We found 411 results that contain "syllabus design"

Designing Your Course
The semester will begin soon, and we’re sure you’re busy prepping your course. This design work before the beginning of the semester is an essential part of overall student learning and provides a framework you can respond to as you gather assessment evidence across the semester. As you are designing this week, we want to provide some guidance by sharing “backward design” principles from our Preparing Future Faculty for the Assessment of Student Learning (PFF-ASL) Institute. We’ve found these principles extremely helpful for making sure student learning is always in focus and all elements of our courses are aligned toward our learning outcomes.
Designing Your Course “Backward”
Initially introduced by Wiggins and McTighe (1998), “backward design” for curriculum involves building your course from end-of-course learning outcomes, through evidence you’ll gather out of assessments, and finally to the instructional activities students will engage in to help them learn towards readiness for assessments and meeting learning outcomes. Below, Dr. Cori Fata-Hartley further outlines essential steps of backward design:

https://youtu.be/DTxnTNXPK3g
 
Using Dr. Fata-Hartley’s outlining of backward design principles as our guide, here are four questions to help you this week as you’re designing your course:
Four Questions for Designing Your Course “Backward”
1) What Do You Hope Students Know and Are Able to Do?
This question can help anchor your creation of learning outcomes. We’ve found “Students Will Be Able To” (SWBAT) as a helpful lead-in statement to direct the writing of our learning outcomes. And remember, your learning outcomes should be observable (and thus assessable), which leads to question # two.
2) What Assessment Evidence Will You Gather?
Answering this question allows you to think about how you’ll know if students have met course learning outcomes. Assessments provide the necessary evidence of learning out of which you can make decisions about where you and students are along the way to meeting learning outcomes. 
3) What Learning Experiences Will You Provide for Students?
The learning experiences you plan across your course builds towards the assessments students will do towards learning outcomes. What will students and you engage in at each step along the way? How do these steps lead towards assessments and learning outcomes?
4) Is Your Course Design Aligned?
Tracing across your answers to the previous three questions, you can begin to see whether your course design is aligned. This can allow you to make the necessary revisions towards best alignment and student learning, and keep elements that are already working. This alignment work is a constant process across–and even after–your course as students respond to your design.
 
We’d Like to Know: What are some of the ways you’ve linked learning outcomes, assessments, and learning experiences? How do you respond when you see that some elements of your design aren’t aligned?
 
Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (1998). Understanding by Design. Alexandria, Va: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development.
 

 
Originally posted at “Inside Teaching MSU” (site no longer live): Skogsberg, E. Designing Your Course “Backward”. inside teaching.grad.msu.edu

The purpose of a syllabus is NOT a contract, but instead:

A marketing document
An introduction to a course and its instructor
A ‘map’ to the course including:

expectations
requirements 
conditions of engagement
how to be successful


Key elements of a syllabus include:

Instructional objectives
Instructor contact information
Evaluation criteria
Expectations of students
Important due dates
Required and recommended materials
Required proctoring arrangements

Important syllabus statements and reminders:

Spartan Code of Honor
Academic integrity
OIE Information for Mandatory Reporters
Attendance policy
Model Statements for Disability Inclusion (from RCPD)
Emergency issues
Inclusion in the classroom
Religious Observance Policy
Mental Health Support (Developed by CAPS)
Participation guidelines

Include Course Objectives:

Must be consistent with University-approved course description found in MSU Descriptions of Courses catalog
Make them clear
Focus on a product/outcome, not a process
State each as single outcome
Personal learning goals

And of course, you need to cover how grading and evaluation will be approached:

Be explicit about how students will be evaluated
Share rubrics or grading criteria
Remind students of approaching deadlines frequently
Participation expectations
Include resources that may help
Primer on effective study skills
Reading critically/effectively
Writing tips

Remember, your syllabus is your opportunity to set the tone for your course. Make sure to include:

Office hours, offer other options to meet student needs
Set reasonable boundaries
Can be friendly/conversational and also set high expectations
Convey your passion about the subject


Accessible Document Templates
Templates for commonly used documents and content management systems.  Keep in mind that templates may only help in structuring your content, the main content still needs to be formatted with accessibility in mind.

