Wondering how to use Bible Journey for your classroom? Bible Journey courses are adaptable for a variety of classroom sizes, levels and purposes. Professors have successfully used Bible Journey for undergraduate and graduate-level courses, in small Bible colleges and larger seminaries, as a supplement for their own curriculum or as a required e-text for the foundation of the course syllabus. The options are nearly endless. If you’re still trying to decide how Bible Journey might serve your students, read through these 6 ways Bible Journey can be easily customized for your class.

1. Vary the depth/intensity.

While Bible Journey’s courses are rigorous, it’s possible to vary the depth or intensity by choosing more or less content to require. By focusing simply on the “Explorer,” or base, content, students will watch lectures, interviews and on-site videos for a thorough study of the Scriptures. Extra reading, articles, videos and exercises can be required to give an even deeper and more rigorous Bible Journey experience for seminary-level students or others who need additional training.

The workbook content is also available for all students and is a primary means for many of the interactive portions of Bible Journey, as well as providing space for reflection and exploration of the Scriptures. Adjusting how many of the workbook exercises you require for your class can vary the depth of study as well.

2. Use Bible Journey for consistency.

Using Bible Journey for your classroom can take on many different forms depending on what curriculum you’re already using. Bible Journey’s curriculum can provide consistency for intro-level classes taught by a variety of professors and adjuncts and can offer a “ready-to-go” curriculum for professors with a limited amount of prep time.

For staple Bible survey courses, Bible Journey provides more content than is usually provided, plus bundles it all in one convenient “text” package, so students get more engaging and in-depth study while also easing workloads of professors and adjuncts. It also allows teachers or adjuncts who may not be as much of a specialist to still provide specialized, rigorous teaching and in-depth historical, cultural and other background knowledge.

3. Create your own syllabus.

Whether you’re a well-established professor teaching Bible Journey in your class or considering it for a group of adjunct-taught survey courses, Bible Journey can be easily customized by simply creating your own syllabus based on what you already have and what Bible Journey includes. Use the full Bible Journey curriculum “as is” to provide lectures, exercises, interviews, videos, reading and more for students and then supplement anything as required by your college or seminary standards.

Alternatively, you could start with what you already have by way of curriculum, and use Bible Journey as the supplement for additional content. Keep in mind that “flipping through” Bible Journey’s interactive and multimedia curriculum can take much more time than flipping through a standard textbook, so be sure to allow yourself plenty of time to familiarize yourself with the curriculum when designing your syllabus.

4. Adjust what content from Bible Journey you’ll include.

Adjusting which content you include from Bible Journey’s curriculum can create nearly unlimited possibilities for customization, providing everything from a foundational and in-depth complete curriculum to resources that fill in the gaps in your own syllabus. Perhaps Bible Journey can save you time from recording all of your lectures by simply using Bible Journey’s lectures in place of your own. Or perhaps your students need additional context on historical, geographical or cultural aspects of Scripture—Bible Journey’s courses cover not just what’s in the text, but also include Behind the Text and In Front of the Text sections covering background context as well as interviews and context on the impact of Scripture across time and place.

Bible Journey’s studies are broken down into smaller units of courses and lessons, which can be individually to provide content for supplemental units. Perhaps most notably, Bible Journey’s content also connects students with the global Church and the wider Bible movement. Through on-site videos and lectures with Christians, pastors and scholars from around the world, students can gain perspective and understanding on how Scripture has impacted believers around the world, both historically and today. Use Bible Journey as a resource to take student’s learning beyond the classroom and into real-world ministry settings from the global Church.

5. Teach virtually or in-person.

Current COVID restrictions and guidelines have greatly changed our lives, particularly when it comes to college and university classes. Students who previously may have met in-person in your classroom several times a week, had office hours, worked on group projects together and so on may now be completely virtual and possibly more disconnected than ever. Or your college may be adopting a hybrid model, allowing you to teach virtually and in-person at the same time—or even for the same class.

Bible Journey is easily customizable for a variety of class formats. For in-person classes, a flipped classroom approach works very well with Bible Journey. Simply assign your students to do the bulk of the coursework—watching lectures, doing the reading and exercises, listening to interviews and so on—on their own outside of class, using Bible Journey’s completely online courses and mobile software. This allows you to reserve time in class for discussion, questions and more hands-on learning. If you’re teaching online or in a hybrid setting, Bible Journey’s completely online curriculum allows everyone to stay on the same page, no matter where they’re working from. Since it was designed for virtual learning, the interactive and engaging curriculum means you don’t have to work on designing a curriculum that works both virtually and in-person.

6. Recommend Bible Journey as a resource for students.

Students may want to dive deeper into certain areas of the curriculum or do additional study on particular topics for a project or paper. Bible Journey can be a recommended resource available for students to explore on their own, for extra credit or as a resource for class projects and assignments. You can also recommend Bible Journey as a resource for undergraduate students who are hoping to continue on to seminary. Bible Journey’s rich theological study and in-depth examination of Scripture will provide students with an exceptional foundation for future studies.

Ready to get started with Bible Journey in your classroom? Try two weeks for free and see for yourself how you might customize Bible Journey for your needs and your students.