by Eric Royer, Program Director, Reinert Center
My colleague Beth Petitjean’s previous Notebook post, “Wrapping It Up: Reflections on the Year in Distance Learning,” synthesized all of the things the Reinert Center has done to support distance teaching efforts at SLU this past academic year. As I find myself thinking about what we’ve accomplished, I can’t help but to also think about where we go next. Reflection is powerful for taking a temperature check and identifying gaps, but also to more intentionally align our work with the evolving teaching needs of SLU instructors.
In this blog, I’d like to share several ideas for how the Reinert Center will continue to support instructors teaching in distance formats, and how we might move the needle on distance initiatives in the coming academic year (and those to follow). As is the case with teaching in any modality, AI continues to permeate most aspects of online learning, affecting our relational work with students and how we think about course assessment. Changes to Title II of the ADA have moved digital accessibility, once placed on the pedagogical backburner, to the forefront of effective online course design. Many of us continue to explore the intersection between teaching and technology in ways we couldn’t even imagine just a few years ago. Through it all, our focus remains on shaping quality learning experiences that allow our students to achieve the learning objectives we’ve set for them.
The good news is that our distance programming remains strong and is geared toward these distance teaching needs. To support meeting the diverse needs of our students, our one-week online courses in Fall 2026 will dig deeper into the topics of Universal Design for Learning, inclusive online teaching, and engaging the online learner. In response to the increasingly prevalent role of AI in online teaching formats, in Spring 2027, we’ll consider genAI in the context of online course design, instructor presence, and strategies for handling online courses with large class enrollments.
In addition, our Fall 2026 Focused Topics in Distance Teaching workshop series examines non-exam/non-traditional online assessments, which should be helpful for thinking about the growing influence of AI on teaching and assessment. Sessions include peer review assignments, online lab assignments, collaborative group assignments, and multimedia assignments. These workshops are scheduled for the second or third Friday each month at noon via Zoom.
Our Technology for Teaching workshop series resumes in Spring 2027 (using the same Friday format), focusing on university-supported instructional tools that can be integrated into your teaching. Tentative topics include Canvas Rubrics, the new Discussions Checkpoints feature, Ally (accessibility checker built into Canvas), and Zoom breakouts.
As always, several sections of Introduction to Distance Teaching are scheduled for the next academic year, starting with a two-week session of Intro that begins June 9 and runs until June 25 (with two additional days provided for the Juneteenth holiday).
All of these online courses and distance workshops count toward credit in the Reinert Center’s Online University Teaching Skills Certificate. The Certificate provides a deeper dive into online pedagogy to design meaningful student online learning experiences. We plan to roll out changes to the Certificate this summer, so be on the lookout for that information.
Of course, we will continue to create resources on various distance teaching topics. A new Four Minute Focus series on Canvas settings is in the works, focusing on topics such as setting prerequisites in Canvas modules or creating a Canvas discussion. We’ll continue to produce resources on accessibility, inclusive teaching, and Universal Design for Learning in online formats. Tied to our workshop topics, expect more resources on non-traditional and alternative assessments in online courses. Continued partnerships with the Distance Education Office and the Center for Accessibility and Disability Resources will result in additional online course and workshop offerings.
All of our work is designed to meet folks where they are in their online teaching journey. It doesn’t matter if you’re new to online teaching, or if you’re a seasoned online instructor — our hope is that our programming and resources give you at least one idea, one strategy, or one course design principle you can immediately plug into an online course you’re teaching or one that you plan to teach. All teaching is iterative, regardless of the modality.
Don’t forget, we also provide one-to-one consultations that can be a useful space for exploring design options in Canvas or thinking about a challenge or puzzle you’d like to address in the online courses you teach. You can request a confidential consultation by submitting our consultation request form.
We look forward to the year to come!
The Notebook 