Digital Discipleship (Ed.D.)

Program Overview

The Doctor of Education in Digital Discipleship is for those who build the systems through which people learn the faith at a distance. Online theological education is no longer an experiment or a concession; it is how most of the world's Christian leaders will be trained. Done well, it reaches the bivocational pastor in a village and the seminarian in a city with equal seriousness. Done carelessly, it produces credentialed students who were never formed. The program treats formation as the hard problem. Students study learning theory and instructional design, competency-based assessment and its validity, curriculum mapping and alignment, course and assessment design for adult learners, accessibility, and the use of data to find out whether learning actually happened. Alongside this runs sustained attention to what online education makes difficult: spiritual formation without physical presence, community among strangers, accountability, the formation of character, supervised ministry practice at a distance, and academic integrity in an age of generative AI. Institutional questions are treated directly — faculty development, workload, quality assurance, accreditation expectations, the economics of digital programs, and the ethics of enrolling students who will not finish. The applied research project improves a real program: a redesigned course sequence, an assessment framework, a formation model for cohorts, a faculty development system, a retention intervention. Graduates lead online programs, design curriculum, direct instructional teams, and teach education courses in seminaries and institutes.

Core Courses

• DDC 801 — Learning Theory and Theological Formation (6 credits)
• DDC 812 — Instructional Design for Digital Programs (6 credits)
• DDC 824 — Competency-Based Assessment and Validity (6 credits)
• DDC 836 — Formation, Community, and Integrity at a Distance (6 credits)
• DDC 848 — Program Leadership, Quality, and Economics (5 credits)
• DDC 860 — Educational Research Design (4 credits)
• DDC 899 — Doctoral Research Project in Theological Education (24 credits)

Admission Requirements

• Master's degree in education, theology, ministry, leadership, or a related field
• Experience leading educational or formation programs, staff, or institutions
• Statement of purpose describing the institutional problem your research will address
• Current resume or curriculum vitae
• Official transcripts from prior institutions when available
• Writing sample, curriculum sample, or program evaluation when requested