With the various headwinds facing Perkins, maintaining a healthy and consistent enrollment has never been more important. Of the 13 United Methodist seminaries, all offer some variation of hybrid learning. In Chapter 4 | Competitive Analysis, more light can be shed around how our  competitors are doing their hybrid formats, but the key takeaway is that all have moved toward this modality.

Moving to hybrid is a move to remain competitive in our offerings. A clear way to increase student enrollment is by reaching new audiences in a way that is flexible for them. What our hybrid format allows, is for Perkins to reach more people than ever before. From an anecdotal observation, the Office of Enrollment Management regularly loses inquiries that are put-off by the number of visits to Houston that HGEP requires. By reducing the amount of travel, we are widening the prospective audience base for our school.

For all the digital innovation that came with a global pandemic, there also emerged an experience online learning that was one of isolation and social distance.

Formation at Perkins is more than simply downloading information. The Perkins hybrid format attempts to address the social concerns that come with “distant” learning, by leveraging the in-person instruction to foster friendship and create close, tight-knit communities. The “immersions” also mean that students will be sharing in travel, possibly to new locations for each immersion requirement.

There is a perception among churches that seminaries are distant; detached from the problems facing denominations, congregants, and communities. 

With immersions, Perkins stands to, at an institutional level, correct this perception. Tracing all the way back to John Wesley, Methodism has a history of going to where people are gathered. It is in that same spirit of putting the needs of students first that we have chosen to implement our hybrid format. By offering immersions outside of Dallas and Houston, Perkins is positioning itself to prioritize the student experience.

While traditional on-campus intensives are still an option for students (both in Dallas and Houston), they are not a requirement. By offering immersions that are mobile, meeting in different cities and different contexts, Perkins makes the in-person degree requirement an opportunity.  Perkins is going beyond our walls to where students are actually doing ministry. This unique piece of our offering allows us to one of the most flexible formats on the market. Students can choose an immersion that is close to home and save on travel cost or can choose an immersion that's based in a place they've never been highlighting the experiential nature of theological education.

This could look like students traveling with their classmates or even bringing their families to a new city and learning from a new ministry context, in keeping with the tradition of contextual education. For a society that is ever-increasingly drawn to wanderlust, especially on social media, the travel component of immersions will have an audience. That said, mobile site immersions could also look like students selecting classes that are close to home; in their backyard and in their ministry context.

So, whether students are interested in accessibility or studying in a contextual education, Perkins will be building bridges: community to city, student to context, and Perkins to church. 

Read more about "immersions" in Chapter 5 | "Personality" of Hybrid. 

The new format is almost 80% online, why not highlight that fact and call it "Online" or "Hybrid Online?"  

1. Yes, the new format is more online than we at Perkins have attempted. However, when looking at how competitors are describing their program offerings, there is a clear parallel between what we are offering and what they are offering. What we have is a hybrid program, according to the solidifying nomenclature and we have to acknowledge that fact. Now, we could try to stand out from the competition in how we describe the new format, but we then run the risk of either A) confusing our audiences or B) appearing to 'bait-and-switch' students. Schools with our similar format are describing the program as hybrid. Lastly, there are '100% Online' options that provide a truly online education and that is simply not what we are offering. 

2. In messaging we should regularly use "online" language to describe the program. By using "online" will help students better understand what the program entails as well as improve our overall internet visibility by leveraging online as a keyword to improve Search Engine Optimization. That said, there is a fine line to walk between marketing and inaccurately describing the format (see B) above). So, while there is value in using a title to stand out, the schools that are taking that approach (using terminology like "FLEX" or "Journey") are the competitors we want to draw students from, not emulate. Using "Online" to define our format when the modality is simply not an online degree in the way our students conceptualize it, is going to have a negative impact. 

3. Using "hybrid" puts us directly in step with what Candler and Duke are offering. So, this format alone will not distinguish Perkins from those two schools. While the immersion element of our offering may set Perkins apart from Candler and Duke (see Chapter 6 for more), the format shift actually brings us up to speed with what our competition is offering. However, the format change will distinguish Perkins from what St. Paul and Iliff are offering, which is our target audience. 

4. Lastly, by describing the Houston Galveston Extension Program as "Hybrid" we were able to identify a niche in the marketplace. However, that niche has been redefined and we are now having to rename the product offering according. So, were we to proceed with naming the new modality "Online" we could well find ourselves in the same position a few years from now.  

Much of what this section references can be taken from Chapter 4 | Competitive Analysis.