The following are representative comments from past Course Design Institutes:
What are the one or two most useful things you learned about designing courses or yourself as a teacher?
As a teacher, this experience was affirming! I may not have all the pieces gelled but my dreams are not too big and my intentions for my classes genuinely have the students' best interests at the core! My creativity has also been validated! Designing courses is no joke!! It takes a lot of deliberation and modification (and consultation)! It should never ever be done hashly or alone!! It takes a village! (2012)
Photo by: Christian Hommel Photography
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Before CDI, I designed my courses based on content. Designing a course based on 5-year goals and learning objectives makes so much more sense. Although I'm a bit nervous about teaching the class I designed—it is such a departure from my traditional format—I am looking forward to it. It feels like a more authentic class. (2012)
I learned that I need to let go and embrace the fact that I can't control everything in the classroom. I create the learning environment but the students have a responsibility to their own learning. (2011)
I CAN design a learning centered syllabus. (2011)
I was given great ideas and suggestions for use in my course. Also, I was exposed to new, expanded uses for old techniques. (2010)
A more developed ability to design, communicate, and evaluate course goals.(2010)
Learned how to approach new techniques and teaching styles not just as innovative but as practical, manageable and even if not easy to implement, doable. So this has actually given me more confidence as a teacher. (2010)
The most important thing I got out of the course were specific ideas for implementing learning activities into a difficult course—as well as to improve some of my smaller courses. This was really helpful and I could have used even more. Also important was being forced to articulate goals and peg them to specific activities and assessments. (2010)
Goal-focused approach rather than topic/content-focused approach; learned about process of course design and realized how one can apply those principles to different “types” of courses. (2008)
In what ways was your learning team helpful during the design process?
Photo by: Christian Hommel Photography
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It was very helpful to have feedback from multiple directions and disciplines, and giving feedback helped me further form my own ideas. (2012)
I appreciated the homogeneity of the grouping--it was very nice to compare notes with folk who understood my sort of discipline and studetns-made their feedback specific & useful. (2012)
I like that they had a similar lens, but very different experiences and goals. Think it allowed for really relevant feedback. (2011)
The learning team was great—we had enough in common that we were speaking the same language, and enough differences that we could really educate each other. (2011)
Our learning team members listened carefully and contributed thoughtfully. Disciplinary proximity made it easier to discuss discipline-specific application. (2010)
Clearly great care was put into building learning teams with common interests as well as diverse backgrounds. The size (6) was ideal. (2010)
The team was very helpful and I appreciated their coming from other depts... That made it possible for them to look at my course with fresh eyes (as a student might!) and identify the disciplinary assumptions and artificial lines in the sand I can’t even see. [True out-of-the-box thinking is only possible when you see you’re in the box!] (2008)
Would you recommend this Institute to your colleagues?
Absolutely, actually I'd say it should be required! (2012)
Yes, I would—and already have. (2011)
Yes, anyone from novice to experienced teachers would benefit from attending. (2010)
Absolutely. It's totally changed my way of planning, and thinking, about learning goals. (2010)
Yes, thinking "backwards" would align larger departmental goals with more courses and generally improve teaching. (2010)
Absolutely, 100%, yes. This has given me tools to help me better fulfill my learning goals, keep my teaching fresh, effective & interesting. I have a vocabulary and method for trying to address things I had felt intuitively but didn’t know how to enact/fix. Also, developing contacts with like-minded colleagues has been a huge positive contribution of this workshop. (2008)
Yes! In the liberal arts, we face the challenge of how are subject areas are applicable and useful if we don’t plan to be, e.g., a theologian. This design process forces you to design a course that answers this question. (2008)
Absolutely. Participating in the Institute provided me the opportunity to stop and reflect on what I want to accomplish with my students and then plan accordingly. Also, the value added by the representation across disciplines was great. (2008)
Other Comments:
I am so grateful for this opportunity, thank you for giving me the tools to achieve some of my crazy dreams as a teacher. (2012)
Good job. I have a lot of experience teaching and I am fairly successful instructor, but I still the institute was very useful. Too bad all faculty don't attend every decade or so to freshen up their approach. (2010)
Thanks again for including me! I had a great time, and I learned a lot. I'm really grateful, too, for all the materials that I still have access to—the binder and the website in particular. I think I'll be consulting them frequently as I develop other courses over this summer and fall, and on into the future. (2011)This is the first time as a professor I've been taught anything about how to teach! (2010)
I would recommend the course to anybody who is trying to teach undergraduates. (2010)
My course already had a high degree of active learning built in, but this workshop gave me the vocabulary to describe it. Now I can identify exactly what the active learning exercises are and justify to others why and how they support the learning goals of the course. (2008)
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The TRC's 2013
