Reinert Center Events

2025 Winter Institute: Teaching, Learning, and Neurodiversity 

January 9, 2024, 11:00 - 3:30

This half-day event will begin with a presentation over lunch to ground participants in a shared set of definitions and approaches surrounding neurodiversity and Universal Design for Learning. The lunch presentations will be followed by three mini-workshops on specific elements of the updated guidelines for UDL as they apply to teaching neurodiverse students. Participants are encouraged to bring their own course materials (e.g., syllabi, assignments, exams) to apply strategies and lessons learned throughout the afternoon.

Winter Institute Workshop Schedule and Topics
Registration is required

Distance Learning Workshop Series: Technology for Teaching

Multiple dates, 12:00 - 1:00 p.m., Zoom

The Reinert Center’s Distance Learning Workshop Series is dedicated to exploring innovative, research-based strategies for distance learning. Each semester, the workshop series explores a theme related to distance learning, with guest speakers addressing a topic and participants having space to reflect on a pedagogical strategy, approach, or technique in their distance teaching context. 

Our Spring 2025 theme, Technology for Teaching, focuses on four University-supported instructional tools. Each 60-minute virtual (via Zoom) workshop is dedicated to one teaching tool focusing on how it can be harnessed intentionally to enhance student learning. Sessions include an overview of the tool, discussions on its pedagogical uses, and opportunities for participants to explore how it can fit into their own distance teaching practices.

• January 24: Zoom
  This workshop will provide an opportunity to show how Zoom's capabilities can effectively support both asynchronous and synchronous remote learning environments. This session will provide several practical tips and techniques to enhance digital pedagogy, encourage student interaction, and help achieve meaningful educational outcomes.
• February 21: Panopto
  This workshop focuses on the pedagogical uses of Panopto, focusing on how instructional video content created in the tool can be used to enhance student learning.  Participants will have space to (re)consider how Panopto might be used as part of their digital teaching toolbox.
• March 21: Advanced Canvas tools (Peer review/groups)
  Getting students to communicate with each other and work together is not only essential in distance education, but also a requirement of “Routine and Substantive Interaction (RSI)". Canvas provides several built-in tools that aid in the promotion of student-student interaction. This workshop will consider Advanced Canvas Tools such as Groups, Collaborations, and Peer Review, and discuss their uses in distance teaching and learning.
• April 25: Ally
  This workshop explores Ally as an instructional tool to make course learning materials more accessible. Participants will have space to (re)consider how Ally might be incorporated into the design of a distance course.

Registration is requested

Universal Design and the ADA

February 11 - 25, Online Course

Universal Design and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a joint, two-week asynchronous course offered in Canvas by the Reinert Center and Center for Accessibility and Disability Resources (CADR). The course begins by surveying key components of the ADA and the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA), with a particular focus understanding the role of accommodations in higher education classrooms. The course then examines Universal Design and the Universal Design for Learning framework as pedagogical approaches to removing barriers to student learning.

Participants will work independently on four modules at their own pace. There are weekly deadlines for submissions in order to keep participants on track and engaged in conversations with other participants. Registration consideration is given to any faculty or graduate student instructors currently teaching at SLU

Registration is required

Fire Drill Workshop Series:

What’s Your Teaching Plan in Case of an Academic Disruption?

Multiple dates, 2:00 - 3:30 p.m., Wuller Hall 222

The March 2020 pivot to online instruction might be a distant memory, but disruptions are increasingly becoming part of academic life. These disruptions might be brief, or they might last for days, weeks, or even months. How prepared are you if you needed to quickly pivot your in-person course to an online format? What would you need to do and how would you do it? Building on the lessons learned from 2020 and the new expectations and regulations for distance teaching, this 3-part workshop series* revisits some of key points, requirements, and actions necessary to maintain a continuous, quality learning experience for students. 

During the series, participants will:

• Identify types of disruptions, evaluate the emergency readiness of their courses, and prepare a continuity checklist (February 14).
• Develop plans for different disruption scenarios and consider accessibility during disruptions (February 21).
• Revisit effective practices for using the distance education technologies necessary to maintain instructional continuity during a disruption (February 28).    

For additional details check out our flier
Registration is required

Annual Academic Portfolio Retreat

Friday, February 21, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Each year, the Office of the Provost and the Reinert Center co-sponsor an Academic Portfolio Retreat for faculty who are preparing for promotion and/or tenure. This full-day, in-person retreat will feature short presentations on key aspects of academic dossiers, generative writing activities to help participants shape their dossier content, and peer feedback opportunities to build community and see how others frame their professional experiences.

Full-time SLU faculty members who are tenure-track, non-tenure track, or already tenured are welcome to participate. Faculty who are preparing for third-year review, tenure review, and promotion review may find the retreat helpful in developing or refining their dossiers. Newer faculty may find the retreat helpful in establishing a foundation for later review processes.

For additional details on the Academic Portfolio Retreat, please visit the webpage.
Registration is required

Online Courses: Spring 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