Published on March 23, 2020 by Dr. Lisa E. Gurley, Associate Professor, Chair of Samford University’s Faculty Senate 2019-2020, Ida Moffett School of Nursing  

The classes that I teach are already delivered in an online format. One routine that I started this semester is posting a weekly “welcome to week _” video. For example, this morning I recorded a “welcome to week 12” video using Studio in Canvas. I used the screen capture and camera so students could see my face and our course in Canvas. I shared a Bible verse from my personal devotional and thanked our students for their service in caring for our population (my students are registered nurses pursuing graduate education; some are serving in the military as well). Then, I navigate through our Canvas course to recap what we did last week and introduce our topics/assignments for this week. The videos are between 2 to 5 minutes in length. To my surprise, I have had several students email me very personal messages about how the weekly words of encouragement and prayer are helping them cope with this very difficult situation. Really, it is the students that provide me with support and encouragement.