What is Seminary ?
As stated in the General Handbook, “Seminary is a four-year program in which youth study the gospel of Jesus Christ as found in the scriptures and the teachings of latter-day prophets.”
Class Options
Class options are determined by the primary location or environment used for instruction. Within seminary and institute classes, “primarily” refers to more than 50 percent of total instruction time per week.
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In Person Class. Students primarily participate in a physical classroom at an approved location. Additional time may include video conferencing or Canvas.
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Online Class. Students primarily participate in Canvas. Where possible, students also attend live gatherings through video conference or in a physical classroom.
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Remote Class. Students primarily participate using video conferencing (such as Zoom® or Teams®) or instant messaging software (such as WhatsApp®).
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Home-Study Class. Students primarily participate using home-study student materials.
Note: Many of these class options include elements of “hybrid learning.” Hybrid learning is not a class option but can apply to any option that includes a mixing of learning modalities (such as in-person class mixed with video conference, online class mixed with video conference, and so forth).
Seminary Program Types
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Released-time Program. Released-time programs offer in-person classes exclusively. Where online classes are desired, students may enroll in an online seminary program.
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Daily Program. Daily (stake-based) programs may offer any class options (in-person, online, remote, or home-study).
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Online Program. Online programs offer online classes exclusively. These programs can be created at the multi-stake, region, or area level with approval from the area director.
Note: For additional information, see “Establishing Seminary Programs” in the Seminary section of policy manual.
Seminary Class Options
Point of Contact: S&I Online Learning
All seminary class options are available for any stake that wishes to use them. These options include in-person, online, remote, and home-study. All class options are capable of working successfully and should be determined based on the needs and circumstances of youth within a stake. In non-release-time areas, stake presidents have the responsibility to decide the class options through which seminary will be made available within their stake.
Stake presidents counsel with their S&I representative to determine the best class options for their wards and branches and may approve alternative options for individuals as needed. If a stake president would like to make exceptions to the available class options, they will need to receive approval from the S&I administration.
Stake presidents counsel with their S&I representative to decide which class options will:
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Best help students learn the gospel and grow spiritually.
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Keep students safe.
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Not burden families unnecessarily.
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Allow students to interact with their peers.
Note: To learn more about terms and definitions for class options and programs, please refer to the 'Terms and Definitions for Classes and Programs” in the Administration section of the policy manual.
Online Seminary Programs
Point of Contact: S&I Online Learning
Online seminary programs are available for any stake that wishes to use them. These programs help fulfill the S&I Objective and provide increased accessibility to seminary and additional learning opportunities for youth. Online seminary programs can be organized at the multi-stake, region, or area level within any S&I area, as approved by the area director. Online seminary programs are supervised by an online seminary principal or online director. Daily programs may also offer online, remote, or home-study classes at the ward, stake, or multi-stake level as approved by the local board of education where organized. In addition to the standard registration process, youth must create a personal Church account.
Students participate in learning activities within the approved learning management system (Canvas) and, where possible, attend live classes through video conferencing software or in a physical classroom. Weekly class schedules should follow the requirements outlined in section 15.1.2 of the General Handbook of Instructions.
Each online seminary teacher should have frequent access to a computer with suitable internet connectivity, and each online seminary student should have access to a device that can run Canvas and the video conference software, if used. Daily access is recommended for both teachers and learners.
Because Canvas creates a permanent record of conversations that can be monitored, teachers may communicate directly with individual students using Canvas. The policy dictating proper relationships in “Our Standards of Conduct” also applies to online interactions.
Note: To learn more about terms and definitions for class options and programs, please refer to the 'Terms and Definitions for Classes and Programs” in the Administration section of the policy manual.
