Executive Summary
CentriHall is a
non-profit organization founded by a group of Christians in the
greater Boston area of Chinese heritage with information
technology and Christian education backgrounds. The mission of this organization is to
create partnerships with Christian educational institutions
worldwide with the goal of providing resources to Chinese
Christians through shared educational materials, multimedia
e-Learning systems and technical skills. The services provided by CentriHall will enable Chinese seminaries, churches and similar
institutions to offer training programs to their students and
members anytime and anywhere. CentriHall is positioned to become
the e-Learning technology partner of choice for Chinese seminaries
and churches worldwide.
It has been recognized that there is an urgency to train qualified
workers to minister the ever-increasing Chinese Christian
populations. In addition, there are growing numbers of Chinese
Christians looking for venues and opportunities to pursue
life-long learning and continued spiritual growth. However, there
are not enough established Chinese Seminaries to fulfill such a
demand. It is estimated that there are over 140,000 Chinese
Christians in the North American, 750,000 in Taiwan, 400,000 in
Hong Kong and more than 70 millions in China.
CentriHall believes that Internet-based e-Learning holds the key
to fulfilling this ever-growing demand. However, most (if not all)
of the Chinese seminaries and churches do not have the resources
to initiate, develop, and maintain a technology-based training
program. CentriHall will develop the turnkey, an integrated
solution to facilitate any institution’s implementation of a fully
online distance-learning program. It will combine technology and
service infrastructure solutions to meet the highly responsive
services needed in the on-line distance learning environment.
CentriHall has the capability to train participating seminaries
and churches to take full advantage of the e-Learning services it
provides, such as interactive message boards, chat rooms,
multi-media material to enrich the content of the offered courses,
and training for the effective use of the student monitoring and
tracking capabilities of the system. CentriHall will provide
consultancy and helpdesk services to accelerate the adaptation of
the new infrastructure and learning environment for participating
institutions.
Each participating seminary is responsible for the administration
and mentoring of its student body. Students will enroll through
the seminary. CentriHall will then establish a separate fund to
commission the development of a catalog of on-line courses
available for all seminaries and churches.
The ultimate goal of CentriHall is to make high-quality e-Learning
available to Chinese Christians anywhere in the world over the
Internet. This will be especially significant for Christians in
China (estimated 70 million). With CentriHall’s initiative, a
virtual community will be developed among Chinese seminaries,
churches, pastors and co-workers which will foster better
cooperation and understanding between Chinese Christians, and
ultimately fulfill the great commission for the Lord. |
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