Diane Moore, Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies and Education, collaborated with HDS and FAS colleagues to produce a six-module, online course offering through HarvardX called World Religions Through Their Scriptures. They designed all digital material for optimal engagement of the 130,000 enrolled students: “It’s essential to provide language and tools in order for students from diverse worldviews, religions, experiences, ages, and regions of the world to constructively interact around topics that often divide us.”

The benefits: Enabling interaction and discussion augmented the course experience for the 36,000 enrolled in her module. Moore was surprised by the quality and thoughtfulness of online threads: “The students—their voices, experiences, and contexts—became course resources. Engaging with others increased their retention of the content.” Read more about Online engagement: Designing a learner-centered HarvardX course

Catherine Brekus, Charles Warren Professor of the History of Religion in America, worked with Schlesinger Research Librarian Amanda Strauss this semester to design a session for her freshman seminar on Christianity and slavery: “When I arrived for our meeting, there was a table full of materials for me to look at—Amanda did so much work.”

The benefits: Handling primary source material connects students to humanity: “these were real people, with real lives, concerns, joys, and sorrows.” She and Strauss created four stations of 19th century sources illustrating perspectives on slavery, including Harriett Beecher Stowe’s personal copy of Uncle Tom’s Cabin and a diary with no mention of the Civil War or slavery—Strauss’s idea, to round out the variety of human experiences of the era. Read more about Primary sources: Teaching humanity in history