News from our organization
Wanted: mentors for WhatsApp
News from our organization
Wanted: mentors for WhatsApp
News from our organization
Wanted: mentors for WhatsApp
GlobalRize now offers students the opportunity to follow the Bible course ‘The Life of Jesus’ in WhatsApp. We urgently need people who want to guide students in this way. One of our mentors, Harry Raaphorst, says: “I have such great conversations. Not occasionally, but every single day!”
GlobalRize recently started to offer students the opportunity of following the Bible course ‘The Life of Jesus’ in WhatsApp. This has rapidly become so successful that we now urgently need people who are willing to mentor these ‘WhatsApp students’. One of our mentors, Harry Raaphorst, says: “I have the most wonderful conversations with students. Not once in a while, but every day!”
For years, we have offered our GlobalRize Bible courses through our own Learnnn platform. Learnnn is an excellent platform, which accommodates both students and mentors. Students study their lessons and answer questions, and mentors review, respond and engage in conversation.
Dropouts
This format has one major drawback, however. Many students drop out quickly. They are sent reminders to return to their coursework, but often to little avail. For years, we racked our brains about how to draw people back in. We introduced WhatsApp reminders rather than e-mail, but even that failed to entice many students.
We have often been puzzled over how to get people back together. What if we don’t send the reminders via email, but via WhatsApp?, we thought. No sooner said than done. But that also met with little success.
Course through WhatsApp
Until the blessed idea was conceived to communicate the course itself via WhatsApp. Especially “The Life of Jesus” lends itself well to this: it consists of short video clips from the famous Jesus movie, followed by a number of questions. The mentor simply pastes the video link into the WhatsApp conversation with the student. Once the student has watched the clip, the mentor posts a corresponding question.
This new method proves to work well: it is much easier and more natural to engage in conversation about the questions. Students also appear to be less likely to drop out!
The downside, however, is that this method is very ‘labor-intensive’. The mentor has to forward individual questions and respond quickly.
So if we want to accommodate those students who are at risk of dropping out from the regular course environment, we need 80-100 new mentors ready to guide people in this new way! According to Harry Raaphorst, the ‘WhatsApp Way’ is such a great way to mentor students, that he would recommend it to every mentor! “It’s so great to do!”
Interested? Sign up: [email protected].
