Last post I reviewed John Walton’s Old Testament Genres Logos Mobile Ed course. Now comes the difficult task of evaluating Mobile Ed as a whole. It’s important to remember this series is a document of my experience with one Mobile Ed course. I would not want a reader to be unfairly prejudiced for/against Mobile Ed by reading more into my reviews than what is there.
With disclaimers in mind, I offer the following reflections on my experience with Mobile Ed.
Self-study
As regular readers of my blog will know, My Digital Seminary serves as an output for my own theological studies. When I saw Logos Mobile Ed advertised I first thought that it looked ideal for self-study. I was not wrong.
The professors are leaders in their fields and the videos are extremely high in quality. Particularly helpful for students are the bite-sized 5-7 minute videos. I must admit that I was skeptical of this at first, but soon came to recognize its benefit in making the material more memorable. The fact that all this can be taken anywhere with you (including your mobile device) only adds to its usefulness. The transcripts would also aid ESL students, so Mobile Ed can be used internationally with great benefit.
Classroom settings & Church groups
Though I’m also a Bible College teacher, I didn’t have the chance to use Old Testament Genres videos in my class. I plan to integrate a different Mobile Ed course into my class, and will no doubt have comments then. I am certain that Mobile Ed could be useful for provoking discussion in the classroom or even as preparation for an upcoming lecture. Now, if a teacher wants to use an individual video, they will need to either view it from within their Logos software or track down the downloaded video on their hard drive. The latter is not straightforward as I discovered. Having easier access to individual video files would open up the teacher’s options.
Limitations from the User’s Logos Package
One’s own Logos package will determine how much of the required and additional reading they can access. Since the required reading is an essential element of any given Mobile Ed course, it’s unfortunate that the required reading is not included – or at least only the required sections from the full textbooks. Understandably, something like this could increase costs. However it’s also understandable that a user would be disappointed if, after buying a Mobile Ed course, they discovered that a large portion of it doesn’t work and that the solution requires buying a number of textbooks or upgrading their Logos package.
Integration of Mobile Ed with Logos Software
As the Logos product page advertises, the Mobile Ed videos are all transcribed and fully searchable from within Logos. The tutorial videos for Old Testament Genres are quite helpful, but are even better in the two other courses I demoed (and will be reviewing in the future). This is unsurprising since the other courses deal more directly with Bible study, where Logos excels. One suggestion that would integrate Mobile Ed and Logos Homework further are assignments that give the user a few tasks to accomplish on their own within Logos.
Cost
For many (including myself!) cost is the first question to be asked. For this reason I have intentionally left it for last. Cost is always a relative matter, but considering the proliferation of free seminary-level courses online, why would one pay for Mobile Ed?
I was once told that businesses can only ever choose two of the three: quality, accessibility, and cost. This applies to theological resources too. Yes, there is an abundance of free fast-food audio/video lectures out there, and they serve a fine purpose. But I challenge students to find anything comparable in quality and functionality of what Logos is doing with Mobile Ed. You have your twinky and your tiramisu of theological resources; Mobile Ed is the latter. Logos recognizes – like all other businesses – that it can’t be everything, and simply prioritizes quality and accessibility over cost.
That said, a Mobile Ed course is cheaper than a corresponding seminary course and one gets to retain much more than class notes! Hopefully through my review series it is plain that Mobile Ed offers something special. Its price reflects that.
Final thoughts
I must admit that Mobile Ed surprised me. My wife and I are missionaries living on financial support, so free resources (and review copies!) are literally a Godsend. I initially dismissed Mobile Ed due to cost and apparent similarity with what else I could get online for free. I’m so glad that I thought twice and asked to review it! I’ve since come around to recognize that Mobile Ed has something very unique to offer. With a quickly-expanding list of courses, it only stands to get better!
Well, I hope you enjoyed my series reviewing Logos Mobile Ed. I actually have two more courses to review, and am so excited about reviewing one of them that I’ve already begun working through it. However, I think we could all do with a short break from Mobile Ed, so regular programming will resume for a few weeks.
All Posts in My Logos Mobile Ed (John Walton) Review
I’m very grateful for the opportunity to review Mobile Ed courses! I was not required to give a positive review.
