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Review the pedagogical and technical information below to inform your progress in Week Eleven. Have questions about what you learned here or ideas for future tips? Join Coffee & Answers (open support Zoom sessions with the Academic Technology Team) or email the Office of Teaching and Learning.
Don't miss the important Fall 2026 registration updates and advising guides included below!
Pedagogical
What does it truly mean to integrate Cura Personalis into our daily interactions and course design?
My understanding of Cura Personalis has been formed by my own Jesuit education as an SJU alumna (undergrad and graduate programs), a graduate of the Contemplatives In Action leadership formation program through Ignatian Young Adult Ministries, and working over eight years at Saint Joseph’s University in the Faith-Justice Institute, an academic mission office.
Cura Personalis is that we see all of our students individually and consider all of the pieces of their life when working with and educating them. Cura Personalis is defined as care for the whole person, and as faculty and staff at a Jesuit institute we want to educate and develop them into fully whole adults. This is aligned with the liberal arts education at a Jesuit institution; we develop a wide lens of perspective for students to see through, developing a critical lens for thinking and processing real matters. A Cura Personalis perspective cares that all parts of the student as they develop; recreation, spiritual formation, and leadership are all a part of their college experiences.
When Cura Personalis is the foundation of every encounter with each student, we begin to see them comprehensively as all of who they are and who they are becoming. It might mean seeing each student’s situation differently because each student has different needs. This perspective does not mean these factors are excuses; rather, we are led to a greater understanding, an understanding that allows us to more fully support students, and to encourage their self-advocacy and accountability both personally and academically. There is capacity building in working through hardships. Teaching and leading through a Cura Personalis lens encourages empathy and perspective taking in their own lives.
There are concrete ways of instilling Cura Personalis into your own instruction, and one might be adding experience into course learning. One of the experiential learning models at SJU is the Service-Learning Program, which is developed from the Jesuit educational model of Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm of Context-Experience-Reflect-Action-Evaluate. Service-Learning, housed in the Faith-Justice Institute, “is a form of experience-based education where students engage in service as part of their academic course work… to help students better understand the abstract concepts presented in their classes. Likewise, the ideas learned in class can help students make sense of the human and social problems they encounter through their service work.” This can foster a student’s lens of Cura Personalis towards others by understanding the complexities in society and encounter each person they meet as just that, another human being.
–Danielle Critelli ‘13, '15 (MS), ‘22 (MS) (She/Her)
Associate Director
The Faith-Justice Institute
Technical
How do we translate our care for the whole person into our digital course design?
Creating an accessible course in Canvas helps ensure that all students, regardless of ability, device, or learning context, can fully engage with course materials. A strong starting point is using the built-in Canvas Accessibility Checker when creating pages, assignments, and announcements. The tool quickly flags common issues such as missing alternative text for images, poor color contrast, or incorrectly structured headings. Other strategies for improving course accessibility include:
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Use structured headings (Heading 2, Heading 3, etc.) instead of simply bolding text so screen readers can navigate the page more easily.
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Provide descriptive alt text for images so students using screen readers understand visual content.
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Write meaningful link text (for example, “Download the syllabus”) instead of vague phrases like “click here.”
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Upload accessible documents, such as properly formatted Word files or readable PDFs with selectable text.
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Include captions for videos and transcripts for audio, supporting students who are deaf or hard of hearing and those studying in different environments.
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Maintain a consistent course structure, such as predictable module layouts and clearly labeled due dates.
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Preview materials in Student View or with accessibility tools to identify potential barriers before students encounter them.
By integrating these practices into everyday course design, instructors make their courses more inclusive, usable, and effective for all learners.
Additional Resources
Fall 2026 Registration begins soon!
Be prepared: the Fall 2026 schedule is incoming on March 16! Fall PINs and student registration time tickets become viewable in the Student Profile once the fall course schedule is live. Registration dates are:
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March 30th: Graduate and adult learner students
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March 31st: Current Juniors/Seniors (>54 earned credits)
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April 7th: Current Sophomores (24-53 earned credits)
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April 9th: Current First Year Students (fewer than 24 earned credits)
Registration for classes can be a stressful and complicated process for your students. Undergraduate Advising Support is here with tools and resources to help you and your students navigate it!
Registration Resources for Advisors
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The Advisor Checklist helps you prepare for meetings with your advisees.
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Fall 2026 Registration Info Session on Thursday March 19th @ 3:30pm via Zoom. Register in advance for this Information Session via this link.
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Faculty Advisor Toolkit Registration Resources section
Registration Resources for your students
In the coming weeks, Undergraduate Advising will be sending emails to all students with tips and reminders for registration. In addition, these resources can be particularly helpful to your students:
– Maria Beazley,
Director, Undergraduate Advising Support
Are these tips helpful? Do you have a topic we should include in future weeks? Please let us know by emailing otl@sju.edu!