Get an introduction to key learning principles and the basics of effective, evidence-based teaching practices in this 12-week course about teaching in the college classroom. This course will focus on developing inclusive, learner-centered approaches to teaching. Participants will explore the interconnectedness of learning objectives, assessment, and learning activities through both discussion of course materials and developing and practicing their own lesson plan. In this course, participants will

• Explore inclusive, learner-centered teaching theories and practices
• Read and discuss literature on effective teaching and learning
• Apply evidence-based strategies to your teaching practice
• Create connections between learning objectives, assessments, and learning activities in order to build and teach a lesson plan
• Reflect on personal teaching values and decision making

This course is part of CIRTL’s fall programming on evidence-based teaching fundamentals.

Instructors

Beth Fleener, University of Texas at Arlington
Peggy Semingson, University of Texas at Arlington
Tiffany Shoop, Virginia Tech

Course Schedule

This course meets in Zoom on Tuesdays, September 24 through December 10, at 10-11:30pm Gulf / 3-4:30pm Atlantic / 2-3:30pm Eastern / 1-2:30pm Central / 12-1:30pm Mountain / 11am-12:30pm Pacific.

Audience

This course is designed first and foremost for graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and early career faculty in STEM/SBE disciplines, but generally relevant to anyone looking to improve their foundational college-level teaching and learning skills and knowledge.

Registration & Enrollment

Registration opens Monday, September 9 at 11am Central Time

This course has a cap of 100 students. Registration opens on Monday, September 9 at 1pm Atlantic Time / 12pm Eastern / 11am Central / 10am Mountain / 9am Pacific and closes when capacity is reached; typically this happens within 1 week. Registration will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis and registrants from CIRTL member institutions or alumni of CIRTL member institutions will receive priority. Once registration closes, all registrants will be notified of their enrollment status.

Accessibility

If you have access needs, please let us know what they are. Contact Zoe Zuleger (zmzuleger@wisc.edu), who is supporting this course, to let us know how we can help you have a successful experience. In addition to meeting individualized needs, we will also take measures throughout the course to support accessibility for all our students:

• Using alt-text on images in reading materials
• Sending weekly reminders with upcoming assignments to all students
• Sending weekly reminders with missing assignments to students who have late work
• Sharing materials for synchronous sessions with students via Moodle (slides, breakout group activity instructions, etc.)
• Enabling live captioning in synchronous sessions
• Incorporating multiple modes of interaction into synchronous sessions
• Sharing recordings from synchronous sessions
• Allowing students to make up absences and submit work late with no penalty

Learning Outcomes

All CIRTL Network programming is designed to help participants achieve familiarity with our Core Ideas. This course is designed around the following learning outcomes.

Associate: Evidence-based teaching

• Describe and recognize the value of realistic well-defined, achievable, measurable and student-centered learning goals.
• Describe several assessment techniques and recognize their alignment with particular types of learning goals.
• Describe several known high-impact, evidence-based effective instructional practices and materials and recognize their alignment with particular types of learning goals.

Associate: Learning Community

• Describe and recognize the value of learning communities, and how they impact on student learning.
• Describe several techniques and issues of establishing LCs comprising a diverse group of learners.
• Describe several techniques for creating a LC within a learning environment, including strategies that promote positive interdependence between learners so as to accomplish learning goals.

Associate: Learning-through-Diversity

• Describe how an instructor’s beliefs and biases can influence student learning.
• Describe the impact of diversity on student learning, in particular how diversity can enhance learning, and how inequities can negatively impact learning if not addressed.
• Describe the scope of diversity in learning environments, of both students and instructor.

Associate: Teaching as Research

• Describe a “full-inquiry” cycle.

Practitioner: Evidence-Based Teaching

• Access the literature and existing knowledge to develop a deeper understanding of existing evidence- based knowledge concerning high- impact, evidence-based teaching practices.

Practitioner: Learning-through-Diversity

• Access the literature and existing knowledge to develop a deeper understanding diversity and its impact on accomplishing learning goals.