Saint Louis University is committed to quality distance education and supporting faculty teaching online. Below are links to important campus and web-based resources that can help faculty as they design, develop, and teach online courses at SLU. These resources include information about online pedagogy, technology support, course content and copyright support, accessible course design, online academic support for students, and professional development resources.
Online Pedagogy Resources
While effective online teaching shares many features with in-person teaching, it also requires different methods for interacting with students, presenting course content, and engaging students in achieving course learning outcomes. The following are some of the online pedagogy resources SLU offers for faculty teaching online.
The main campus resource supporting faculty pedagogical development is the Reinert Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning. They provide faculty development opportunities and support for online teaching including:
SLU libraries have subscriptions to journals dedicated to distance education; those listed below with an * are accessible only to the SLU community. These are just some of the resources available for faculty and staff wanting to learn about distance education or publish their original research.
- (freely available)
- (freely available)
- *
- *
Technology Resources
SLU鈥檚 Information Technology Services offers online, phone, and in-person technological support. Visit the in person, visit the , and/or visit for more information. Below are links to resources for specific University-supported technologies.
Course Content and Copyright Support
Faculty teaching online often assign digital textbooks and/or materials. Faculty who wish to create digital copies of their own materials and/or to assign other kinds of digital materials must comply with copyright law. The following support resources are available through SLU Libraries.
Faculty who need help identifying appropriate ways to provide access to digital materials should contact their designated subject librarian for assistance. Subject librarians will work with you to figure out what materials can be purchased/licensed in formats available to online students. Purchase/licensing of new materials such as e-books and streaming video is done on a case-by-case basis and is subject to availability and budget constraints. Requests should ideally be made well before the start of the course term to ensure adequate time to receive access to the materials or allow for the identification of alternative materials if that becomes necessary. Subject librarians also can help you identify what material on your list is already available through SLU Libraries.
The University Libraries provide a robust and convenient eReserves system through which students can freely access library-owned articles, book chapters, and e-books, as well as most materials provided by course instructors. When SLU Libraries do not already own or license materials requested for eReserves we will attempt to acquire the materials, or seek copyright clearance and pay permissions fees as the budget allows. More information on eReserves can be found at the .
If you do not use eReserves for providing access to articles and books the library owns, please link directly to the material instead of saving a copy to your course page. This keeps us in compliance with copyright requirements and ensures we have accurate statistics on materials usage, which is especially important for making decisions to continue or cancel subscriptions. Most databases include options to create a permanent stable URL. If it is not already done, you should add the SLU proxy prefix () to the beginning of the URL to make sure students off campus will be able to access the material. Your subject librarian can help you locate stable URLs or ensure you're linking properly to ensure off-campus access.
Accessibility Resources
Saint Louis University is committed to providing students with an accessible and inclusive education. For general information on accessibility for online learning see the resources below. Specific information for creating an accessible online course is found on the SLU Online Course Accessibility Checklist website.
- Ally is an accessibility tool integrated into Canvas. Students can use this tool to convert files, documents, and Canvas pages into alternative formats such as OCR, audio, ePub, and Electronic Braille.
- Ally also helps instructors improve accessibility in their Canvas courses by identifying accessibility issues and providing information on how to meet accessibility standards. ITS has created some for Ally.
- More information about Ally can also be found on the .
- Pius XII Memorial Library: The Library has two scanners that can create text-searchable PDFs, located on level one in the Academic Tech Commons. The Library also provides access to Adobe Acrobat Pro, which can create text-searchable PDFs from existing PDFs. See this for more about creating text-searchable PDFs.
- Center for Accessibility and Disability Resources: The Center for Accessibility and Disability Resources can help you identify appropriate accommodations for specific student accessibility needs. Additionally, they offer these faculty and staff resources.
- Reinert Center: The Reinert Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning can work with you one-on-one to design accessible, inclusive courses. Additionally, they offer these inclusive teaching resources.
Professional Development Resources
In addition to the resources provided by the Reinert Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning, SLU maintains membership in several professional organizations dedicated to distance education and online pedagogy. Many of these professional organizations also host annual conferences.
These distance education organizations house resources including articles and research related to distance learning, professional development opportunities, discussion forums, and scorecards and rubrics derived from evidence-based practices in online pedagogy. To create a member log-in please contact the Distance Education Office.
- : Continuing and Online Education Forum
Some distance education conferences in which faculty and staff can attend or present include:
- , University of Madison-Wisconsin
- : OLC sponsors several regional and national conferences dedicated to distance education.
- : WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies