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Reinert Center Events

Canvas Essentials: Thinking Digitally about In-Person Courses

Noon to 1 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 15, via Zoom

This 60-minute workshop reviews key tools within Canvas that support student learning. Please note that this workshop is not technical training in Canvas, but, rather, focuses on pedagogy by showcasing how Canvas can reinforce course communication, organization, and interaction. Participants will gain strategies to incorporate digital practices into their in-person courses.

Registration is required

Distance Learning Workshop Series: Focused Topics in Distance Teaching

Noon to 1 p.m. on select Fridays via Zoom

The Reinert Center’s Distance Learning Workshop Series offers an interactive space to explore, reflect on, and enact new ideas in distance teaching. Each semester features a themed series of workshops, where guest speakers present on key topics and participants are invited to apply new pedagogical ideas in their online teaching context.

Our Fall 2025 theme, Focused Topics in Distance Teaching, explores four key aspects of distance teaching, including creating interactive Panopto lecture videos, facilitating effective online groupwork, promoting RSI in synchronous formats, and supporting student wellbeing in distance courses. Each 60-minute workshop is conducted virtually via Zoom and counts as one-half (½) elective credit in the Online University Teaching Skills Certificate. This workshop series is targeted specifically to SLU faculty teaching in a distance format.

Aug. 29: Creating Interactive Panopto Video Lectures
 This workshop explores how to create interactive Panopto video content that engages students in asynchronous formats. Participants will identify one way they might use an interactive feature in Panopto as a means of increasing student engagement with recorded video content.
Sept. 19: Effective Group Work Online
In this interactive workshop you will have the opportunity to think through evidence-based practices for creating and facilitating group work. We will also explore the creation and population of groups in Canvas and the creation of assignments for those groups. Finally, you will reflect on your pre-existing or upcoming group assignments.
Oct. 10: Promoting RSI in Synchronous Courses
This workshop explores strategies for facilitating meaningful student interactions in synchronous course formats. Various strategies will be explored as a means of promoting RSI (regular and substantive interaction) synchronously.
Nov. 14: Supporting Student Well-Being in Distance Courses
Our students have never been under more pressure. For students taking distance courses, the physical and temporal separations that come with the format can exacerbate that pressure with feelings of isolation, loneliness, and anxiety. This 60-minute workshop explores techniques and practices instructors can use to support student well-being in distance courses. Participants will gain strategies to build a caring, supportive learning community in which students thrive.

Registration is required

Online Courses: Fall 2025

The Reinert Center supports instructors for the full continuum of teaching online including: preparing to teach online for the first time, online course design, assessment of online courses, as well as strategies and techniques for effective online teaching. Below is our current list of full, online course offerings. These courses can be used for credit in our Online University Teaching Skills Certificate or they may be taken by individuals not enrolled in the certificate. To see additional descriptions and details for all our online courses, please visit our Online Courses page.
Registration is required

Sept. 2 - 9: Instructor Presence* 

This one-week, asynchronous course considers the role the instructor’s presence plays for learners in distance courses. Participants will identify types of instructor presence (teaching, social, and cognitive), consider the connections between presence and student persistence, and develop strategies for intentionally building their presence into the online learning community of their courses.

Prerequisite: Introduction to Distance Teaching

Sept. 16 - 30: Introduction to Distance Teaching
The Introduction to Online Teaching is a fully-online asynchronous course that provides a pedagogical foundation for Saint Louis University faculty who are new to the online teaching environment. The course provides faculty an opportunity to gain the experience of an online “student” and to experience a fully-online course that has been designed to align with the University’s Online Course Design Rubric while developing a plan for an online course.
Sept. 30 - Oct. 7 Generative AI in Online Teaching*

This one-week, asynchronous course focuses on generative AI in distance learning environments. Participants will interrogate design constraints/opportunities associated with generative AI in online course design, and articulate generative AI use guidelines for assignments and other online coursework. Course activities will serve as a means of enabling participants to think intentionally about the use of generative AI to augment teaching and provide meaningful student learning opportunities from a distance. 

Prerequisite: Introduction to Distance Teaching

Oct. 28 - Nov. 4: Accessibility in Online Formats*

This one-week, fully-online asynchronous course surveys accessibility in online teaching formats. The course provides instructors an opportunity to understand key accessibility requirements that are aligned with Standard 8 in the University’s Online Course Design Rubric. Instructors will work on an online course of their choosing and are expected to spend 2-4 hours completing course content, activities, and discussions.

Prerequisite: Introduction to Distance Teaching

Oct. 28 - Nov. 11: Introduction to Distance Teaching

The Introduction to Online Teaching is a fully-online asynchronous course that provides a pedagogical foundation for Saint Louis University faculty who are new to the online teaching environment. The course provides faculty an opportunity to gain the experience of an online “student” and to experience a fully-online course that has been designed to align with the University’s Online Course Design Rubric while developing a plan for an online course.

Conversation Series: Introduction to SLU's Teaching Effectiveness Framework

Co-facilitated by the Teaching Effectiveness Project Chairs and the Reinert Center
The purpose of this conversation series is to introduce the new, University-wide Teaching Effectiveness Framework. We will discuss the attributes and language of each area of the framework and establish a shared vocabulary to describe the teaching and learning concepts embedded within it. Participants will also identify ways in which their teaching already embodies the components of the framework.  
Registration is requested

Learning-Focused Teaching

  • 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 10, via Zoom
  • 4 p.m. on Thursday Sept. 11, in room 222 of Wuller Hall

Mission-Aligned Teaching

  • 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 14, via Zoom
  • Noon on Friday, Oct. 17, in room 222 of Wuller Hall

Growth-Oriented Teaching

  • 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 12, via Zoom
  • 4 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 13, in room 222 of Wuller Hall