Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24thoughtful decision-making. ELearning is also a powerful way to put students in a situation prior to being in that situation. “They can rehearse for reality in a safe space in eLearning,” whether the experience is visiting with residents in a nursing home for the first time or finding oneself in a racially charged situation. Activities such as polls and mul- tiple-choice scenarios in the eLearning modules “present moral dilemmas, they ask students to choose and explain choices, to unpack stories from real life,” Johnson says. “When have you ex- perienced the Paschal mystery” or received forgiveness, for example. “Jesus was a storyteller,” adds Johnson “The everydayness of our morality is inspired by stories. Interaction with the story is our approach.” Stories are “opportunities for con- versation and reflection. The teach- er facilitates, participates, and is a learner among learners, and not the sage on the stage,” she says. CUSTOMIZABLE AND EFFICIENT SMP eLearning is at once compre- hensive and customizable, adding efficiency and flexibility to instruc- tion, Johnson says. “It doesn’t require teachers to create it all. For teachers to search for and vet a hodgepodge of applications to use in their classroom requires time. Creating their own online tools is also very time consum- ing. Assembling a comprehensive digital teaching toolbox is tough.” “Creating curriculum from scratch also takes away from the time teachers need to get to know their students, to provide individual at- tention to each student’s learning, and to assess student progress in meaningful ways.” The time saved “allows better relationship building and better teaching,” she says. Johnson cautions against assuming there is simply “no-assembly re- quired,” however. “These eLearn- ing courses, like any new course or instructional resource, take some time to become familiar with,” she says. “Each teacher must still make decisions about what to use in an eLearning module. Mod- ules and lessons are sequential, there is scaffolding, but teachers can still jump around to find the content and activities they know will meet their students’ needs. Teachers, I think, will be delight- ed by how flexible the eLearning courses really are for them.” Other teacher supports are em- bedded in each SMP eLearning course, she says. “Teacher tips are infused alongside the teacher’s view of student content” Teachers also have access to student prog- ress reports and assorted hand- outs, which include,tests, student projects, and assessment rubrics. COOPERATIVE, COLLABORATIVE LEARNING Our high school courses are designed as blended eLearning so teachers can flip their class- room. Activities can be completed independently at home, while in-class time is devoted to dis- cussions and projects. Built into the blended eLearning courses are discussion prompts “to en- courage cooperative learning and group problem-solving,” Johnson says. Good eLearning enables students to work together and to develop social and collabora- tion skills. Various exercises and activities get students “talking with each other, compromising, and coming to consensus.” Digital polls, for example, en- courage and facilitate interac- tion. “Human beings are naturally curious about what other people think. We learn by gauging the room, listening, reflecting. Polls are a very strong learning tool. The room lights up when you do polling. It’s a catalyst for discussion, exploration, faith development.” Johnson acknowledges that some teachers remain hesitant regarding eLearning compared with more traditional instruction. SMP eLearning provides a lot of support toward developing as a learner-centered teacher, she says. This is why when a school chooses eLearning with Saint Mary’s Press, they also have dedicated eLearn- ing consultants to support them. Saint Mary’s Press instructional designers Julie Mickler and Melissa JohnsoZ, veteran Catholic school religion teachers, are excited and available to guide teachers through every stage of implement- ing the SMP eLearning curriculum. The ultimate beneficiary from effec- tive eLearning is the student, John- son says. “We don’t call it e-teach- ing, we call it eLearning, for a reason. You can’t activate learning if you can’t activate curiosity.” // SPARK // SMP.ORG/ELEARNING // 19 18 // SMP.ORG/ELEARNING // SPARK