Mobile Ed. Course Reviews
This question is probably better for the Mobile Ed. forum but I thought I would ask it here since there is much more traffic. The general question is how can we get a better sense of the quality of a Mobile Ed. course? Yes, there are course previews and occasionally a few people will write short reviews but for the cost of each course, I would look to see something a bit more thorough.
Here is the impetus for my question. Earlier this morning I was looking at Apologetics courses and thought that AP101 Intro to Apologetics seemed to be a pretty good one. However, as I read through the description, it said, "In this winsome presentation, Christians will find effective means to point unbelievers toward Jesus in a way that speaks to the heart as well as the mind." That through a red flag up for me because at the cost of $189.99 I am not looking for a "winsome" course but one that is thorough and will give me the information that I need. "Winsome" makes me think of something cute but not terribly useful.
Thoughts on reviews in general? Or, has anyone taken this course and can give a good critique?
Comments
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I own 9 courses and I am not overly impressed, most I would consider SS material or at best 1st year bible college- but I know everyone is different.
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I regret that some (many?) courses are an extract of one or more books of the speaker.
For example, Keener on Revelation is like his NIVAC commentary.
Overall, I am happy with many courses.
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I own well over 100 courses but don't own AP101 so can't speak to it's content. Overall I love Mobile Ed courses, but not all courses are great. I clearly favor some material over others when it comes to Mobile Ed. But that's the same with other areas such as my workouts. I favor the leg press over the barbell squat but do them both for my fitness. There's always the 30 day return if you don't like the course.
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I have about 25 ME courses and have completed maybe half of them. Mileage varies for each course, but most of them are quite good. The lectures offer little to modest value to me although some are fairly good. The value to me is mostly the curated reading. I think that more reviews will help make better choices. Courses are quite expensive to be guessing at the content, so a little research on speakers might help make a good choice. However, I think that the courses I have completed pretty much met or surpassed my expectation for what they would be.
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Dennis Davis said:
Earlier this morning I was looking at Apologetics courses and thought that AP101 Intro to Apologetics seemed to be a pretty good one. However, as I read through the description, it said, "In this winsome presentation, Christians will find effective means to point unbelievers toward Jesus in a way that speaks to the heart as well as the mind." That through a red flag up for me because at the cost of $189.99 I am not looking for a "winsome" course but one that is thorough and will give me the information that I need. "Winsome" makes me think of something cute but not terribly useful.
Dennis I was not familar with the word Winsome before reading your post but i would not describe what I have worked through in the course so far as "cute but not terribly useful". But of course the value of any course really depends upon the individual taking it, what they already know about a the topic, the presuppositions, prejudices they may hold and expectations of what they want / believe the course to be like.
For Bobby Conway's view of apologetic take a look at the following video along with some others from his One Minute Apologist YouTube channel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMj3sKKn6a4
Or take a look at his website:
In regards to the course specifically,to browse the list of resources from which the curated readings from the course are taken take a look at:
https://faithlife.com/ap101/documents/12230
The course outline is given on the product page on the Logos Website so you would already have an idea of what the course covers but from the course itself the expected outcomes are:
• Explain why it is important that all believers have some understanding of apologetics
• Describe the main approaches to apologetics used throughout history
• Define truth and discuss the consequences of rejecting it
• Defend the existence of God using the cosmological, teleological, and moral arguments
• Articulate why miracles are possible and how they are seen from God’s perspective
• Use historical and juridical arguments to defend Scripture’s claim that Christ was resurrected from the dead
• Discuss the reliability of the NT documents and what they say about the deity of JesusAnd the from the Speaker and Course Introduction:
Speaker
Welcome to Introducing Apologetics. My name is Bobby Conway, and I am excited to go with you on this tour through defending your Christian faith.
When it comes to the word “apologetics,” many people can steer away from it. But [when you do apologetics, you are connecting yourself to a history filled with many saints who have known the importance of the role of apologetics as it relates to evangelism and even defending one’s faith.]
You know, I got into apologetics myself as a result of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with others. People asked me questions—I got stumped—I didn’t know the answer to, and apologetics became something that was very helpful for me in my own life.
I trust, whether it’s for evangelism or reducing your doubts or just talking with another friend about the complexities of our faith or some of the beauty of the answers that can be provided by our faith, that this course can be rewarding for you.
CourseIn this course what we are going to do is, we are going to take the word DEFENSE in acrostic form, and we are going to show what apologetics looks like, and we are going to give a rational defense for the Christian faith by building out that acrostic. I’m going to encourage you to memorize that and to look for opportunities with your friends or with your kids or with your spouse or with your parents or with classmates to dialogue with [about] the things that you are learning. You know, one of the best ways for us to really reinforce our learning is to talk about it with someone else.
It’s been said before, “Give a man a fish, feed him a meal. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.” Hopefully this course will feed you, but you’ll learn to feed yourself and go on telling others about the things that you’ve learned in this course.
Let’s buckle up. Let’s get ready to dive in, and let’s learn how you can go about defending your Christian faith.Hope this helps a little Dennis move beyond the word "Winsome" to what the course is actually about and make a better decision as to whether it is of interest to you or not.
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A couple of snippets from the segment on Three Approaches to Apologetics” to give you a sense of the approach taken.
“First of all, I’ll share with you presuppositional apologetics. Presuppositional apologetics is just one of different approaches, and as the first approach that I just want you to be aware of—we’re not going to drill deep into this approach, but I want you to at least be aware that it is one such way that people seek to do apologetics.“
”Another approach to apologetics would be what is known as evidential apologetics.”
”Another approach—an approach that we’re going to primarily concern ourselves with—would be classical apologetics.”
This segment defines each approach and list some leading proponents of each approach.
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In general, I would not purchase any MobileEd. There are far too many courses, equal and better, than what Logos produces that are free.
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In general I love Mobile Ed courses. The value for me is in the further reading sections as much just the video side of things. I have no formal training and don't really know where to start on a subject but with mobile Ed I get an overview and then more detailed stuff as well. On a few of the courses I have the lectures also show how to use Logos itself to pull out relevant information. For my purposes I can't rate them highly enough :-)
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I'm all about some free courses. Care to share some links? [:)]
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Examples?
I love the idea of Mobile Ed, enjoyed some of the free ones I have, but for me to purchase they're all way out of my price range.
"Your speech must always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person." - Colossians 4:6
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