Graduate Teaching Toolkit: Beginning Steps of Course Design

Date: Thursday, April 11, 2024, 11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Location: Great Hall Meeting Room 1 - Ohio Union (1st floor)

Cost: Free

Admission: - RSVP Required

In this workshop, participants will gain familiarity with backwards design: an approach to course design that builds on instructional goals to derive teaching strategies, assessments, and outcomes. We will cover the process of backwards design, explore the key benefits of this method, and give participants time to apply this process as they prototype goals, outcomes, and assessments.

Many graduate students will confront the challenges associated with course design: either as a graduate student instructor, while preparing materials for the academic job market, or in their early career post-graduation. This semester, in Graduate Teaching Toolkit, the Drake Institute’s workshop series for graduate instructors, we’ll explore each step of the course design process. Toolkit workshops are designed to support participants’ professional development, engage them in reflecting on, discussing, and sharing their teaching practices, and build community between graduate instructors on campus who are passionate about improving their teaching. All graduate students, regardless of teaching experience, are welcome to attend.

As a result of attending this GTA Toolkit, participants will: 

• Summarize the steps of the backward design process

• Articulate the benefits of using backward design to plan a course

• Apply the initial steps of backward design by prototyping course goals and learning outcomes as well as assessment plans aligned with this vision

• Begin to collect the information and resources you will need to finish the course design process on your own