The Elevate Learning Experience is a companion to the institute curriculum, with specific versions of the Elevate Learning questions for each of the four Cornerstone classes. There is also a generalized version of the questions for all other courses. Its purpose is to strengthen the testimony and deepen the conversion of the participating students by letting them express their understanding, personal feelings, and application of the key principles and doctrine found in each course of study. This is how it works: At the beginning of the course, the teacher hands out the Elevate Learning Experience list of questions to each student. During the semester, students are expected to review the questions and answer them in written form. It is up to you, the teacher, whether this is done during class time or after class. Many of the questions are tied to a specific lesson and should not be answered by the student until those lessons have been completed. Periodically during the course, you should schedule class time so students can discuss the questions and their individual answers. After these discussions, students may add to or revise their responses to reflect their personal understanding and application of the gospel principles covered. When completed, the students hand in their finished answers and you will record who has completed the Elevate Learning questions in your class records. Based on the number of students in your classes, you may or may not have time to read each paper and give individual feedback. While teacher feedback can be important, remember the primary purpose is to strengthen the testimony and deepen the conversion of the students who participate. This happens when students evaluate their own understanding of the key doctrine and principles and apply them in their lives. As the teacher, you can help your students get the most out of this new learning tool by doing three things. First, help them understand that the Elevate Learning Experience is designed to help them with their personal spiritual growth. Second, encourage them on a regular basis to work on answering the questions so they can ponder the principles and deeply consider what they mean. And third, give them opportunities to explain, share, and testify what they have learned and experienced. By doing this, they can see for themselves the power that studying the gospel can have on their lives.

Having these questions just helps me think about what's being taught and how it affects me in my life and how I can improve my spirituality, improve those little things that are my flaws. Answering these questions gives us another level of learning and gives us a different perspective to add to what we're learning in class. It's an extension to the pondering part of scripture study. And so it gave us a good time to really think about it and put it down on paper. Something that really helps is that you can actually talk about it with other students and see what they're thinking, and maybe that expands on what you have been considering as well. I see that the Church is going a little bit deeper. We're going for conversion; we're going for, like, teaching, learning, application. And so if we help students understand that institute isn't just for the degree, or institute isn't just for the grade--institute's really for us--then I think we can get a lot more positive experiences out of that. I loved what one teacher did at the beginning of the year. He told us, "If you write these, how cool will it be that your kids someday can read them and see what your testimony of these principles were at your age, or their age at that moment." So they're meaningful to me because I'm thinking of my future family reading them.