The graduating class of 1917
COURTESY OF GRATZ COLLEGE ARCHIVE
The Drawing
Board/Symphony Sq
22 THE GUIDE 2020/2021
didn’t believe that there was a suitable substitute
for classroom discussion, and felt online education
couldn’t approach the academic rigor of in-person
instruction. Nobody was too keen on the idea of
talking into a computer screen for lectures that were
over an hour long. Sandberg, however, had always
been intrigued by the possibilities of the application
of new technologies in education. So that spring she
started with five students.

The technology was not what it is today. Without
Zoom or other videoconferencing tools, Sandberg
would type up questions, provide readings and then
create a space for the students to leave comments on
a shared message board. There, they’d Talmudically
annotate and respond to one another, comments
building on comments. It took some adjustment,
Sandberg said, but she was hooked.

“After I taught that first course, I realized what
the potential was for reaching people, especially
people in areas where there was very little opportu-
nity for them to get either an undergraduate degree,
or certainly not an advanced degree, in some areas
in Jewish studies,” Sandberg said.

The key to the early successes of the online
program, both Sandberg and Finkelman said,
came down to the decision to use asynchronous
educational techniques, rather than synchronous.

Students, who may have jobs and families, or may
simply live in a different time zone, could watch lec-
tures at their leisure, rather than attend a one-sided
livestreamed lecture.

“What we found over time as we experienced
more online teaching was that because we have an
entire week to discuss a particular topic, it actually
allows for more engagement among the students,”
Sandberg said.

By the 2005-2006 school year, Gratz offered
online degree programs to students. In the years
since, as many more students of different back-
grounds were reached, administrators and facul-
ty recognized the need for a greater diversity of



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