Quick Find: Demo & Sample Lessons | Lesson Planning | Lesson Building | Teacher Access
PURCHASING & PAYMENT
Is my DIG IN account the same login as my Group.com account?
No, these are two separate accounts.
To create or login to your DIG IN account start here: https://diginapp.group.com/programs.
Can I return DIG IN for a refund?
No, Group’s company return policy states that “Products or services that include downloadable content are non-returnable once content has been delivered. All sales are final.” However, you may cancel your subscription at any time to avoid future charges.
Am I getting anything different when I purchase a license for 20 kids or 400 kids?
No, all the tools and content are the same. Our goal in creating DIG IN was to build a curriculum system that would be affordable for any size church or budget. Based on the pricing tiers we offer, a large church will spend less per student than a small church, but a smaller ministry will spend less overall.
When other programs come out, do I have to buy them separately?
Each program is sold separately. You might choose to use multiple programs simultaneously with different age levels or for different purposes. For example, you might be using Life of Jesus for Sunday school and The Bible in One Year for a Wednesday evening program.
Do you automatically charge my credit card?
If you choose the quarterly billing option, you pay up front for your first quarter. Every 90 days, your credit card will be automatically charged for the next quarter before it is delivered. You can cancel any time prior to the quarterly billing date. Once you have received all content for a specific program, the billing cycle will stop unless you purchase a different program.
When does new quarterly content become available?
Your quarterly content delivery schedule is based on the original purchase date of your program. So, for example, if you purchase “Digging Into the Life of Jesus” on June 15th, you will have immediate access to Quarter 1 upon purchase. Your next quarter will become available 90 days later on September 15th when your second payment is made and so on until you have paid for all four quarters. You can cancel or reactivate at any time. If you reactivate, your subscription will start with the next available quarter.
Can I skip a quarter?
No, all four quarters will be delivered in sequence. However, you can edit your delivery schedule to get your next quarter sooner, postpone it to a later date, or cancel your subscription and reactivate it later if desired.
If I cancel my subscription, do I lose access to the lesson builder?
No, once you’ve paid for a quarter, you have access to that lesson content for 15 months from the original purchase date. Cancelling a subscription just stops the billing cycle so you do not receive any new content until you choose to reactivate.
Do you want to get your Next Quarter of DIG IN early or postpone your billing/delivery without having to cancel your subscription?
- Sign in to DIG IN and go to Account Settings
- Click Subscriptions and Edit Subscription
- Notice there is an edit box next to Next Billing/Delivery Date. Just use the calendar date picker to select the desired date and click on Save Changes
DEMO & SAMPLE LESSONS
What's the difference between the demo version and full version?
The demo version gives you one lesson to build in any classroom format or any combination of the 11 activity blocks provided. With the full version you can create unlimited classrooms and each quarter includes 13 configurable lessons. The full version also includes a private web page for your teachers to access published lessons.
Can I get additional sample lessons?
Yes, within the demo you can view or download the first two lessons from each available program.
Who writes your content and why should I trust them?
Group Publishing has earned its excellent reputation in the field of children's ministry, with over forty years of experience equipping ministries across multiple Christian denominations. We stand behind our mission: "We create experiences that help people grow in relationship with Jesus and each other."
Our team of editors comes with a lot of experience!
Combined 93 years volunteering with children.
Combined 93 years developing curriculum.
Combined 16 years of experience working in a paid ministry setting.
Combined 10 years of experience teaching at a school.
7 children and 6 grandchildren raised in Christian homes
We currently volunteer with these ages:
- Elementary (1st-5th) large group/small group format
- 4th & 5th graders in an age-graded Sunday School setting
- 3- to 8- year olds
- infants
- elementary kids (grades K-6) in an after school tutoring program for at-risk kids
- 3- to 15-year olds
Our degrees include:
- B.A. in Christian Education from Wheaton College, with a minor in Bible & Theology
- M.A. in Children and Family Ministry from Bethel Seminary
- B.A. in Elementary Education, from Colorado Christian University with a minor in Biblical Studies
Plus…
- Experience leading children’s ministries in small, medium, and mega church settings.
