Erna Oliver

Biography

I started working within Church History by investigating the lives and work of church leaders Rev HCM Fourie (BD -1987) and Rev Dirk Van der Hoff (M.Div – 1990). By that time I already understood the importance of methodology as the foundation for historical research and this encouraged me to periodically interact with the way church history is practiced in South Africa (1993, 2007, 2011, 2021, 2022). After about 10 years in ministry, I enrolled for doctoral studies on the implementation of Christian National education in the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek (2003-2005). South African Church history in general and the problem areas within the traditional Afrikaans speaking churches informed my research since I became a staff member (contract worker until end 2010) in the discipline of Church History at Unisa. In 2013 I enrolled for a combined M.Ed in ODL degree at UMUC and Unisa which brought ODL into my scope of research and most of my research is now either focused on how to teach Theology effectively in the ODL environment or the burning issues that traditional Afrikaner Christianity in South Africa is facing. Aiming to provide effective distance education, I successfully completed both the SAQA Assessor and SAQA Moderator Training programmes during 2021 and 2022. I also try to attend and participate in mentorship, coaching and various training activities to expand my knowledge, capabilities and capacity in Distance Higher Education.