OXFORD TUTORIAL SERVICE (OTS)
WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE
Oxford Tutorial Service (OTS) http://www.oxfordtutorials.com/ is
an online college-prep High School program for home-school students. One of the earliest of such programs, it was
established in Seattle in 1998 by Norman J. Lund, Ph.D., a Teacher Consultant
with Academy Northwest http://www.academynorthwest.org/ in
collaboration with Fritz Hinrichs, a pioneer in online tutoring and the
director of Escondido Tutorial Service http://www.gbt.org/index.html Dr. Lund interacts with students directly in
live sessions as the only tutor in the OTS program. He offers a wide range of High School classes
including studies in the classic Great Books curriculum (three years);
Classical Latin (two years); Shakespeare (three years); Logic; Rhetoric; C. S.
Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. Over 1200
students have participated in OTS
tutorials since 1998. The most popular
colleges for OTS students have been:
Grove City College http://www.gcc.edu/
Hillsdale College http://www.hillsdale.edu/
Patrick Henry College http://www.phc.edu/
Wheaton College http://www.wheaton.edu/
OTS alumni have also
been accepted at the University of Aberdeen, Abilene Christian, Annapolis,
Auburn, Baylor, U. C. Berkeley, Biola, Bowling Green,
Colorado State, Columbia International U., Columbus State U., Cornell, CUNY, Eastman,
George Mason, Houghton, LeTourneau, Liberty, N. C.
State, Northwestern, Sacramento State, Oakland,
Oxford, Rice, Rose-Hulman, SPU, Texas A &
M, Texas State U., Thomas Aquinas, USAFA, U. Texas, U. South Carolina, U.
Washington, Vanderbilt, VMI, WWU, and Yale.
Name & Motto
OTS is not officially associated with
the University of Oxford (England), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Oxford but
aims at the high standards of scholastic excellence for which the university is
renowned. There are numerous tutoring
services which employ the name “Oxford” for various reasons. OTS
embraces the Biblical foundation and motto of Oxford U. Like many of the greatest universities in the
world, Oxford University was built by the church as an explicitly Christian
institution. The motto of Oxford since
the mid-16th century has been “Dominus
illűminâtiô mea,” “The Lord is my light” (Psalm
27:1); http://www.oua.ox.ac.uk/enquiries/arms.html
Some of the greatest Christian minds have studied and taught at Oxford U., including C.S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Dorothy Sayers, Charles Williams, William Tyndale, John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, John Wycliffe, and T. S. Eliot. Oxford Tutorial Service takes its name from this noble tradition and seeks to emulate its finest ideals of a Biblically-based, culturally-engaged scholarship. Dr. Lund offers his tutorials to students who are willing to devote themselves to a course of serious liberal arts study before they enter college or the world of employment and family. The tutorials seek to provide guidance in the development of a culturally informed, Biblical foundation and worldview
Tutorial Format
Dr. Lund meets with his students in regularly scheduled, real-time, interactive
classes in a cyber-classroom. Students
wear headsets and can participate both through their microphones and through
keyboards in a streaming chat-screen.
The tutor lectures, invites questions, leads discussion, and presents
material on a large whiteboard. Assignments
are submitted and evaluated via email. All
classes run for a full year (two, sixteen-week semesters) and include a
college-level bibliography, scheduled reading assignments, study questions,
study guides, formal essays, reading quizzes, periodic exams, online resources,
and a weekly online tutorial session which usually runs for about two hours.
Literature classes
use unabridged texts wherever possible and typically require a minimum of two,
graded, formal essays and/or exams per/semester. Students are given opportunity for regular
discussion and challenged to expand their vocabulary and knowledge of
literature. Regardless of the primary
focus and bibliography of each tutorial, students are also exposed to a wide
range of English authors for perspective and context, comparison and contrast.
About the Tutor
Dr. Norman J. Lund and his wife Judith reside in Kenmore, a suburb of Seattle, WA. Judy has a degree in education from Seattle Pacific University. They home-schooled their three daughters and have been active in the home-school movement since 1987. Dr. Lund's favorite authors are C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton. He studied with Francis Schaeffer at L'Abri, in Switzerland, in 1971. He subscribes to the Apostle's and Nicene Creeds, and to the Mission Statement of the Association of Classical and Christian Schools. He has been a member of the Evangelical Theological Society http://www.etsjets.org/ since 1985 and has presented lectures at both regional and national ETS conventions since 1986. He has also served as the director of research for a Christian "Think Tank" http://www.shuv.org/ based in Seattle. His annotated bibliography, dealing with Christian issues and culture can be seen at: http://www.shuv.org/ Dr. Lund has been privileged as an honoree in the 7th, 8th, 9th & 11th editions of Who's Who Among America's Teachers.®
Tutor’s Credentials
Dr. Lund is a certified Teacher Consultant with Academy Northwest, an
accredited and state approved private school based in Seattle, Washington. He earned his Ph.D. in systematic theology at
Wycliffe College (named for the Oxford reformer, John Wycliffe) at the
University of Toronto, Canada, in the Toronto School
of Theology. His doctoral thesis on the
question of Martin Luther’s ethics was done under Dr. Oliver O'Donovan, a
renowned scholar in Christian ethics (New College, Edinburgh) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_O'Donovan and
Harry J. McSorley, an international scholar in Luther
research (University of St. Michaels, Toronto).
Norm completed his B.A. in religion and philosophy at Northwest
University in Kirkland, WA. He holds two
master's degrees from Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN and is an ordained
Lutheran minister. Norm has been
teaching and tutoring professionally for over twenty years, first at the
Lutheran Bible Institute in Anaheim, CA. (1984-1991); then at American Lutheran
Seminary in St. Paul, MN. (1992-1996); in an adjunct capacity
at the Lutheran Bible Institute (now Trinity College) in Seattle (1996-1998);
and as the Director of Oxford Tutorials since 1998. He is a member of the Graduate Adjunct
Faculty at Faith Evangelical Seminary http://www.faithseminary.edu/ and
he is also a certified Teacher Consultant with Academy Northwest, an accredited
and state approved private school based in Seattle, Washington http://www.academynorthwest.org/