Syllabus template
PowerPoint template

Photo by Arisa Chattasa on Unsplash

Project Title: iMotions in Interior Design StudioElevator Pitch: Integrating eye-tracking gadget in the interior design studio will give the opportunity to students to learn about the impact of their own design on users. Does their proposed interior promote well-being? Does it follow interior design principles and standards? Does it trigger positive emotions, if yes, what are they? Does it trigger negative emotions, if yes, what are they? Students traditionally received feedback from their own instructors. Sometimes they perceive such feedback as being subjective, some might perceive it as harsh. This tool is objective and will give them the opportunity to learn and become better designers.Team Bios: Dr. Linda Nubani and Dr. Eunsil Lee are members of the Interior Design program and specialize in Environment-Behavior Research.What are some of the successes?I received the tools in late May after the semester ended. We are taking the summer to design the research and to apply for IRB approvals.



What are some of the challenges that you have experienced on this project?None so far

This article provides an overview of syllabus language & policies to consider, especially for Fall 2024. This post is the first part of the Civil Discourse in Classrooms series and playlist.
As discussed in our inclusive pedagogy overview series, inclusive syllabi are a place to set clear and transparent expectations while also welcoming diverse students.
When setting syllabus policies, the steps below reflect the process to composing any syllabus policy. We provide example policies in subsepquent articles.

Reflect: Consider what your values as an educator are and what values you have for your educational context. Do those values and policies include or exclude certain populations of learners? If so, can exclusions be minimized?
Frame: Give students the rationale and background for the policy you are about to present. Try to frame the policy away from punitive and unwelcoming tones and instead, frame it through collaborative and supportive language.
Set Expectations: After you have framed the information with the rationale, try to clearly set the expectation for what behavior you want to see from students. Whenever possible, model that behavior in your own comportment.
Communicate Outcomes: Finally, end a policy with what the outcomes or consequences are for straying from the policy.


Continue to read more about in the next article, “Syllabus Policy Examples: Discourse,” or return to the Civil Discourse in the Classroom playlist.

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash
 
What Do I Mean By “Inclusive”?
 
Before I start discussing how your content and curriculum design choices can be more inclusive, let’s start with a working definition for an inclusive classroom. According to the Association of American Colleges & Universities, inclusive classrooms are learning spaces where “active, intentional, and ongoing engagement with diversity” occurs “in ways that increase awareness, content knowledge, cognitive sophistication, and empathetic understanding of the complex individuals interact within systems and institutions.”  So, as an instructor concerned about inclusive teaching, I encourage you do consider how your course content and assignments both represent a diverse (for example, gender, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, nationality, epistemological perspectives) set of scholarly voices and how you can hold yourself – and your students—to more inclusive standards of behavior and discourse in the classroom.
 
Inclusive Classrooms Require Intentional Thought and Not “Extra Work”
 
Creating an inclusive environment in your classroom does not require “extra work” – what it requires is “intentional thought” in how you plan and implement your classes. This involves a deliberate awareness of the decisions you’re making and the impact they have on how you represent your discipline and the multiple voices connected to it. I’d argue that this level of intentionality is a key hallmark of curriculum design across disciplines.
 
Four Tips Toward Inclusive Curriculum Design
 
(1) Select the work of scholars from different cultural or paradigmatic backgrounds: Make sure you are presenting a variety of voices and perspectives across the course readings, videos and material you select.  Additionally important is presenting a full spectrum of disciplinary paradigms in the field so that students have a full picture of disciplinary conversation(s).
 
(2) Acknowledge the limitations of course material with regards to demographic representation: Frame what you are providing and point out the potential limitations of your materials. This can help students see how and why you have made the decisions you did. This can also help students to get a better window into your teaching decisions and engage alongside you critically.
 
