How Equip Works
This page contains basic information on the various sections of the Equip platform. If you have further questions, feel free to reach out directly to [email protected]. Also, there are links on this page that will not open properly if you do not yet have an account. We encourage you to use the “Sign Up” button to quickly create an account, if you want access to all of the different parts of Equip!
Registration
Everything on the Equip platform is completely free, from registration, to taking courses, to participating in Group Discussions and Zoom meetings. You will need to provide an email address and verify it in order to create your account and track your course progress. You will also be asked to provide a first name, which is a great place to add any descriptive words that you would like to appear by your name in discussion comments. Finally, you will provide a “handle” that is completely unique to your profile.
Courses
Courses are the main focus of the Equip site. You can view all of our courses on the Courses page, and you can take each course at your own pace by clicking the “take this course” button on each respective course page. The 100-level courses (such as Apologetics 101 and 102) are designed to be entry-level courses, centered around short, engaging videos, that are perfect for people who are new to apologetics or looking to review a broad overview. The 200-level courses are deeper dives into a more specific topic, based largely on William Lane Craig’s Defenders lectures and his articles. The 300 level courses are unique resources based on Dr. Craig’s graduate level classes. Courses progress in a linear fashion (you cannot skip to later parts of a course), and most quizzes must be completed with perfect scores before moving on to ensure that the content has been mastered.
Groups
Any time you register for a course, you will be automatically added to a corresponding Course Group. There is no requirement to participate in these Groups, but we wanted to create space for discussions and engaging with other people who are studying the same material. Whenever you are added to a Group, it will automatically appear on your Groups page. Each Group has a “Feed” tab, which is much like a social media newsfeed, and a “Discussions” tab, which houses all of the different forum threads that have been started in that Course Group. There is also a general Reasonable Faith Group, which is open to everyone on the site and is not connected to any specific course. This Group has replaced the old Reasonable Faith forums that were housed on the main RF website, because the old forum was becoming outdated.
If you would like to have a private group created for your class or church group, reach out to [email protected]!
Profiles/Members
When you create your account, some of your Profile data will be added to your account, but there are further customizations to your photos and settings that you may want to adjust. You can do this by clicking the “Profile” button from the left side menu, or by clicking “Profile” from the dropdown menu in the top right corner of the screen. Your account settings for emails, notifications, password resets, and more can all be handled via the “Account” buttons, located right below the “Profile” buttons in the same locations. To see or search for other member profiles, go to the Members page. You can Connect with other members, much like Facebook Friends, if you want to message them directly, but they have to accept your Connect request first. This may be helpful if you want to continue a Group conversation with someone privately.
Points
For various actions on the site, such as completing quizzes, courses, and engaging in Group Discussions, you gain Points to show your progress on the platform. To see how many Points you will get for each action, check out our How Points Work page. You can also see the top 25 Point earners across the site on the Points Leaderboard page. If you are not in the top 25, your points total and your rank on the site should appear at the bottom of the top 25 list. You can find your points total and your Rank designation on your Profile as well.
Direct Messages
When you have Connected with another Member, you will be able to send direct messages to his or her inbox. You can access all of your messages by clicking on the “Messages” button on the left side menu, or by clicking on the Messages icon in the top right corner of the screen.
Notifications
Any time you receive a notification, a number will appear above the bell icon in the top right corner of your screen. You can receive notifications for Messages, Replies to your Group Discussion posts, for Discussion Replies that you have Subscribed to, or a number of other triggers across the site. You can adjust your email and site notification settings in your “Account” options mentioned above.
Zoom Meetings
We occasionally host Zoom meetings, open to all Equip Members, where we discuss content from the Equip site or offer opportunities to go deeper. If you are interested in participating in these Zoom meetings, email [email protected] for further information.
Why Did We Build Equip?
We wanted to create a guided tour through Dr. Craig’s online material that can equip everyone, from the beginner to the graduate level, to become more confident Christians who are capable of sharing their faith with others. We hope these courses will help you to understand and defend the faith, perhaps for the first time, and that it will be an effective tool for personal growth, group church studies, homeschooling, and more! Email Casey if you would like for us to create a private Group for your church-study needs, or if there’s anything else we can do to make Equip more useful for you.