Winter Imbolc Moon
I spent part of yesterday compiling a table of Jewish Studies courses online. This all got started because I wanted to know more about modern Israel. I found a Coursera course online, The History of Modern Israel. When I mentioned that it might be good for those of us in the congregation who don’t know this story very well, Rabbi Jamie suggested that we dig deeper into the online education possibilities for adult education. I volunteered.
It’s a harder task than I thought it would be. Several reasons. First of all there is a lot of material. Second the sort of material varies widely from actual online courses similar to the MOOCs that Coursera and Edx provide to short essays on particular topics. Third most are free, but some are not.
There are also sites focused on reference material like Sefaria and the Jewish Library Online, even a couple focused on study methodology like Zug, which links you up with an online study partner. All of this makes for a challenge in organizing the data so that congregants can access it and identify what might be useful for them.
A second facet of the project is to provide the occasional group experience at Beth Evergreen utilizing online course material.
Something to keep me busy.
