Building Community in the Online Learning Environment Using Canvas LMS

As online learning becomes more and more accessible, so does the possibility of a more isolated educational experience. Building community, especially in theological education, is essential to student learning.  It is important that the online environment be just as welcoming, hospitable, and supportive for online students as it is in the in-person classroom. A well-designed Read More …

Introducing Padlet: An Online Bulletin Board

by Christian Foster Introduction Padlet is an online virtual bulletin board offered in a software-as-service format. This virtual bulletin board has many uses, as its allowance of multimedia uploads provides a massive amount of functional dexterity. This blog explores Padlet by giving a general overview of what the service is, how to use its basic Read More …

An Instructor’s Guide to Canvas Peer Review

Traditionally, peer review involves bringing papers to class, swapping, and finding time in class to read and review them. Now, we have Canvas LMS! A peer review assignment enables students to provide feedback on another student’s assignment submission. Peer reviews are a tool that allows communication between students and can help students master the concepts Read More …

6 Benefits to Peer Review in Theological Education

Simply put, peer review assignments enable students to provide feedback to each other. They are another tool to put in your pedagogical tool belt. There is a lot of research on peer review in the classroom. We will cover some best practices later in this article. The following Benefits to Peer Review we present here Read More …

More Discussion, Less Bored: Alternatives to Discussion Boards

For many classes, Discussion Boards serve as the primary means of assessing a student’s participation and preparation for class. Did they do the reading? Are they paying attention in class? Many faculty who teach online use discussion boards as a way to continue the conversations of the class outside of the classroom. This article is Read More …

Interested in Becoming a Tech Producer?

Job Description The role of a tech producer is to be the facilitator of the online classroom on behalf of the faculty member. Under the supervision of the Instruction Content Developer in the Office of Digital Learning, Tech Producers will assist in a range of technical and pedagogical tasks including Zoom support for teaching faculty and Read More …

4 Creative Uses for Polling in the Classroom

If the pandemic has shown us anything about education, it is that learning can often become a passive experience. This is true for both face-to-face and online instruction. Students will get into a “TV watching” mode and not actively engage in discussion. Now, this is not intentional and it is not something to assign blame. Read More …

Everyone Did the Reading: Collaborative Annotation in the Classroom

Often when students are assigned a reading, they gloss. They will see a name, a term, a concept… and skip it. Not because they aren’t engaged. Not because they don’t want to learn. But because it is one of seven articles to have read by the end of the week. Put simply, collaborative annotation is Read More …

Better Digital Whiteboards for Classroom Collaboration

In March of 2020, the world of higher education shifted from teaching classes on campus to Emergency Remote Teaching — How do we take exactly what we do in the classroom and teach effectively online? Online education has often been looked down upon because of the assumption that it does not generate the same interactive Read More …

ScholarBlogs: A Public Scholarship Blog

Ellen Ott Marshall and her doctoral seminar students have recently embraced practice of public scholarship with their class blog. If you weren’t aware of Emory’s ScholarBlog platform, now is the time to check out this Emory-specific instance of WordPress. Any Emory user (student or faculty) can request a ScholarBlog at not cost, which can then Read More …