Group items tagged

The new ACRL Framework for Information Literacy gives a higher priority to understanding how knowledge is produced and shared. This article discusses ways that could play out in the design of library services. How could it affect your course and curriculum design?

Universal design for learning includes "thinking about what has to happen at the level of (course) design that makes accommodation less necessary." The article has some interesting things to say about the affective level of "requests for accommodation."

Tremendous example of reflective teaching and course design, as the hosts of the Tea for Teaching podcast reflect on their fall experiences teaching online courses with significant synchronous elements. This would be great listening as we think about the design of spring courses.

"We have built our entire educational system, but in particular our course design, on the (ableist) assumption of near-100% attendance from near-100% of the students."

A remarkably even-handed article which really does take the provocative title as a question. Design thinking might well provide a useful problem-solving mode for interdisciplinary efforts and curricular coherence.

We spend a lot of time focusing on backward design, but that model presumes a great deal of knowledge of what the course is about and what students will get out of it. This professor lays out the questions you need to ask when designing a course for the first time, and the result is a kind of flexible forward design.

On the GLCA/GLAA Consortium for Teaching and Learning website, Patrik Hultberg of Kalamazoo College discusses working memory, long-term memory, and cognitive load, as they relate to course design.

This article from Middlebury addresses many of the reasons we include instructional technology support within the CIP.

Do you encourage students to form study groups like this? There are some interesting ideas at the end about ways to change your course design to encourage group study outside of class.

The authors describe ways in which design thinking gives students a chance to practice interdisciplinarity and engage with big questions. What if students were encouraged to bring those skills to bear on campus issues?

An approach to class introductions, designed to start forming relationships and working on the classroom dynamic.

An approach to class introductions, designed to start forming relationships and working on the classroom dynamic.

A group of disabilities studies scholars have released a template letter designed to convince publishers to make more books available in accessible formats. It's a good reminder that everything is negotiable, but you have to ask. (Similar to author's addenda in the open access movement, if enough people start requesting these riders, publishers will see a new reason to change their standard practices.)

This paper serves as a guide to starting a portfolio project. It focuses on the "learning portfolio" as a tool which encourages the student to reflect on their own learning, with special attention to their own progress. I was particularly taken with the point that a portfolio can be an appropriate tool at any level of the curriculum - an individual course or set of courses, the program or department level, or the whole institution - though of course, that choice will change the purpose of the portfolio, and therefore its design.

Lots to think about in this deceptively short article. The finding highlights the importance of course design - I think Koh undersells the point that her online course may require more writing than many.

A new iOS app designed by faculty at Bryn Mawr and Notre Dame integrates the text of The Tempest with critical commentary, different actors' interpretations of critical scenes, and class discussions. The "book app" seems to be diverging in important ways from the "e-book."

A six-page synopsis by Dee Fink of his seminal book on course design, "Creating Significant Learning Experiences." From the text: "The heart of this approach is to decide first what students can and should learn in relation to this subject and then figure out how such learning can be facilitated. Although this approach requires more time and effort, it also offers the best chance of ensuring that students have a significant learning experience."

Interesting example of games designed to provoke ethical discussions, and an example of how they can be used in class.

A new resource from Tulane University gives design tips for making syllabi more accessible and engaging. "Countless instructors complain that students don't read the syllabus. We believe students would use the document more effectively if it were designed more accessibly."

"One of my biggest regrets as a teacher of writing is that for many years, I didn't make students write enough." John Warner argues for changes in course designs to give students a lot more practice with shorter writing formats.

A group of faculty at the 2017 GLCA Rubrics for Liberal Arts Learning provide a framework for designing and assessing civic engagement projects.