Instructor Resources

Need a refresher on Blackboard?

Lisa Buffum has designed a short refresher course for using Blackboard.  If it’s been a while since you’ve led a course and you feel a little rusty, email Lisa to be added to a free, self-paced Blackboard refresher course.

 

Who do I email about what?

BeADisciple is growing, and so is our staff! Refer to this guide to know whom to contact with any question you have:

Email Lisa if you have questions about:

• The best dates to schedule a course
• Building your course in Blackboard
• Problems you’re having with Blackboard (or submit an error report)

Email Miranda if you have questions about:

• Instructor Payments

Email Beth if you have questions about:

• Current course enrollment numbers
• Certificates of Completion

Email Britt if you have questions about:

• Your course description page
• Inaccuracies on the course schedule or your course’s enrollment form
• General website issues
• Adding positive reviews of your course to your course page

Email Meg if you have questions about:

• Promoting your course

• Plan ahead. You should have your course submitted to us at least 5-6 weeks before it starts. This allows us to include a link to your course from our monthly e-newsletter (sent the first Tuesday of every month), work with you on possible blog posts to raise interest in your course, and help ensure that your course is on the course schedule long enough for interested students to see it and enroll.
• Be aware of timing. Are there holidays scheduled during your course? Big events? Double-check your calendar and consider whether you will need to give students an extra day to complete a particular assignment or whether you’d like to schedule in a break during your course.  We’ve also found that it’s better to start your course after our monthly newsletter goes out on the first Tuesday of the month — i.e. if the first Tuesday is the 3rd of the month, please don’t start your course on Monday the 2nd.
• Make sure your course name is clear.  The name of your course should be clear enough that someone looking through a list of courses would know what your course is about and what it will teach them.
• Write a clear course description.  Make sure you describe what topics the course will cover and what participants will learn.  As a general rule, we try to avoid bullet points in descriptions.
• Share your course within your social networks once the course is ready for enrollments (you will receive an email from someone on IFD staff when your course is ready). Ask your church or conference to share a description and link to your course in their weekly newsletter. Post the link on your social media pages. Tell your friends!
• Create and print handouts and business cards to help you tell people about your course on BeADisciple in person. Email Meg to gain access to digital BeADisciple business card and course postcard templates!
  • BeADisciple halfpage handout
  • BeADisciple Lay Servant Ministries half-page handout

1. Write your descriptions in an invitational spirit. You’re inviting potential students to take your course and giving them the information they need to decide if it’s a class they’d like to take.
2. Write your course descriptions right to your potential students. Use “you” instead of “participants” (i.e. – “you will learn…” instead of “students will learn…” or “participants will learn…”) in your description.
3. Make sure you clearly state what students will gain from the course. What ‘problem’ does your course help them overcome?  What will they gain by taking your course?
4. We’d prefer your course description be at least two paragraphs long.