Welcome to online seminary of Seminaries and Institutes of Religion. We know that you will be blessed as you come to increase your knowledge of the scriptures and of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

If you put in the effort, the teachings and Atonement of Jesus Christ will change your life for the better in ways you've never imagined. One of the greatest blessings we can gain in this life is gospel knowledge. Seminary is an excellent place to gain or add to that knowledge. In online seminary you will witness the three blessings President Hinckley promised to those who take seminary. He said, "We do not hesitate to promise that your knowledge of the gospel will be increased, your faith will be strengthened, and you'll develop wonderful associations and friendships." You may be wondering if those blessings apply to those who take seminary online. They do, because regardless of where or how you take seminary, the hope and the desire is the same--that the Holy Ghost will teach us. Just as a classroom teacher needs to establish some policies and rules for the classroom, we want to share with you how online seminary works. We want you to get as much as you can out of your online seminary experience. We don't want you to miss out on any of the various opportunities the Lord has provided through online seminary. Before we tell you all about online seminary, we want to tell you what online seminary is not. First, it is not an independent study program that the student does all alone. It is not a class that you can procrastinate and do all of your seminary work in one day a week. You will be part of a class with a teacher and fellow students who have assignments to do each day of the week. Credit is given based upon completion of your daily activities and attendance to your weekly class. Second, it is not a log in and look at a few web pages and get credit for the day.

It is a class that requires you to log in daily, participate in a devotional, open your scriptures, read, look for answers, interact with other class members, and write responses. How does online seminary work? Each week you will have four days of lessons that are done online. You will need to do each of the assigned activities for the day to get credit for the day. If you don't do all the activities, you won't get credit for the day. One day a week, as determined by your teacher, you will have a weekly class that is held either face to face or online all together as a class. You will be marked either present or absent for the weekly class depending if you attend or not. The first thing that you need to know is how to get around and what things are on the course home page. At the top of the home page you will see recent announcements. Your teacher will share announcements containing important information for each week and for seminary in general. Make sure you read new announcements each week when you log in. When you are ready to complete your lesson for the day, click “Go to lesson modules” or click “modules” in the course navigation menu. Click on the lesson, then click the first activity in the list. This is the devotional. Once you’ve completed the devotional, click Next to view the next activity. Make sure you follow the directions of the activity to make sure you get credit for your work. Remember, for you to get credit for each day of seminary work online, you'll need to complete each day's assigned activities. It is highly recommended that you complete those activities on the assigned day in one sitting. If you miss a day or you don't complete the activities, you are marked incomplete for the day. The lessons will only be available for a limited time each week depending on what your teacher decides, so that means that you can't procrastinate and try to catch up on all your lessons at once. If you don't complete all the lessons for the week, you will have to work one on one with your teacher in order to be able to have access to those days you missed. But don't get behind, or you might get discouraged by the amount of makeup work you would need to do. Your teacher can check your progress by seeing which ones you have completed, when you've completed them, and how long you took. They can even see when you logged on and how long each activity took. Your teacher may put the dates when you are to complete each lesson in the recent announcements or calendar tool. Make sure you do the lessons on the assigned days. This will help you to avoid getting behind. It will take some effort to get into the habit of doing seminary daily, but your sacrifice will help you feel the Spirit every day and gain the knowledge, understanding, and testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ that will give you direction and sufficient strength to make righteous choices. To get into this habit, you need to decide with your mom or dad a time that you will dedicate each day to participate in seminary. You should plan doing seminary each day at that same time. For example, several students in online seminary get up early at home so they can start their day off right. Others have found it helpful to do it first thing after they get home from school. Online students have stated that if they always leave it for the last thing to do each day, it tends to get skipped. Your mom or dad need to agree to the time you choose, because you will most likely be using the family computer. Make sure they agree, and then if someone else needs the computer during your time, your parents can help you work out any problems that arise. If you and a brother or sister are doing online seminary together, ask your teacher for some ideas that will help you balance time and effort to make sure that you both can get it done. Another thing that is important to do each day for online seminary is to create an environment where the Holy Ghost can teach and inspire you. The first thing that you should do each day is to make sure you have your scriptures, whether paper or digital, out and ready. You will need them to complete the activities each day. Second, you should eliminate distractions around you and on your computer. You may be tempted to do other things on the computer while you are online, like social networking, instant messaging, homework, listening to music, or watching videos. If you sit down and get rid of these distractions, not only will you increase your chances to learn by the Spirit, you will be able to complete the seminary lessons more quickly. There are a couple of ways to check on your own progress in online seminary. Make sure you are looking for checkmarks next to each activity. If there isn’t a check, then you probably haven’t completed all that was needed for that particular activity. Once you have done all the activities for each lesson, your teacher will review your work, review your responses, and give you feedback. Once your teacher looks at your work, he or she will mark you as complete or incomplete based on your work. Each day's lesson shouldn't last longer than 45 minutes. Most will be shorter than that, but do your best and you will be blessed. If you need any special accommodations, your teacher can work those out with you and determine what you need to do to get credit for each day in seminary. Before you start your online studies, let's listen to what President Monson said about seminary: "When you have a chance to be involved in seminary, whether in the early-morning or in released-time classes, take advantage of that opportunity. Many of you are attending seminary now. As with anything in life, much of what you take from your seminary experience depends on your attitude and your willingness to be taught. May your attitude be one of humility and a desire to learn. How grateful I am for the opportunity I had as a teenager to attend early-morning seminary, where it played a vital role in my development and the development of my testimony. Seminary can change lives. Let seminary help build and strengthen your testimony. Oh, there will be times when you'll face challenges which might jeopardize your testimony. You may neglect it as you pursue other interests. I plead with you to keep it strong. It is your responsibility, and yours alone, to keep His flame burning brightly. Effort is required, but it is effort you will never, ever regret."