HST LIVE is the acronym for “Live Interactive Video Education.”
In this format, students will meet in a classroom for regular weekly meetings in 3-hour blocks. The LIVE format opens up that course to distance students. As a distance student, you can use the internet to attend weekly classes that meet on campus along with local students.
With LIVE, you will participate in live class discussions in real time along with students who are meeting in a physical classroom. You can see them and they can see you. You and your distance classmates are on a screen at the front of the class visible to the students and professor in the classroom.
On your monitors at home, you see the classroom as well as the other distance students on one and the professor’s slides on the other. When you speak in class, the camera is situated so that the local students are looking right at you, making virtual eye contact. This allows for more nuanced communication as both you and your classmates can see facial expressions and other body language. Responding to a professor’s questions and illustrations or asking your own questions about classroom material is essentially like being in the room.
Are LIVE classes considered “on-campus” courses or “distance” courses?
All HST degrees have a residency requirement (a number of courses that must be taken on our Memphis campus). For the MA and MACM, the residency requirement is two courses. For the M.Div., it is three courses. With classes offered in the LIVE format, for students who physically come to the classroom for weekly sessions, the classes are considered on-campus and count toward residency requirement. Those who attend the class via a remote connection would be considered distance students. For those students, LIVE courses would not count toward the residency requirement. There is no limit to the number of LIVE courses a student may take in their program as long as they meet the residency requirement.
Are there any special technology requirements for using the LIVE format?
Yes; students in LIVE courses who are not physically coming to the classroom are required to have the following equipment:
- Ear buds with microphone or headset with microphone.
- Laptop or tablet with camera or desktop computer with camera.
- Internet access using a graphical web browser such as FireFox 41.0.1 or higher, Google Chrome 46.0 or higher, or Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 or higher.
- A second monitor.
Introduction to Zoom
When do these LIVE courses meet?
Typically, classes meet for a three-hour block of time one day each week on our regular HST schedule. Standard meeting times are Monday, Tuesday, or Thursday at 8 am, 1 pm, or 6 pm central time.
Some one-week intensive courses are also offered via the LIVE format. The standard intensive course meets for one week, Monday through Friday, 8:00-3:45, and Saturday morning 8:00-noon. Check syllabus for exact meeting times.
To see the class schedule for a typical semester, click here. You are present and engaged for the entire class period.