general rubric that will be used:

• Substantial Canvas Discussion: 60%
• Relevancy paper:  40%

I will discuss what is meant by 'substantial discussion' in the introductory audio piece during the first week of the course. I will also provide a detailed set of instructions for the Relevancy Paper (4-8 pgs) due at the end of week nine.

Policies & Services

Good student-instructor communication is important in any learning endeavor.  Since this course is fully online, I expect you to post questions to the discussion board on Canvas or email me directly.  The deadlines posted on the schedule are rigid and few exceptions will be granted.  Incompletes are strongly discouraged but may be granted for extreme circumstances.  Please submit your request for an incomplete to me via email as early as possible.  Some examples of possible reasons for incompletes include:  deaths in the family and hospitalization.

Accommodation

Iliff engages in a collaborative effort with students who have disabilities to reasonably accommodate their needs in order to support effective learning.  Students are encouraged to contact their assigned advisor to initiate the process of requesting accommodations.  The Advising Center may be contacted as advising@iliff.edu, or by phone at 303.765.1146.