- Helping create Group’s VBS programs for over 24 years
- Dig In was originally developed by an editor with a Master of Divinity.
What is your statement of faith?
We believe the Bible is the inspired, authoritative Word of God.
We believe there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We believe in the deity of Jesus Christ, in his virgin birth, in his sinless life, in his death on the cross, in his bodily resurrection, in his ascension to the right hand of the Father, and in his personal return.
We believe people receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life through Jesus.
LESSON PLANNING
Do I have to start this program in the fall?
You can start a program at any time. You'll always begin with Quarter 1 and continue through the scope and sequence. We provide additional holiday lessons for Christmas and Easter that you may drop in to your lesson plan as needed.
Where are my Christmas/Easter lessons?
If you click on LESSON BUILDER and then look for the QUARTER drop down menu at the top you will see Holiday lessons
How long do I have access to DIG IN lesson content?
You will be able to access quarterly lesson content for 15 months (1 year + 1 quarter) from the date of payment. Each quarter will have its own expiration date, shown in the Quarter dropdown within the Lesson Builder screen. You can also check the expiration date for quarterly content on the Account Settings > Subscriptions page.
Can I change the order of lessons?
Yes. After choosing the activity blocks for a lesson, you will assign a date for that lesson to be taught. When you look at your Published Lessons page, lessons will be displayed in order by date. Since you can start DIG IN at any time of year, additional Christmas, Easter, and Palm Sunday lessons are provided to schedule in whenever needed.
Can I make copies of lessons for my teachers?
Yes, your license includes permission to print copies of lessons for any number of teachers or helpers as long as they are only used with the number of students specified in your pricing tier.
How many printed pages should I expect per lesson?
Page count varies based on how you build each lesson; however, you can estimate about 12-pages of lesson content for an hour of teaching time. If you choose to use class handouts and/or take-home pages, you may decide to print these as well. Remember, teachers have the option to access lessons on a device such as a tablet, eliminating the need for printed lesson pages.
What kind of technology do I need?
DIG IN uses a web browser interface. There's no software to install, so all you need is a PC or Mac connected to the Internet to build and publish lessons. Teachers can review and even teach lessons from a computer, tablet, or hard copy printout.
I don't have a way to show downloaded videos in a classroom. Can I get DVDs?
Downloadable video files are included at no extra charge, but if you prefer to purchase physical DVDs, you may buy them directly from Group.com. There is a separate DVD of Talk-About videos available for each quarter and a Best of DIG IN Music Videos DVD that provides a selection of music videos that can be used with any program or quarter.
Do the music videos on the “Best of DIG IN Music Videos” match the DIG IN music videos that are available online?
No. The Best of DIG IN Music Video DVD is a selection of 26 DIG IN music videos. The number of DIG IN music videos available online is more extensive. The music video links that are included in the DIG IN lessons include the more extensive selection of online music videos. As a result, when teaching a lesson while using the DVD, you may need to choose your own songs from the DVD. A portion of the online music videos will be refreshed with new content annually; however, the DVD will not be updated.
If you want access to all the online music videos on a physical device, you may choose to download the videos onto a USB drive and plug it into your screen.
Copyright allows you to use the music videos as part of your DIG IN lessons taught at your church campus.
How are lessons organized in DIG IN?
Before building lessons, you'll start by setting up classrooms. If your church has multiple services, you may want to name a classroom for each service, such as "9am Grades 1&2" so you can tailor each classroom experience to the particular preferences of the teachers or students involved. When creating a classroom, you can name it and choose the classroom format options such as age-graded, one room, or large-group/small-group.
Is there any limit to the number of classrooms I can create?
No, you can create as many classrooms as desired.
What are the different classroom formats available for DIG IN Sunday School?
There are three main classroom formats available.
