Three new courses are making their debut on the TEL Learning site this month: Music Appreciation, Stories of the New Testament, and Survey of the New Testament. We’re also launching Introduction to Business and Entrepreneurship in the next few weeks as well.
In addition to being available as individual courses, these new courses also help us fill out the sequence for our associate degree pathway.
Music Appreciation
Whether you enjoy K-pop is a matter of opinion. Whether you can appreciate what music adds to cultures over time is a skill.
In the TEL Music Appreciation course, students will survey various types of music and how music affects societies from prehistory through the present day. Students will work to develop appropriate listening skills as they become increasingly aware of the role of music throughout the ages, the role it plays today, and the role it will play in the future.
Students will start with the basics of music, such as rhythm and timbre, as well as how music is made. They will travel through the times of epic poetry and music as a form of storytelling before the written word was popular. The course will cover Beethoven and Bach, Tin Pan Alley, Jazz, and how music is a vital part of the movies we watch.
When they successfully complete the course, students will be able to:
- Identify and describe basic musical terminology
- Aurally discriminate between categories of instruments
- Explain the historical and cultural evolution of music from prehistory to the present
- Identify and discuss the societal values and aesthetic attributes of many genres and styles of music and articulate reasons for their musical preferences
New Testament Options
We’re launching two New Testament courses to accompany our Introduction to Christianity and Old Testament courses. These New Testament courses take a slightly different approach to the second half of the Christian Bible.
Stories of the New Testament
The Christian Bible is full of stories. From parables to descriptions of what Jesus did and said, the New Testament provides many examples of how to (and how not to) follow Jesus’s teachings.
Stories of the New Testament focuses on these narrative elements. It covers all of the Gospels as well as the Book of Acts. Throughout the course, learners will be asked important questions about Jesus’s character. For instance, did he treat people well, or did he take advantage of them? Was Jesus an honest person, or was he lying about his relationship to God? Did Jesus deserve to die the way he did—embarrassed, naked, and abandoned by his friends—or was he the kind of person who deserved a better ending to his life?
The early Christian traits of heroism, love, and perseverance tell a story by themselves, and the authors continually attribute such character qualities to the work of Jesus. Is it possible that Jesus rose from the dead, and could he have changed the hearts and minds of his followers? Is such internal transformation possible for Jesus’s followers today? This New Testament course wrestles with these questions and more as it seeks to introduce students to Jesus.
Survey of the New Testament
Survey of the New Testament offers more of an overview of the New Testament. Like Stories, students in Survey will first experience the story of the Gospels, which cover the life, teachings, and miracles of Jesus, followed by his death and resurrection. They will also be asked to think about Jesus’s character as they study the Gospels.
This course also examines the movement of Jesus’s followers as described in the book of Acts. Lastly, this course will explore the canonical writings of the early Christians—the Epistles and Revelation—to determine basic Christian teachings. How does the Christian faith affect the lives of Jesus’s followers? How does Christian transformation play out in personal situations in the real world?
Either of the New Testament courses will fulfill the New Testament requirement for the Oklahoma Christian University associate degree pathway.
Introduction to Business & Entrepreneurship
According to Gallup, four out of 10 middle and high school students want to start their own business. While many tools are available to anyone with an internet connection, many young people don’t understand everything it takes to launch and run their own enterprise.
Coming to the TEL Learning site in early October, the Introduction to Business & Entrepreneurship course helps build that foundation for young entrepreneurs. The course gives an introductory survey of entrepreneurship and business fundamentals. Through the framework of the business model canvas, the course also explores the fundamental considerations of planning, launching, owning, and managing a successful small business enterprise.
When students successfully complete the course, they will be able to:
- Analyze and evaluate the opportunities, rewards, risks, and ethical considerations as they apply to the creation of a new business venture
- Evaluate and apply an understanding of business fundamentals as they relate to different business types and the business life cycle
- Analyze and apply major concepts from the business model canvas framework to develop, describe, and visualize the rationale of how small businesses create value to meet customer needs
- Analyze the roles and functions involved in the effective management of a small business
- Evaluate and apply the important characteristics and traits of entrepreneurship as it applies to the process of starting a small business
- Evaluate another person’s work using performance criteria
- Evaluate a scenario and identify the best answer, engage with others to explain your rationale
A Pathway to An Associate Degree
These new courses along with our Philosophy of Life course coming next Spring make it so our catalog can support a full associate degree program. We will continue to add electives for more options, but the foundation is complete.
If you or your student is interested in earning an associate degree, either alongside a high school diploma or as a next step toward their goals, visit our website, degrees.tellearning.org.
