Dr. Vat Kam Hou

So much of what determines the overall success or failure of a course takes place well in advance of the first day of class. It’s the thoughtful contemplation of your vision for the course — from what you want your students to learn, to selecting the instructional activities, assignments, and materials that will fuel that learning, to determining how you will measure learning outcomes.

Featuring 12 articles pulled from the pages of The Teaching Professor, the report will inspire you to rethink some components of your course, especially if it’s one you’ve taught for a few years and you are feeling in a bit of a rut.

This special report Course Design and Development Ideas That Work examines this multifaceted issue from a variety of fronts to bring you proven course design alternatives implemented in courses of varying sizes and disciplines.

For example, in the article titled A Large Course with a Small Course Option, we learn about an innovative course design for a large 300-level course. Essentially, the instructor created two options: in one, students attend lectures and take four exams. In the second option, students are responsible for those same lectures and exams, but they also participate in small group discussions and complete a set of writing assignments. The second option was most valued by students who are not very good test-takers or who have a keen interest in the subject.

In the article The Placement of Those Steppingstones, the University of Richmond’s Joe Ben Hoyle compares the placement of steppingstones in a koi pond to the educational processes teachers use to help their students get from point A to point B. Hoyle theorizes that “education stumbles when either the learning points are not sequenced in a clearly logical order or they are not placed at a proper distance from each other.”

Love or hate it, group work can create powerful learning experiences for students. From understanding course content to developing problem solving, teamwork and communication skills, group work is an effective teaching strategy whose lessons may endure well beyond the end of a course. So why is it that so many students (and some faculty) hate it?

If you’re looking to change the way your students think about group work, you’ll want to download this FREE special report Effective Group Work Strategies for the College Classroom.

Ask your students to get into groups and you’re likely to hear a few groans. Usually, they just sit there for a few moments, and it’s only after much urging do they look at those sitting nearby and move minimally in the direction of getting themselves seated together as a group. This lack of enthusiasm for group work is, at some level, a recognition that it is much easier to sit and take notes rather than work in a group and take ownership. The resistance also derives from past experiences in groups where not much happened, or where some members did nothing while other did more than their fair share of the work.

This special report features 10 insightful articles from The Teaching Professor that will help you create more effective group learning activities and grading strategies as well as tips for dealing with group members who are “hitchhiking” (getting a free ride from the group) or “hijacking” (dominating the group effort).

Writing assignments, particularly for first- and second-year college students, are probably one of those items in the syllabus that some professors dread almost as much as their students do. While no one’s doubting that essays, research papers, and other types of writing assignments are an important part of the academic experience and vital to furthering student learning, they also are time consuming and, at times, frustrating to grade.

Keys to Designing Effective Writing and Research Assignments,

With as much content as professors have to cover, many feel they simply can’t take time to teach the research skills required to write a quality, college-level term paper. On the other hand, improving students’ writing skills is everyone’s business, and carries with it many short- and long-term benefits for teachers and students alike.

In addition, many instructors are finding ways to add relevance to writing assignments by aligning them with the type of writing required in a specific profession as an alternative to the traditional, semester-long research paper.

After years of teaching face to face, many instructors are able to begin teaching a traditional, classroom-based course without having the entire course laid out ahead of time. This approach doesn’t work very well in the online classroom where careful planning and course design is crucial to the success of online students.

Good online course design begins with a clear understanding of specific learning outcomes and ways to engage students, while creating activities that allow students to take some control of their learning. It also requires a little extra effort upfront to minimize two of the most common frustrations of online learning:
1. confusing course organization (how course elements are structured within the course); and
2. unclear navigation (what links or buttons are used to access these elements).

When learners can’t find what they need or are confused about where to go and what to do, it is harder for them to learn. Being an online learner is challenging enough without these additional barriers. Plus, frustrated learners tend to either drop out or drive the instructor crazy – neither of which is an outcome we want.

If you’re looking for best practices in developing online courses, you’ll want to download this FREE special report Online Course Design: 13 Strategies for Teaching in a Web-based Distance Learning Environment.

The Essential Faculty Focus Free Reports: Instructional Design

Course Design and Development Ideas That Work

Effective Group Work Strategies for the College Classroom

Keys to Designing Effective Writing and Research Assignments

Online Course Design: 13 Strategies for Teaching in a Web-based Distance Learning Environment