(3) Pay attention to WHO and HOW you represent in your presentation slides, case studies, videos, and guest panels: As with our tips above, it’s important that the slides, case studies, and videos you use reflect multiple voices and backgrounds. Additionally, it’s important to pay attention to how various individuals and groups are portrayed in these materials. In their portrayals, are you sending the messages you want sent to a diverse group of students?
 
(4) Maximize the inclusion of all student voices in instructional activities: Make sure you provide multiple opportunities and safe spaces in your classroom for all student voices. Not all students will immediately respond to one way of engaging in the classroom, so make sure your approaches vary and respond to what you have come to know about the different students in class. We will share more specific tips about instructional activities in later posts.

Topic Area: Pandemic Pivot
Presented by: Masani Shahnaz, Cassie Dresser-Briggs
Abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent shift to remote teaching posed a unique challenge to courses that included a hands-on or experiential component. Left with a choice, forgo the hands-on components or get creative, we chose to get creative and develop a DIY lab stream feasible and safe for students to experience from home. In addition to sharing the lessons learned during the development and implementation of our remote lab stream (“GoGreen”) and at-home laboratory kits (“SpartanDIYBio”), our roundtable discussion will be an opportunity to collaborate and (1) curate a list of innovative laboratory streams, (2) identify the strengths and address the shortcomings of each stream, and (3) discuss approaches to evaluate the impact of these novel lab streams on student learning. GoGreen: The “GoGreen” remote lab stream was designed for the introductory cell and molecular biology course at Lyman Briggs College. Inspired by a paper in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education we created “SpartanDIYBio” kits which allowed students to perform DNA extraction, PCR, and gel electrophoresis from home. Instead of extracting DNA with a series of laboratory-grade reagents, students used household ingredients, such as salt, meat tenderizer, and rubbing alcohol. Instead of using a multi-thousand dollar thermocycler for PCR, they used affordable sous-vide machines to regulate water bath temperatures. Furthermore, student research teams used these supplies to experimentally test a unique research question pertaining to backyard or commercial vegetable production (e.g. one group aimed to detect the presence of bacteria on vegetables packaged in plastic, glass, cardboard, and an eco-friendly alternative - cornhusks).

Wednesday, August 19 - Part 1 - Integrity

Wednesday, August 19 - Part 2 - Question Writing

Wednesday, August 19 - Part 3 - D2L Tools

Wednesday, August 19 - Part 4 - Digital Desk and Q&A

Bring your online course to this workshop and get a framework for developing an online course plan. You'll use a framework and explore the QM Rubric to design one module for your online course.

Course Length: Two weeks (April 4th-15th)Delivery Mode: Online (Asynchronous)Instruction: FacilitatedFee (Single Registration): $25 tech fee per enrollment (capped at 20 participants) Cost is being covered through the Center for Teaching and Learning Innovation (CTLI)// --> REGISTER HERE <-- //




Refer to the Schedule & Checklist for more information on the workshop requirements. Note that the Schedule & Checklist for Independent sessions may vary from the Schedule & Checklist provided here. 
The “Designing Your Online Course” (DYOC) workshop includes an overview of the QM Rubric and provides a framework for participants to design an online course plan. An integral element of the workshop is an exploration of the eight General Standards of the QM Rubric, focusing on learning objectives and overall course alignment. Participants will complete a Course Development Plan. The plan includes all of the essential Specific Review Standards (SRS) with a column for how the participant will meet the SRS in their course and what resources they will need.


Recommended For:

Faculty and Instructors who are new to online teaching 



Learning Objectives:

Recognize the foundational concepts of Quality Matters.
Apply the essential QM Rubric Specific Review Standards to online course design.
Discuss the structure to be used for organizing your online course.
Create a course plan for developing your online course.
Align one module for development.



What Participants Need:

A course you plan to develop for online delivery
8 to 10 hours of time per week to spend on achieving the learning objectives