Course Design Tools
- A Self-Directed Guide to Designing Courses for Significant LearningI use this guide all the time when I'm designing classes, courses, assignments, etc.
- Creating Effective Discussion BoardsKinda long, but has some good tips on creating effective discussion boards. Includes overcoming assumptions we may make about students, how to get them to critically engage with information, and practical design tips.
- Assignment Design TipsExcellent resource from Brown University on designing an assignment for the online environment.
- Open Scholarship: Open Educational ResourcesWhile the materials in Open Scholarship are open and freely available, the Open Access Textbooks collection specifically contains freely accessible textbooks by Washington University faculty for use in formal courses or personal study.
Tech Tools
- Kaltura TrainingVideos by MediaSpace for Kaltura.
- PadletOnline discussion pin board. Can be embedded into LibGuides.
- Poll EverywhereOnline polling software.
- MentimeterOnline polling software.
Quick Start
- Tips for Faculty Teaching OnlineA pep-talk for people who now have to teach online.
- Online Instructional StrategiesUse this matrix as a guide in creating online instruction for your subject areas as well as College Writing.
- WashU Teaching RemotelyCheck out this page - they have great resources to get you started with Kaltura, hosting virtual office hours, and engaging students online.
- Tips for Instructors and Students Moving OnlineThis document was created by graduate students in IS590EL (eLearning) in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (instructor: Melissa Wong).
Backwards Design
Backwards design is a way for us to make decisions about our instruction sessions upfront before we step into the classroom. It is a way for us to structure our sessions with our learning goals in mind in order for us to be able to better help our students reach those goals. This works the same for both face-to-face and online courses.
For more information in Information Literacy and Instructional Design, check out the blog Information Literacy by Design: http://ulinstructors.web.unc.edu/
Backwards design is a way to structure the learning in your course around a goal. You start with what you want the students to know, then figure out how they will know it, and finally how you will facilitate this knowing.
Backwards Design (Wiggins and McTighe, 2005)
Follow this formula to create a learning outcome. For example, I want my students to evaluate sources in order to choose appropriate information for their topic. So, my learning outcome is
Students will be able to use given criteria to evaluate three sources in order to choose the most appropriate source for a research inquiry.
Blooms Taxonomy helps you avoid words like "know" or "understand" when writing a learning outcome. You'll be able to much better assess student learning if you have the students demonstrate their learning by summarizing something (understanding), locating something (remembering), or experimenting with something (evaluating).
- Lesson Plan TemplateBlank lesson plan template. Click to open.
- Sample Lesson Plan Package - CW Adams/AlbertThis package contains a lesson plan, agenda, and box notes for a sample online class helping students to navigate searching using keywords in Academic Search Complete.
Reflective Practice
How did this semester go?
Take out a piece of paper or open a word doc to reflect on the following questions:
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What went well? What didn't go well?
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What do you want to keep for next semester as we think about continuing to teach asynchronously online? Synchronously?
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How do you think we can build equity and inclusion into our teaching and learning practices with students distributed in on ground and online learning modalities in the fall?