Administrating a Beta course in universities,
theological and Bible colleges
2- 4 weeks in advance of running a Beta course:
We recommend that lecturers
or tutors planning to run a Beta course first read Section 1 and 2 in The Beta
Administrator's and Facilitator's Manual (above). These sections provide
practical advice for running Beta in the context of small groups. Small groups
encourage a deeper level of personal involvement which can contribute to
students' personal growth and ministerial formation, as well fostering positive
interpersonal dynamics within a college.
While we recommend that you
run Beta in small groups (8-12 participants) wherever possible, it may be
necessary to run Beta as a normal class or lecture in your institute or
college. We have run Beta for classes of up to 50 at the Cambridge Theological
Federation for three years. While the interpersonal dynamics of small groups
are somewhat diluted in the classroom, the course still does work extremely
well. You can follow up each class with tutorials and opportunities for
discussion and prayer in smaller groups.
After you have read Sections
1 and 2 in the Manual, you may decide that you can by-pass the 'volunteer'
aspects of the 'Find Out More' Session 1 (see Section 2 in Manual) as students
are usually of a more 'captive audience' than church-goers!
The key aims of Session 1
are to provide an opportunity:
- for people to enjoy time
together (with a meal or refreshments)
- to see the Taster video
(26 min.) which provides excerpts from each of the teaching sessions
- to discuss in groups of
2's and 3's responses to the video
- to decide whether or not
they want to sign up the rest of the Beta course.
- to receive practical
information concerning the rest of the course.
If Session 1 is redundant to
your students' needs, you could then start the course with the Session 2
Relationships, making it a 9 week course.
Venue
To run these sessions you
will need a room or class room with enough space for the numbers to move their chairs into groups of 2's and
3's for Bible studies.
You will need a good quality
video projector (with good sound amplification) and a screen large enough for
every one to have a good view of the videos. Only if your class comprises 12 or
less students will a TV screen (24' or more) and video be sufficient.
Our experience has taught
us that watching the Beta videos on a TV screen that is too small or too far
away will fail to evoke people's interest. It is important to go to the effort of getting the right equipment. If
the class exceeds 12 members, video projector (data projector), with external
speakers and a screen, can be borrowed or hired.
Time
Beta normally takes a
minimum of 1 and 1/2 hours per session.
This may mean you need to schedule double class periods to accommodate
Beta (e.g. two consecutive 40-50 minute periods).
While Beta is usually run
over 9 or 10 sessions, some flexibility is possible. You can elongate the
course by extending class discussions or adding, at the end of Beta, your own
lecture material. It is more difficult to shorten the course, but if necessary,
two Beta sessions (such as Session 8
& 9) can be spliced to fit into one
double period. We don't advise cutting out any of the video sessions, as this
would drastically alter the balance of teaching, although other aspects of the
course can be condensed.
Materials
In addition to the Beta
videos and Manual, the Beta Participants' Booklets will provide your students
with a comprehensive (and creatively designed) guide to the course. You will
need to order enough Beta Participants' Booklets for your students. (These are
paid for separately; the cost can be reimbursed by the students. Allow two
weeks for processing your order).
We do not recommend that
Facilitators or Tutors attempt to give the multi-media teachings themselves
apart from the videos- the workload would be overwhelming! (And doing so may
disrupt the overall balance of the Beta course.)
Reading lists
As a set textbook, we
recommend:
Watt, N, Nye, R. and Savage,
S (2002) Psychology for Christian Ministry, London: Routledge
This textbook was specially
designed to support psychologically informed pastoral care courses at
undergraduate university and college level.
There are suggestions for
further (accessible) reading at the end of each booklet session. For more
advanced undergraduate students, or post-graduate level courses, your own
further reading lists will be required.
You are welcome to email us
and request further reading lists (please specify if students are undergraduate
or postgraduate in psychology) to support your accredited course.
info@beta-course.org
Alternately, you may wish to
design your own reading lists.
Assessments
You are welcome to email us
for essay title suggestions, yet it will be up to the lecturer or tutor to make
sure the assessments are appropriate to your own students and institute,
supported by your own reading lists, in addition to ours. *)