Exploring Adult Learners’ Spiritual Formation in Online Learning: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to describe the support for guiding spiritual formation in online courses for students in post-secondary Christian education in Asia. Support for guiding spiritual formation in online courses was generally defined as an instructional design that influences spiritual formation through social, cognitive, and teaching presence in the learning experience. The conceptual framework guiding this study was Garrison et al.’s community of inquiry, as it supports online instruction through social, cognitive, and teaching presences. The central research question was: What are the perspectives of online students as they develop spiritual formation within their coursework? The study collected data from 12 participants in an online leadership development course in Asia. The online course curriculum requires that students experience some aspect of spiritual formation during the program. Data collection included individual interviews, focus groups, and journal entries. The data analysis involved a grouped thematic analysis of the transcribed interviews, descriptive and reflective notes from interview sessions, and participants’ journal entries. Results indicated that while intentional spiritual formation in the course’s initial module produced significant personal and communal growth, later modules emphasizing technical leadership skills yielded only incidental spiritual development experiences. Although subsequent modules shifted toward technical leadership skills, participants’ narratives revealed that the online medium is not inherently deficient in nurturing spiritual formation; instead, the limitations observed stem from an inconsistent emphasis on spiritual objectives across the curriculum due to inadequate instructional design.