by Eric Royer, Program Director, Reinert Center Canvas recently rolled out a new feature called Discussion Checkpoints. This functionality allows instructors to assign different due dates and point values for students’ initial discussion posts and their peer responses, and also set the number of required replies they need to make in a discussion. Canvas then… Continue reading New Canvas Feature: Discussions “Checkpoints”
Category: Distance Teaching
Introducing the New Online University Teaching Skills Certificate
by Eric Royer, Program Manager, Reinert Center August represents change in many ways. Many of us are yearning for a crispness in the air and a return to routines and schedules (especially those of us with children). Soon we’ll welcome new students to our classrooms and begin another academic year. It’s also a time for… Continue reading Introducing the New Online University Teaching Skills Certificate
Book Review of Flower Darby, The Joyful Online Teacher: Finding Our Fizz in Asynchronous Classes
From the Teaching, Engaging, and Thriving in Higher Ed Series, University of Oklahoma Press, 2026. by Beth Petitjean, Ph.D., Digital Learning Specialist, Reinert Center Yes, it’s July. And, yes, it’s hot and sizzling in St. Louis. Appropriate time then for a summer book review and this time we’re perusing a recent volume from the Teaching,… Continue reading Book Review of Flower Darby, The Joyful Online Teacher: Finding Our Fizz in Asynchronous Classes
Resources Revisited: Teaching an Accelerated Summer Course Online
by Eric Royer, Program Director, Reinert Center The Resources Revisited series highlights existing resources available to the SLU community that may be especially timely or useful at certain points in the academic year. Right now, we’re focused on preparing for summer teaching, particularly online courses taught in accelerated formats. To support you, we’re spotlighting a… Continue reading Resources Revisited: Teaching an Accelerated Summer Course Online
Looking Forward on Distance Teaching
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… Continue reading Looking Forward on Distance Teaching
Wrapping It Up: Reflections on the Year in Distance Learning
by Beth Petitjean, Digital Learning Specialist, Reinert Center The element of Ignatian Pedagogy that I appreciate the most is reflection. Anyone can reflect on anything, and the act of reflecting can be useful in many aspects of teaching practice and work as a higher education professional. It’s baked into our annual self-evaluations and performance reviews.… Continue reading Wrapping It Up: Reflections on the Year in Distance Learning
Ally and Alt-text: Your first stop on the accessible digital materials journey
by Cathy Cooke, Distance Education Manager, Office of the Provost Enrollment of students with disabilities in higher education has been steadily increasing but of those students, at least half do not report their disability to their institution’s disability office (Mata and Borrego, 2024). As a result, faculty and instructors don’t recognize that our students are… Continue reading Ally and Alt-text: Your first stop on the accessible digital materials journey
Resources Revisited: Active Learning
by Robert Cole, Program Director, Reinert Center The Reinert Center’s Resources Revisited series highlights existing resources available to the SLU teaching community that may be especially timely or useful at certain points in the academic year. This month in Resources Revisited we’d like to focus on active learning activities. As we approach midterms, it may… Continue reading Resources Revisited: Active Learning
Getting Started with Digital Accessibility
by Eric Royer, Program Director, Reinert Center Digital accessibility is all about making sure what we do online works for as many people as possible. If you chop off the last part of word accessibility, we can all agree that increasing access to our course learning experiences has a net positive effect on student learning.… Continue reading Getting Started with Digital Accessibility
A Little Bit Goes a Long Way in Supporting Student Well-Being
Beth Petitjean, Digital Learning Specialist, Reinert Center Despite having been an undergraduate student many moons ago, it wasn’t until I started teaching that I ever considered student well-being. I’ve often wondered how many of my teachers ever intentionally considered it either. Looking back to my undergraduate years in Pennsylvania as a theater major, there is… Continue reading A Little Bit Goes a Long Way in Supporting Student Well-Being
The Notebook 