Getting a 4,000-year-old scholarly tradition online isn’t easy.
The Jewish Studies faculty of Israel's fledgling Bar-Ilan University wants to be the center of Jewish Studies courses on the Web. But in setting up the courses, Dr. David Schwartz says, "Some of them gave me manuscripts written in longhand!"
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Despite such reversions to ancient tradition, Schwartz is helping the faculty into the silicon age with the launch of Bar-Ilan's Virtual Jewish University.
"If the universities of the future on the Internet are going to specialize in different subjects, and students go to Oxford University for one thing and MIT for another, we want them to come to Bar-Ilan for Jewish Studies," says Schwartz.
Schwartz is overseeing the technological side of the VJU project, under the auspices of the university's International Center for Jewish Identity. The assistant professor is also head of the Information Systems MBA Program at Bar-Ilan's Graduate School of Business Administration.
The Jewish Studies faculty is the largest in the world, with 300 members teaching more than 1,500 courses. The VJU is set to open its virtual doors in October with six initial courses. They will be online English incarnations of existing first- and second-year undergraduate courses: the Judean Desert Scrolls; Jerusalem Throughout the Ages; Music in Traditional Jewish Culture and Society; War and Peace in the Bible; the Yearly Cycle -- Jewish Holidays; and the Laws of Family and Relations.
Registration has just begun. Each of the courses is worth four transfer credits and costs US$360 per semester. The VJU has the potential to bring in extra revenue for the university, but, says Schwartz, "this is not the prime concern." Rather, he aims to turn Bar-Ilan into the center for online Jewish studies.
"The course is aimed primarily at Jewish students but is open to anyone at university," says Schwartz. The target market is North America, but a college in Mexico has already expressed an interest in purchasing a block of student places for the English courses. Spanish- and French-language courses are in the works for next year, as well as an increase in the number of courses offered in English.
The course material is in both text form and streaming audio and video. The movies will not be of lectures but will provide colorful course supplements, such as a tour of the caves at Qumran, where the Dead Sea scrolls were found.
Ten percent of the students' final grade will be based on their participation in online discussion boards, and they will also be able to chat using ICQ for Hebrew and a similar tool for English-language chat. Each professor has committed to being available for at least two hours per week of real-time chat during fixed "virtual office" hours. Videoconferencing is also being explored.
Over the last two semesters, the University tested its VJU concept. In the first semester, 90 students took part, and another 140 are just finishing now. (Any Bar-Ilan student who prefers online studying is free to register for the VJU.)
"We learned that anything that is written they like to print," Schwartz said. "We also learned that they liked finding professors and other students online to talk to."
The students were also inspired by the video clips and began arranging real trips to visit the historical sites, Schwartz said.
Christian educational institutions have also begun getting baptized in the online waters. For example, Leadership University offers e-classes in theology for graduate credit from the International School of Theology in California, and ICI University offers online undergraduate bible and theology courses.
Other religious schools like the Center for Buddhist Studies in Taiwan and Pakistan's International Institute for Islamic Studies and Research offer a wealth of online resources. However, they have yet to move into e-learning.
Although the Virtual Jewish University Web site is already live, the full media launch will be at the end of this month, when advertisements will appear on college campuses and in Jewish-interest publications across North America.
The less Net-literate professors will have to learn fast to adapt themselves to online academia. Says Schwartz: "We see the Virtual Jewish University as a very interesting meeting between past and future."