Choose Age-Graded Classrooms if your ministry has kids in separate classrooms for age-appropriate learning and activities. You may select up to four different age groupings.
Choose One Room if your ministry has kids of various ages (from Preschool to 6th Grade) together in a single room. This option works well for a Children's Church, Midweek program, or smaller Sunday school program.
Choose Large-Group/Small-Group to have all elementary-age kids gathered together for a portion of the lesson, then split into small group crews for interactive experiences and deeper discussions.
Can I use DIG IN for an evening or midweek program?
Absolutely! The One Room and Large-Group/Small-Group classroom formats work particularly well for evening or midweek programs.
How does lesson content differ between age levels?
Completely different activity blocks are created for Preschool and Grades 3&4 (media blocks being an exception). The two activity blocks are then adjusted as needed to be age-appropriate for Grades 1&2 and Grades 5&6. Sometimes, the activities work well for multiple age groups with no edits. Sometimes, changes are made to words, questions, or other elements making the activities more age-appropriate. The result is activities that are often quite similar, and in some cases identical between age groups. Rest assured, lessons are carefully edited to ensure age-appropriateness for each age group.
Also, many years of successful VBS program development have proven that children of different ages can have the same experience and interpret it ways that are meaningful to their age. We know this to be true and leverage it in our DIG IN lessons development. Watch this video to learn more.
Can I play DIG IN videos through ProPresenter or MediaShout?
Yes. You can download video files (in mp4 format) for use with your preferred presentation software.
Can I view DIG IN videos online?
Yes. All videos may also be streamed online on our Vimeo account at vimeo.com/digin.
LESSON BUILDING
What are activity blocks?
If you think of a lesson as a recipe, activity blocks are the ingredients. Each activity block has a specified time duration and each block is connected to the main lesson point, so everything has a purpose. The most important block in DIG IN Sunday School is the Core Bible Discovery block. This contains the central Bible story for the lesson. You can mix and match other blocks to add music, crafts, games, and other activities to your lesson to meet your needs for available time and teacher/student preference.
What is the minimum and maximum length of a lesson?
Every Sunday School lesson offers 11 different activity blocks to mix and match. By default, we include the following blocks in every lesson: Opening, Core Bible Discovery, and Life Application Wrap-up for a total of 30 minutes. If you choose to include all 11 available blocks, your total lesson time would be 1 hour, 55 minutes.
What does it mean to publish a lesson?
Once you have built a lesson, you can add it to the list of Published Lessons for teachers to access online.
TEACHER ACCESS
Can teachers build their own lessons?
Each teacher will have their own login to view and/or download lesson content from the Published Lessons page. You can choose whether or not to give individual teachers permission to build or edit lessons.
What if my teachers aren't tech savvy? Do they have to have a computer to use this?
You may choose to print hardcopy lessons for your teachers or allow teachers to retrieve their own lessons from the Published Lessons page in your DIG IN account. It's completely up to you.
Is there any limit to the number of teacher logins I can set up?
No. You may set up as many teacher logins as needed to support the number of students in the pricing tier you have purchased.
Do I have to assign teachers to classrooms?
No, all teachers can view lessons for all classrooms. Our primary goal in designing this system was to create a flexible lesson builder that was still easy for you to manage.
What happens when I have a substitute teacher?
You have the option to print hard copy lesson materials, download and email files to your sub, or set up a login for your sub so he or she can download their own lesson materials.
Do my classrooms need computers or internet access?
No. A computer with an internet connection is only needed to build lessons and download or print your lesson content. Within your classroom, your teachers can teach from a hardcopy printout or a mobile device. For video content, we recommend downloading video files to a device connected to a TV or projector. If that's not an option, we offer DVDs for each program with the lesson-specific Talk-About Videos. A DVD set with a selection of Music Videos is also available for purchase.
Which Bible translation does DIG IN use?
New Living Translation (NLT)
Comments
0 comments
Article is closed for comments.