Supporting Teaching, Learning, and Technology in the College of Letters and Science
Using our credit hour worksheet can help you better estimate student time and ensure your course meets the credit hour definition and includes regular and substantive interaction. Use this worksheet to estimate how your course components contribute to the standard of 45 hours of learning activity per credit required for your course. View the Template …
Diagramming course components can help instructors and students see how activities fit together and when time will be required to engage. Establishing a clear and repeatable “rhythm” can help students structure their participation. This document offers a template and several examples. View the Template Our template uses Google Docs to diagram how course components sequence …
Creating a weekly (or per unit) map of your course can help you align and sequence content. This template offers a framework for creating a detailed week-by-week (or unit-by-unit) plan for a course. It provides a high-level view of content, activities, and objectives. This document provides an outline for a 14-week course for you to …
Created by Laura Schmidli and edited by Maria Widmer. Many instructors have collected a final paper or project, only to be disappointed that students missed the mark. This can stem from the gap between a complex prompt and students’ ability to organize the work and learning required. Breaking down complex tasks and providing temporary support …
Keeping course content up to date helps both students and instructors stay engaged with disciplines as they evolve. Including a variety of perspectives and examples in your course content can help students connect course material to their own experiences and goals. This page offers strategies from research literature and our L&S colleagues for updating and …
To close the year, Molly Harris sits down with Lyn Macgregor of Sociology. They explore a resource that Lyn and her colleagues created to help instructors uncover the hidden curriculum for students.
Created by Molly Harris and Laura Schmidli. Instructors want their students to learn, and inclusive teaching strategies can help! Although there are many ways to define inclusive teaching, there are common characteristics that can guide your teaching practice: What new strategy might you try this semester to make your class more inclusive? L&S Design for …
A well-structured course can minimize student questions and uncertainty. Structure can help students understand the overall goals of the course and specific activities, what to expect during class sessions, how to best succeed on assignments, and more. When students struggle with aspects of the course you don’t expect – like interpreting instructions or understanding prompts …
Created by Laura Schmidli and edited by Maria Widmer. During the pandemic, many instructors valued the interactive features of videoconference tools, like breakout rooms, integrated chat, emoji and reactions, and polling. These tools allowed students to connect, react, and participate and offered instructors a sense of student engagement during remote class sessions. Whether a class …
Created by Laura Schmidli and edited by Jonathan Klein. Imagine a student attends your office hours and expresses frustration at performing poorly on an exam – despite hours of preparation. One way to troubleshoot with the student is to focus on the quality, rather than duration, of their preparation. What did they do to prepare? …
Created by Laura Schmidli with Molly Harris, Alison Caffrey, Antonella Caloro, Jonathan Klein, Luis Loya, David Macasaet, Erika Schock, and Parker Story. In late 2022, ChatGPT made headlines. This and other generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) tools have many in higher education discussing AI’s potential threat to our work and purpose. To read more from …
A course orientation in Canvas usually takes the form of one Module that students can interact with before the course officially begins, whether the course is in-person, hybrid, or online. This helps students be prepared for class on the first day by communicating expectations and norms for your course. A course orientation makes information about …