Where the Magic Happens
Written by Mette Bjergbæk Klausen
COO DECIBEL Training Department
The DECIBEL Training Department is where courses are written, edited, designed, recorded, and produced by a very skilled and dedicated team. This is where the magic happens!
I would like to present to you a queue of great news!
No less than three courses in the Timothy Leadership Training Program (TLT) Basic Certificate have been completed as video enhancements:
‘Great Things with God’: A short introductory course to the program.
‘Caring for God’s People’: A course on how to conduct pastoral counselling, and
‘From Harm to Harmony’, Overcoming Violence in the Family’: A course on how to break the tabu and help bring healing to struggling families.
We are thrilled to be able to share these courses with church leaders across the world, both through our own contacts and through TLT’s huge network.
Enhancement in what way?
Enhancements are video versions of written course manuals. The course is made to empower church leaders to better fulfil their calling, by guiding them through Bible reflection, group discussion, and leading them to better practice.
In their enhanced format, these courses become more easily accessible to the far majority of people, who do not enjoy learning through written text.
The audio in the enhancements narrates what participants would otherwise have to read, to carter for preferred oral learners. The visual elements enhance the learning experience by supporting the topics through illustrations, but also by catering for pictorial learners, and by making the topics easier to remember.
The learning process
The learning is taking place in groups of peers, who come together to share their experiences and reflections, and to learn from each other.
The enhancements are guiding the groups through the topics, narrating Bible passages, bringing new knowledge, raising questions, and instructing the group on what to do and how to implement what they learn.
Course facilitators server as mentors and organisers. The facilitators also ensure the courses are executed properly. But the task of facilitation is greatly lessened as the course itself is carried by the enhancements. Therefor it is easier for participants to become facilitators and set up new groups.
The enhancements are thus made to make the learning go deeper as they impact the participants through more means than merely text. The enhancements are also made to go broader as they are easier to facilitate to new groups, and they may also go to participants who struggle to read or are completely illiterate, so more people can be reached.
DECIBEL wants to work multi-linguistic
While we are celebrating these first achievements, we are already moving towards the next major milestone: Translations. All three courses have been translated and prepared for a French version. Recordings of the French narration have commenced, so soon productions of enhancements can follow.
The Spanish translations have just been initiated, so they will soon follow.
All enhancements will initially be made in these three languages. This is a time-consuming process. But once courses are made in one language, they are much easier adapted into new language.
DECIBEL Training has also designed a complete makeover for the written versions of the courses. The new layout looks great. Now we are working together with TLT on formatting all existing manuals, in all the many more languages these have been translated into.
Second edition of Christian Stewardship
‘Christian Stewardship’ is another previously completed Basic Certificate course, which has received a face-lift. The course helps participants identify and be better stewards of the many gifts and talents they and their congregations have been given.
The facelift was necessary due to changes within the organisation, but also due to a new, global target audience. While revising we implemented some important lessons learned from field testing.
This second edition has been designed and recorded in English, and productions of the final enhancements are commencing this week.
Next steps
‘Fear Not, A Christian Attitude about Spiritual Powers’ is the next course in the pipeline. The course is already being prepared, and it will serve as an elective for the Advanced TLT Certificate.
In the Word Online collection, two new series on Romans and Galatians have been recorded and are undergoing the last final touches before the series will be launched on our website.
With the next newsletter comes a much deeper presentation of Word Online.
Altogether, lots of exiting progress and much more to come!
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