Adapting a Full Learning Week (FLW) UofN course into the Extension Studies format will give you flexibility in how you can offer the course. Extension Studies (ES) or Online Extension Studies (OES) courses are flexible ways to continue helping people to grow in a variety of settings. The ES website will help you understand much more about the possibilities and practices https://es.uofn.edu/ Videos can walk you through registration questions and there is a helpful FAQ page.
Here are some ES basics:
- It’s helpful to note at the beginning that ES/OES courses DO NOT have a UofN requirement for having already done a DTS. As the course leader you would determine your audience and what prerequisites there would be, but the ES option allows us to include as many as possible.
- Learning Component Unit (LCU) credits are given for ES/OES courses. These credits are handled as transfer credits by the UofN. Twenty-five (25) hours of focused learning activity = 1 LCU credit. We ask that no ES/OES course exceeds 150 hours/6 credits. The spirit of ES is to make bite-sized and manageable courses which can be completed in a relatively short length of time.
- If the content of your course is more than 150 hours of focused learning activity, we recommend that the course is broken into modules or units. A 12-week course could be split into 3 or 4 modules, and you then could be specific about the skill or focus of that portion of the training.
- A focused learning activity would include teaching/lecture hours, practical assignment activities, small group discussions, required readings. ES and OES counts hours; we do not work according to the 50/hr week requirement of the FLW programs. Things that are NOT counted toward focused learning activities: Work duties, community worship, intercession, outreach. The possible exception is if there is a very direct correlation of the activity and the teaching which would include a processing of the activity so that it is a learning experience. Spiritual disciplines are, of course, encouraged within ES and OES, but these hours will not count toward LCU credits.
- Within the registration, please give no more than 5-7 hours of activity per description entry. This practice will help the reviewers know the content that is covered in course. It is tempting to become casual ‘within the family’ to only list a familiar YWAM phrase and assume that everyone knows exactly what you will do; it’s a good practice for you and for us to be specific about what you plan to teach, how you will teach it, and what the participant will learn. Your lesson plans probably contain this already so it shouldn’t be too much more work to enter it here.
- ES/OES courses MAY be submitted to the UofN or another university to receive transfer credit. The stronger the presentation of the material, the more likely those considering the curriculum will give approval. Here’s an encouragement to take the time to spell out what you will teach and what the student will learn!
- As you register the course, the overview page allows you to upload material. Adding a syllabus or supporting documents here makes the approval process much easier.
- We make a real effort to use a slightly different name in ES/OES courses so that there is not confusion later as to what course the student has completed. The obvious example is a church-based evening Discipleship program should never be called a DTS so we avoid the confusion whether they’ve done a DTS already. Using ‘course’ is a helpful way, and there may be other ways you think of.
- Approval of the ES/OES course will be led through the Extension Studies Centre, and the dean of your college may be looped into the process if this is a new registration.
- ONLINE Extension Studies courses are a one-time registration, and then you create a new instance each time you offer the course.
- EXTENSION STUDIES courses must be re-registered each time it will take place, and the approval process generates the new instance. Ask [email protected] if you have more questions about this.
