WorshipTraining

Length Of Posts

For each part of the course, you’ll have a written assignment on the course Forum. Your initial response to the discussion questions should be approximately 150-250 words long (roughly 20 lines of text). If you have more to say but have maxed out your word count, then we suggest posting more on your blog and linking to it from your forum post.

Response Posts

For each part of the course, you’ll read through what others are posting in the course forum and respond to at least two people. Begin your response by mentioning the person’s name (e.g to respond to Dan Wilt  you’d use @danwilt and then begin to write your response).

Important: To find out someone’s @name simply click on their name (at the start of their post). This will take you to their profile page where you’ll see their @name next to their picture. If you begin your response with @person’s-name then they’ll more easily be able to find it on the Activity page by clicking @my-name to see who as responded to them.

Your responses may be as short as a sentence or as long as two paragraphs. Please keep your post limited to this size.

When Writing On The Web

Create space when writing on the web. When writing, a new paragraph (with a hard return between paragraphs) should occur after every 4-5 lines of text. This allows for ease of reading when viewed on a computer screen by others. This can often make the difference between someone reading your post or not reading it.

Footnotes

You’ll be making references to course material (as well as external ideas) when writing posts and crafting your creative project. We use Chicago Style footnotes to show where the ideas are coming from. When writing simply add a number like this 1) in your post. Then at the bottom of the post you can add a corresponding footnote like the one below.

1) Tom Wright, Jesus And The Victory Of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996), 150-153.

If You Choose To Blog

Some of you may choose to post a weekly blog reflection regarding the course (required for those taking this for university credit). If you do, here are a few pointers.

The goal of having you blog your reflections for this course is to begin to engage you in a global conversation related to worship. When posting on your blog, we want to help you to create a network of conversation that goes beyond your blog, connecting your thoughts with other blogs, and ultimately raising your presence in some of the conversations going on today about worship and emerging worship ideas.

For this reason, we want to create a “link catalyst system” on each post you write on your blog that connects to the wider world, and is a gateway for others connected to WorshipTraining blogs to find you.

We also want to be able to quickly identify which post on your blog is meant to address the  themes you are reflecting on each week. Not all of your blog posts need to be related to a course, so we want to be able to distinguish your course posts from other posts.

Create a category on your blog called “Insert Your Course Name Here” and file all of your posts in this category.

On each blog post reflection that pertains to our class, we’d ask you to follow this example format.

Ex. Under “Title Of Post” type, for example: ”I’ve Been Thinking About Worship (Insert Your Course Name Here)”

At the beginning of your actual post, type the following, then continue with your post:

“For: Insert Your Course Name Here”

Link the description that you just wrote to WorshipTraining.com.

Now, if you have tags available to you in your blog (key words that you can select to each post), type in these tags, and add your own: Dan Wilt, online, course, training, worship, leader, training, essentials, values, art.

Why Do All This?

Links to these will help tag your site in searches. Proper blog protocol is to do as much linking in posts as possible for maximum cross-linking.

Typing out the words in the title post, making tags, and putting the opening lines above (with no words abbreviated) in your post, will insure that Google and other other search engines will relate your posts to word searches such as “Worship,” “Insert Course Name Here,” “Values,” “Dan Wilt,” “Paul Baloche,” etc..

As your blog then gets comments, or you comment on others’ blogs, the web of connectivity begins. ALWAYS make sure when you are commenting on others’ blogs that you indicate your blog address in the appropriate field. This will highlight your name, and bring people to your blog.

Why Comment On Highly Trafficked Blogs?

We also recommend that you comment regularly on highly trafficked blogs. This list of blogs may be any of the blogs linked to on www.DanWilt.com, and you can choose which blogs you would like to post on each week. You may choose to comment on other blogs you know of as well.

Note that on trafficked blogs (ex. www.DanWilt.com) thousands of unique visitors come each month. When you comment on a blog like this, chances are that many will see what you’ve written, click on your name, and end up over at your website. This is the beauty of blogs.

If you’ve never started one, why not try it now? Just go to WordPress.com and start a blog.

Your creative project is meant to be a simple and useful worship tool that is built on the the course content, and will serve your community. Your project may take any of the following forms.

We strongly recommend starting to think about your project as early as Session 1 of the course. For scheduled courses, projects are due on the last day of classes (for Self-Directed courses, you can you post the project whenever you’d like). Creative projects are required for all Essentials Courses and are optional for elective courses.

Options For Your Creative Project

These projects will be posted online at the end of the course, for all those taking the course to see and use, so the final format must be accessible via the internet (i.e. Word doc, mp3, ppt, pdf, YouTube, etc.). Choose from one of the following options below:

1) A rough mp3 and PDF chord chart for an original contemporary worship song written for your local congregation based on one of the values ideas presented during the course. This project will include a separate 250 word explanation of the lyrics and music in relation to the chosen concept. Mp3s can be very rough (a raw sound), or something you’ve spent time on in a studio.

2) A rough mp3 and PDF of an adaptation (musical or literary – i.e. liturgical reading) of an ancient prayer or hymn rich with values/spiritual formation content for the use of one’s local community. Each project should include a separate 250 word explanation of the words (and music if applicable) in relation to the chosen concept;

3) A rough mp3 and PDF of a corporate liturgical reading (responsive or otherwise), or collection of readings, based on one of the values ideas presented during the course. Each project should include a separate 250 word explanation of the words in relation to the chosen concept;

4) A 1000 word essay detailing three (3) of the primary ideas gleaned from the course (footnotes and bibliography are expected), and your plans for applied integration of those ideas as a musician/worship leader/spiritual leader/artisit in your local community. This project can be discussed with your pastoral leader.

5) A Powerpoint or Keynote visual presentation focused on a particular values theme noted in the course content. Each project should include a separate 250 word explanation of the words in relation to the chosen concept, and the intended application context for the piece. The presentation is not meant to be so much a teaching presentation, but something that can self-run and shape the worship reflection of your congregation. This can be photo- journalistic in nature, primarily use words, or take any format you wish.

OR

You may try a fresh idea that is similar in spirit to any of the above, and serves your local community well.

Creative Exchange

Once you have finished your project, please add it to the Creative Exchange for others to see. You’ll see instructions on uploading next to the “Add Media” button at the top.

Peer Review

Once you’ve posted your creative project, please take a few minutes and review two of your classmates’ projects (review at least one that hasn’t been commented on yet). Simply write a few lines of positive, helpful feedback (be nice).