It would certainly vary from participant to participant. On the average, participants should be prepared to invest a total of 10-15 hours each week as follows:
- 4-5 hours on coursework preparation and assignments
- 6-7 hours for online engagement: reading/responding to posts (Tuesday to Friday)
- 2-3 hours for personal reflection and experiential exercises
The week runs from Monday to Saturday (with Sundays off). Mondays are usually devoted to coursework preparation (reading texts, watching videos, listening to audio, etc.). Tuesdays through Fridays are usually focused on online engagement (responding to discussion question prompts, threaded discussion/interaction with classmates and the instructor, blog or journal posts, etc.). Saturdays are usually allotted for working on assignments and other review or catch-up work. Note, however, that this average time allocation will change once the “official” Practicum period kicks in half-way through the program as this will involve the participant directing at least two people and seeing a supervisor in addition to seeing his/her own spiritual director on a monthly basis. Also, during the Group Spiritual Direction module (which will be a six-week class), more praxis time is required.