That's a GREAT question, and Doug and Josh have created the DYMU Start Here screencast to help answer just that. Give us 2 minutes and we'll get you up to speed. The inside joke at DYMU is, "If Doug can figure it out, ANYONE can!" This is a great place to start.

Simple! We want to help you train your volunteers to be more effective with their limited time and caring hearts. Finding adults to work with teenagers is only a small part of the overall volunteer strategy; an event bigger part is equipping these adults to succeed with teenagers. Like you, we believe every leader can benefit from some training and DYMU makes your job a lot easier. We've got you covered with some great, practical training by some of the most respected voices in youth ministry today. 

YES! That's the beauty of the site license; it's unlimited users for your church only. Every one of your leaders will get his/her own unique log-in and learning experience. Here's how it works: as soon as you purchase the site license you will get a welcome email from us containing a link that will take you to the DYMU subscription tool. All you will need to do is enter in your volunteer's name and his/her email address. Really, it is that simple! Once you do, your leaders will immediately receive a welcome email providing them access to all 24 classes in DYMU 101-401. They can begin taking the courses immediately. If you get a new leader later in the year, no problem! Just return to the subscription tool and they'll be easily added to your group. 

Unfortunately no. That isn't possible. As of today, DYM's website and DYMU are on completely separate platforms. If you are new to DYM or a long-term member, you will need a NEW account log in to access DYMU. Think of DYMU as a separate website owned/operated by the same people. Once you create an account with DYMU you'll see that it's slick, quick and painless--we promise! 

Why YES, yes you can! DYM Gold members can log into their account on DYM and discover a code that will give you $50 off your ALL ACCESS pass - if you have trouble finding it just email support and they'll reply right away! And the big news is that your renewal is always just $99/year. Members always get more! Yeah!

No, the videos in DYMU are intended to be played in this specific platform for each individual person to experience individual learning. If you have a training portal of your own (like a church website, etc), it’s best to simply point your leaders to each video directly, then they can log in and watch the course themselves. They also get the added bonus of completing the reflection quizzes beneath each video which they may miss out on if they were just embedded. If you do want to stream, consider using the DYM Leaders Streaming Library referenced in the previous FAQ just above.

All of the YMU training videos can be watched on your smart phone or computer, as well as displayed through Apple TV and a myriad of other devices, screens and projectors. If it can access the internet, it will play the videos. Go hog wild with practically any setup!

Unless you're an individual user, in almost all cases the church license would be a better value for either a small or large ministry. If you have more than even just one volunteer going through the 101-401 program, it would be wise to purchase a church license (some on our team said, "They would be stupid not to!" But we felt that was too strong and might offend some without a sense of humor). You have all types of options with the church license. For example, you could require new or potential volunteers to go thru 101, or you could assign a specific video to each volunteer depending on his/her need (i.e. "I'd love for you to log-in and watch the training on memorizing names.”). Check back to this page occasionally to get "Best Practice" tips (see below) from fellow youth workers.

You'll immediately get a confirmation email that has plenty of clear information on how everything works with links making it easy for you to get started adding your volunteer team immediately! 

It allows you and each of your volunteer leaders to have his/her own log-in and access to all 25+ of the videos in the 101-401 courses for an entire year. For about $15/month all of your leaders have access to great videos and reflection questions and the ability to get a certificate of completion. 

It’s good for an entire year. After one year, you’ll be automatically renewed for only $99/year.

Absolutely! You’ll just need to save your confirmation email containing the link for you to log-in your leaders. You can add leaders as long as you have an up-to-date site license. 

You must be logged in with an active ALL ACCESS account then can input your volunteers here: https://www.ymuniversity.com/products/add-your-volunteers-to-ym101-401

Each volunteer will have his/her own log-in if you have a site license. Super easy. You purchase the site license and you’ll be sent a “how-to-use” document. This document will provide you with a link taking you to a page where you can add your volunteers. Once you add them, they’ll receive a welcome letter and an opportunity to create their own log-ins. In addition, you’ll be given a couple letters that you, as the lead youth worker, can use to send to your volunteers to welcome them to the DYMU experience. You may want to send that letter before you enter in their email address so that the email from DYMU doesn’t come to them as a surprise.

