Tip Sheets: Course Design
A practical guide to designing clear, purposeful, and student-centered assignments that align with your course goals.
Explore assignment sequences that progressively develop students’ skills and understanding, creating a more cohesive course experience.
A structured process to designing integrated, learner-centered courses by aligning context, teaching philosophy, and course components.
Active Learning Classrooms (ALCs) and Flexible Classrooms (FCs) promote collaboration, engagement, and technology-enabled learning. These spaces encourage peer and team-based learning, shifting students from passive recipients to active co-creators. Effective use involves fostering group work, accountability, and adaptable instructional strategies that enhance participation and deepen learning outcomes.
Learn how to create cohesive course designs by aligning learning outcomes, assessments and instructional strategies.
Learn how to design and facilitate online discussions in asynchronous formats.
Start by writing student-centred learning outcomes
This document is a general resource for teaching teams seeking to incorporate lab activities in their remote courses
The Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, known as Bloom's Taxonomy (Bloom, Engelhart, Furst, & Krathwohl, 1956) is one of the most recognized learning theories in the field of education
For more information related to Bloom's Taxonomy, refer to the Bloom's Taxonomy Teaching Tip.
Community-based learning is a high impact practice which can improve student retention and engagement, and help students better absorb, retain, and transfer knowledge.
In a flipped classroom students engage with lectures or other materials outside of class to prepare for an active learning experience in the classroom. Key words: deep learning, class time, active learning
This Teaching Tip Sheet is organized around five questions that you should consider as you are developing your course outline: Intended Learning Outcomes, Context, Content, Teaching Methods, and Assessment Methods. Keywords: course design, questions, intended learning outcomes, teaching methods, assessment methods, course evaluation processes, philosophy of teaching and learning, course plan, assessment tools, course description.
Course outlines, or syllabi, are an integral part of course design. They generally summarize our course design plans and serve as a “contract” with our students regarding the course described. But how do you create a useful outline?
If you choose to create your own course material, keep file sizes small
What can you do as an instructor to encourage your students to do honest work?
While ePortfolios might be described as digital collections of artifacts, a good academic ePortfolio also represents a process
Student participation is shaped by a variety of factors including personality traits, comfort with English language, cultural norms and customs, life circumstances, neurodivergence, and disability, to name a few.
Service-learning is a form of experiential learning that combines relevant community service experiences with reflective exercises for a powerful learning experience that aligns with course curriculum
The following questions are meant to guide you through the process of designing a “course” or unit of study
Different assignments make different cognitive demands on students.
This teaching tip focuses on effectively organizing and using your LEARN site to improve the student experience, including Course Outline, Course Communications, Course Calendar and Schedule, Course Materials and Activities, and Gradebook.
Most people strive to be gracious and sensitive when accommodating another person's needs.
Resilient course design is a framework for understanding how to design courses that are less susceptible to disruption
This Teaching Tip Sheet provides guidance on how to select and organize content for your course. Keywords: course design, learning outcomes, open educational resources, OER, copyright, diversity, Indigenization, decolonization, organization, reflection.
Learning independently can be challenging, even for the brightest and most motivated students.
Independent study experiences can be extremely rewarding both for students and their advising instructors
Ensuring that courses and program activities include global perspectives is central to the development of an internationalized university.
While stress can be a normal part of the university experience, instructors can design courses that focus on learning while reducing the unnecessary hurdles that can increase stress and interfere with learning
Metacognition has been defined as “one’s knowledge concerning one’s own cognitive processes or anything related to them
Many instructors in engineering, math and science have students solve “problems”
A blended course sometimes reduces face-to-face "seat time" so that students can pursue additional teaching and learning activities online.
Good course design involves considering the strengths and needs of all learners.
Good teaching involves considering the strengths and needs of all learners.
The term universal design (UD) originated in the mid-1980s from the architect Ronald Mace, who is internationally recognized for advancing the concept and design of barrier-free buildings for people with disabilities
Instructors often focus on content when embarking on course design, but it's equally important to think about the net result of a course: student learning. It is helpful to consider essential requirements when creating your ILOs.