#REL100 in the (student) News

Pardon the self-promotion:

Introductory level courses here at Emory are not famous for their enthusiastic levels of participation, attendance or commitment. Often these classes are big, too drafty or, let’s be honest, just too early in the morning to meet the same standards of discussion and debate set by upper-level courses and seminars.

Professors in these classes face a unique challenge: getting a large group of students, often from many majors and years, to take an active part in class discussion and lecture.

The Religion 100: Introduction to Religion course taught by Ph.D. student Michael Altman this semester is meeting this challenge head-on. The class is growing from the more conventional, old school homework assignments by injecting the curriculum with technology and the hallmark social networking of our generation.

Twitter and blogging are given an academic spin in the effort to boost class involvement, enthusiasm, and engagement.

So, I’ve made it into the student newspaper. Now, let’s just see how the course evaluations turn out…