Brite offers satellite classes in Houston
Houston students can earn up to 27 hours before attending Brite
By Nyshicka Jordan
Staff Reporter

For students and professors at Brite Divinity School, being in two different cities during lectures is no problem.

Brite’s Houston Center gives Houston residents the opportunity to earn up to 27 credit hours toward a Masters of Divinity degree by taking courses via satellite from Fort Worth, said Ray Owens, Houston Center director.

Owens said the program benefits Houston residents interested in theological education because there is no major seminary school in Houston. He said students can take courses to decide if they would like to further pursue their degree at TCU’s main campus.

“It works well for a certain group of students,” Owens said. “It gives an opportunity for students in the Houston area to do much of the course work at home before making the decision to relocate.”

Brite interim president Duanne Cummins said the program’s first semester began last fall and that it will run under a three-year test period. He said the size of enrollment is the determining factor for the continuance of the program.

Owens said there are currently seven students enrolled.

Cummins said the development of this program is beneficial as a marketing tool and allows Brite to introduce more technology into courses.

“I think all colleges and universities are looking for the most creative way to integrate technology in their learning environment,” Cummins said.

Owens said one course is taught in Houston at Memorial Drive Christian Church and then broadcast to Brite, and that three courses are taught from Brite and broadcast to the church.

Owens said the courses are simultaneously taught live to students in both cities. In this way, if a professor is teaching a full class in Fort Worth, students in Houston are also a part of that lecture.

Brian Christen attends the center in Houston and said the program allows him the opportunity to see if Brite is the right fit for him. By the end of this semester he said he will have earned 19 credit hours toward his degree, and he will move to Fort Worth in the fall, he said.

Christen said he is satisfied with the benefits of the program and the way professors include Houston students in their courses.

“We are actually as much apart of the class as the one sitting in front of them,” Christen said.

Only one classroom in Brite has the interactive technology, and technological setups in both locations are similar, said Jeremy Poynter, assistant to the dean in instructional technology.

Poynter said nine microphones are on the ceiling in Fort Worth and six in the Houston site, and each site has four monitors that either serve as projectors or display outputs to two sources. One monitor allows the class in the opposite city to see the professor and the other allows the professor to see his or her class, he said. Each site has two cameras, he said. One is at the back of the room to capture the instructor and the other is at the front of the rooms to capture the students, he said.

Poynter said any technical issues have been minor and the program has been successful. He said the technology works fast and that the delay between when something is said and the time it gets to its recipient is only milliseconds.

“It allows you to send real time video to each location,” Poynter said. “It’s one class in two places.”

Jay Dozier, a lecturer in religious education, said students can ask questions as if they were in person with their professor and cameras also follow a professor should he or she move.

Dozier said he appreciates that the technology does not prevent him from being mobile.

“I wasn’t much of a stand behind the podium professor and I’m not now either,” Dozier said.

Dozier said earning a Masters of Divinity is a long commitment because it takes between 81 and 84 hours, so it’s a benefit that Houston residents can earn some of their hours before they leave their jobs and move their families. He said the camera is not the whole aspect of the program though.

The program also allows students educational opportunities, including Powerpoint presentations, DVD or VHS presentations and access to Internet for students in both cities, Dozier said.

“It’s not just a camera and microphone,” Dozier said. “It’s not a glorified correspondence class. It’s a different way of interacting with students.”

While students at the Houston site mainly interact with their professor through the technology, Owens said professors who participate in the program from Fort Worth will visit Houston twice a semester to teach students in person and students in Fort Worth will receive those lectures by satellite. Owens, who lectures the course from Houston, said he will make the same two visits to Fort Worth.

n.d.jordan@tcu.edu