Many people find that learning as part of a group gives them more depth of insight into a subject than learning alone does. Other peers talk about insights you may have missed, and you share your own insights. It’s just like the Bible says, “As iron sharpens iron, so a person sharpens his friend” (Proverbs 27:17).

Learners that prefer to learn in a group, should do the course with others in a small group (two or more learners) to enable collaboration and immediate application in their ministry context.

Facilitate a course at your church

Gather a group or groups at your church, and do the courses together. You can facilitate the tempo and the discussions. You don't need to be a missions expert to do this. Let the course material carry you through. See the next section for more detail.

There are different ways to form groups:

Learn with a Group of Christian Friends

If you are interested in doing a course, you could invite other Christian friends and form a group to learn together. The group can choose a facilitator who will organize meetings, coordinate discussions, and so on. This person does not have to be an expert on the subject matter; he or she can learn along with the group.

The group could then

  • watch the videos together, do the quizzes as a group or separately, and write the results of their discussions online, or

  • get together to discuss the discussion questions, after having watched a series of videos independently at times that best suited them. For example, you could agree as a group to meet once a week for these discussions.

After most videos, there are suggestions for group discussions. There are also reflection questions that help you think through things, and suggest what you can pray for.

Of course, groups can meet virtually through the internet using conference tools like Zoom. See https://zoom.us/ and our page on How our online courses work and Running a course at your church. See also the paragraph below about the "teams" facility on the courses.

Learn in a Team

If you are on a team going to do the mission field or you if you are already there, you can enhance your learning by discussing the implications of what the course is teaching you to your situation. The team facilitator may be the team leader, who organizes meetings, coordinates discussions, and so on.

Each course has a "teams" facility, where anyone can create a "virtual team". Teams can consist of people who share a specific language, are from a certain country or church or organization. You can create your own team, and then other people can join the team.

In case you are in a sensitive place, you might want to guard your team’s privacy. Keep in mind that anyone who has registered for Didasko Academy, and who is enrolled in the same course, will be able to view the discussion. Thus use with care.

Learn on your own, but participate actively in the online discussion forums

An advantage of doing a course on your own or with your spouse is that you have total freedom in setting the pace as you prefer.

We highly recommend that you participate actively in the online discussion forums. Write down your thoughts on the topic, and read what others have written. Many people report that they have found great benefit in what others have written (Proverbs 27:17). You can help bring new perspectives to the courses!

If you do the courses on your own, it is especially important that you spend time thinking and praying through the reflection questions that that appear after most videos. This will help cement what you've learnt.