Yes. There is a comment section under each video that can be viewed by anyone in the world taking this course. It is shared with everyone who takes that session. Beyond that, you have personal review/reflection questions that are shared just with one person of your choice, perhaps the lead youth worker or an accountability partner. You get to choose that person at the beginning of each learning session.

Every video session has both a downloadable PDF outline AND an online interactive/reflection experience that we're very excited about. The outline is for those who want something to look at and/or take handwritten notes while they're watching the videos. For deeper reflection, each course contains a 10-15 question follow-up reflection experience. The reflection experience isn't just a bunch of right/wrong quiz-type questions--instead they're more like reflection questions to help the leader/learner to process the information they've just experience via video.

Absolutely! The very first step for each individual learner is to enter in the email address of the person to whom they want their reflection answers sent. They can either enter in their own email address and then forward their answers to you, or you can ask them to enter in your email address before each series of reflection questions and their answers will go directly to you. 

What’s the deal with the Certificate? When you purchase the 101-401 site license you will be sent a welcome email containing some important links. One of those links will allow you to download a PDF Certificate. You can make a big deal out of your leaders finishing a single course (i.e. 101, 201, 301, or 401) or save it and highlight only those who finish all 4 of the courses. It’s your call. (Can’t find the email? No problem! CLICK HERE to download the Completion Certificates)

Do you have a question that isn't answered here? If so, send an email to the Dean of Students and he'll answer it and continue to make this FAQ page more helpful!

There's definitely no one way, but some ministry leaders are requiring potential volunteers to take Class 101 prior to their coming aboard to serve! Others are asking their new volunteers to complete 101 within the first year of their ministry commitment. Many youth pastors are familiarizing themselves with all the content within 101-401 and suggesting specific topics based on the individual volunteer. For example, "Allison, I'd love for you to watch the course on Social Media to get a better handle on how your media choices can impact our students." Or "I'm with you on struggling to remember names, why don't we both watch the session on remembering names and we can discuss it and then help each other get better at it." There are so many topics in Classes 101-401 that most questions and issues that your leaders have will be covered in one of the 25 sessions. 

"By asking all of my leaders to go through 101 during a shadowing time, I can have intentional conversations with them while they take steps toward getting plugged into the ministry. This way, we're all on the same page and it's very simple to talk through the content. Also, I realized that some people were not getting any training, so they were guessing at what needed to be done, which was frustrating for them and not beneficial to the ministry. This isn't the end-all, but it gives me peace of mind to know that they're consistently hearing the same things about relational youth ministry with the opportunity to seek more if they desire to."

Both guys sent their volunteers an acceptance letters to DYMU. In their acceptance letter they communicated that the training content had been purchased on their behalf and provided them links to sign up, and they made a big deal out of the training. One of their letters is concise and direct, while the other letter is longer and more playful. If you purchase the 101-401 site license, you be given both of these letters for you to copy, cut/paste, do whatever you want (with full permission from the authors).  

We've heard of the most success where the lead you worker sends an initial email to all of their leaders after they've been added in the system. This will get everyone started at their own pace and get things kicked off with a clear vision of why they've been asked to complete this training. The youth worker then, maybe at monthly meetings, celebrates some of those who have accomplished the course or completed some of the sessions. Each class has an "enter the email you want this quiz sent to" which we encourage them to put your email in there so you're updated with every single class, and can see their answers and progress.

YES! Jump on Download Youth Ministry's private Facebook community group for youth workers only and ask these questions to the community. There's a TON of stuff already on there you can just copy/paste/use now!

Do you have some ideas and learnings that you want to share with other leaders on how to best use these classes? We hope so! We love learning from one another. Please send your best practice to the Dean of Students and include your idea right here!

Do you have a question that isn't answered here? If so, send an email to the Dean of Students and he'll answer it and continue to make this FAQ page more helpful!