Instructor Resources

Whom 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 Melissa if you have questions about:

• Instructor Payments
• Your course description page
• Inaccuracies on the course schedule or your course’s enrollment form
• General website issues

Email Sara if you have questions about:

• Writing an effective course description
• Notification list emails
• Press releases

Email Beth G if you have questions about:

• Course enrollments
• Certificates of Completion
• Certificates of Completion replacements

Email Beth P if you have questions about:

• Building content in Blackboard
• Marketing your course

Need a refresher on Blackboard?

Lisa Buffum and instructor coach, Beth Perry, have designed an instructor resource library in Blackboard.  It should be in your Blackboard account once you have completed IFD100.  If it is not, or if you’ve lost your access to Blackboard, please email Lisa to be added.

1. Course descriptions should be concise descriptions of what the learner should expect from the course. Use the following questions to write a concise (three to four sentences) course description.

• • What problem will this course solve?
  • Why is this course unique in helping the learner solve this problem?
  • What will stay with the learner following the course?

2. Please limit your course descriptions to 120-130 words. BeADisciple.com course descriptions are being consciously shortened as more and more of our learners use smaller devices to access our information. A longer description may not look onerous on a computer, but on a phone or tablet prospective learners may not make the effort to read lengthy information.

3. Write your course descriptions directly to your potential students. Whenever possible use “you” instead of “participants” (i.e. – “you will learn…” instead of “students will learn…” or “participants will learn…”) in your description. However, DON’T use first-person pronouns such as “I” and “we” in the description which can leave the reader wondering “who?”

4. Instructors may include as much detail as they wish on their Blackboard course site and syllabus. This may include personal testimony, past evaluation comments, etc.

5. Associated Press Style will be followed for capitalization, abbreviations, etc. This means job titles are lowercase except when they immediately precede a name (Pope John XXIII, the pope), and only the full names of official groups and committees are capitalized (Committee on Family Ministries, family ministries committee). Numbers 0-9 are spelled out, 10 and above are figures. Don’t worry if you are not familiar with AP Style; your bio will be edited by a BeADisciple staff member proficient in this style. One exception to AP Style is that BeADisciple uses the serial (Oxford) comma.

6. For help in writing or editing your course description email Sara.

• Plan ahead. You should have your course submitted to us 6-8 weeks before it starts (10 weeks for brand-new courses.) More time is better to allow us to update the BeADisciple website, course schedule, and course description page to 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 learners an extra day to complete a particular assignment or whether you’d like to schedule in a break during your course.
• 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  will be learned.  Avoid bullet points.  Write in third person rather than first person.

• Use these handy marketing tips  to help you fill your course.
• Share your course within your own networks once the course is ready for enrollments. Don’t forget to tell your friends about your course, and ask your church or conference to share a description and link to your course in their weekly newsletter.
• Print a few business cards that list your course.  A template is in the Instructor Resource Library in Blackboard.
• Ask Sara for a digital flyer to help you tell people about your course on BeADisciple. Email Sara for a digital postcard for your course!

Use the Withdrawal/Rollover Form (red button below) to communicate to us when a learner drops out of a course.

You may need to ask the learner questions or give other thought to whether or not you will allow a rollover (which allows the learner to take this same course with you again the next time it is offered without paying again at that time.)  You will want to take everything into consideration before submitting the form.

The form will help us track this information on learners for the future.

We have made this change to give our instructors more control over the policy since you are more financially affected than we are.