Great class last night!

Well we had another class last night -- Wayne Schwab's class on how each area of our life (work, family, community, etc.) can be seen as a mission field -- the place where God is already active and invites us to act to bring more love and justice into the world. We had 8 participants from 5 dioceses, not counting Wayne and me, and I thought it went wonderfully! The part that was overwhelming to me, when I wasn't focusing on the teleclass process itself, was how incredibly rich and amazing the ministry lives of the participants are -- each doing a huge amount, in their corner of the world, to bring God's love and justice into greater reality.

It was great to know that we have a second session coming next Monday...it gives the luxury of having time to get to know each other a tiny bit. We decided at the very last minute (last Friday) to send out a pre-class survey to participants and ask what they wanted from this class experience.....kind of late to get it out, didn't get most of the responses back until Monday and yesterday (the day of the class) so it wasn't all that helpful for this particular class. But I think the idea of a pre-class survey/set of questions is good, and we're going to implement that process in a variety of ways for the upcoming classes.

The other thing Wayne did -- and this is changing my previous thoughts about anonymity -- is that he called on people by name, and everyone participated, and so you got a much better sense of who was on the call... We also sent out a list of peoples' names and locations (no email addresses) after the class, so that we could know each other a little more. I'm thinking that people generally want to feel a sense of connection, and this is one way to foster it in a multi-session class.

Where possible, I am trying to work with leaders to create at least a two-session class. It's not necessary for some topics, where imparting information is the key thing and the class is mainly lecture (vs highly interactive) but it does give more time to cover material, to answer questions, to create connections....

The other thing I've been considering is: offering each class for free the first time around. We learn tons from the actual class process, I learn more about the content, and I can then work with leaders to refine it to fit the teleclass medium more effectively.... People can take the free class as a beta-test, and then we can offer it for a fee. We now have 31 of the 100 free registrations taken....so I expect that by the end of September or October we will be up to the 100 mark.... If we go ahead with the three-diocese pilot project, we'll offer those classes for a fee.

peace,

Elizabeth