What is Micro Seminary?

Micro Seminary is SATS’s platform for offering short courses. Micro Seminary exists to provide world-class theological training for people who love God and his Word, but who do not wish to sign up for a formal programme.

Who should consider Micro Seminary?

If you want to study the Bible or theology without investing the time and money required for a degree programme, Micro Seminary is for you. You may be:

  • a seminary graduate committed to lifelong learning
  • a pastor who never had the opportunity to go to seminary
  • an ordinary Christian with a longing to learn about God and his Word

How do the micro courses work?

The micro courses are self-study courses. You work through your course at your convenience; there is no teacher and no interaction with other students.

The courses have a variety of content types, including videos and text as well as interactive lessons. Many courses have quizzes and some have practical assignments. The assignments are not graded; you must confirm that you completed them honestly.

How long are the micro courses?

Our average micro course requires 10 hours to learn thoroughly (similar to the time required to read a 300-page book). You can finish it quicker if you need; the 10 hours provides ample time to study the material. We also have shorter (±5 hours) and longer (±15–20 hours) micro courses.

You can enrol for a micro course at any time. You will have six weeks to complete the course, starting from the day that you purchase it.

What does it cost?

Micro Seminary aims to make theological education accessible and affordable. Although the prices vary by course, a typical micro course costs R250 (see pricing page in your region).

When can I start?

You can enrol for micro courses at any time of the year. Every micro course is available year-round—unless it has been withdrawn to be updated.

No, the micro courses do not lead to an accredited qualification. They are nonformal theological education.

However, SATS is a higher education institution accredited up to the doctoral level. Although the micro courses are not accredited, the fact that they come from an accredited seminary provides assurance of their quality and value.

Firstly, you will get a badge certifying your completion of the course and indicating what it entailed. These can be used to verify your skill sets.

Secondly, you can download a Micro Seminary transcript at any stage. It will indicate all the micro courses that you have completed.

No, the micro courses are fully online. You can complete them on any device, including a smartphone. The courses include media-rich content, so you do need an internet connection with enough speed and data to stream videos.

If you complete the course, you will have access to the content for three years. If you do not complete it, you will not have access after the course’s end date.

Yes, you can enrol for as many as you wish, bearing in mind that you have a limited time to complete them.

If you do not complete your course by the end date, you will lose access to the course and its materials. If you still want to do the course, you need to enrol for it again and redo it from scratch.

What courses are on offer?

Courses currently on offer include:

You can see all the micro courses that are on offer (and the course descriptions) in the SATS Student Portal.

How do I sign up?

To register, you only need to supply your name and email address. Since the Micro Seminary courses are not formal qualifications, we do not need proof of identity or transcripts from earlier studies. The sign-up process is as easy as registering an account on a website; it takes 2 minutes. The sign-up process is explained in the infographic below.

Frequently Asked Questions

Each micro course is allocated a point value: 5, 10, 15, or 20 points. The points indicate the maximum number of hours needed to complete a course, assuming that you study everything thoroughly. The points indicate the amount of work required in the course, which SATS intends to use in future to build micro credentials, to award recognition of prior learning, and to obtain CPD points.

You need to complete all the learning activities. If the course has quizzes, you must earn 75% for each quiz to complete it. If you don’t achieve 75% initially, you can retake the quiz.