Course Design Institute
Create courses ready for wherever we’re headed
When the pandemic arrived, we developed the Course Design Institute to help prepare faculty for an uncertain fall semester. It covers designing and delivering courses that emphasize a strong community of learners, a variety of activities, and giving responsive feedback. Originally run as a 3-day synchronous institute, we've made it available as a self-paced course.
Get access to the self-paced course
This course is hosted on Canvas at Georgetown. Anyone with Georgetown credentials will be able to enroll.
What you’ll learn
The course was developed to support you in your efforts to design and develop your courses for teaching face-to-face, blended, or fully remotely. It will help you address the following questions:
- How do I develop a flexible, adaptive, and engaging Georgetown learning experience for my students?
- How can I design or adapt my course to prioritize student engagement and active learning in both synchronous and asynchronous teaching?
- How can I meaningfully integrate technology into my course to support community, interaction, and inclusive learning for my students?
What’s in the course
The course is divided into 3 modules. Together, the modules will prepare you to teach in a flexible, hybrid environment. Since the pandemic has upended our expectation that classes will take place exclusively in-person, we will be helping you design courses that can be taught face-to-face, blended, or fully remotely.
1) Orientation
The Orientation module includes a Getting Started page that highlights ways that you are able to engage with this course site.
2) Plan: Envision Your Course
The Plan module walks you through the process of envisioning the learning goals, learning objectives, course materials, activities, and assessments in your course.
3) Map: Connect the Pieces
The Map module helps you connect the pieces you generated in the Plan phase to formulate an aligned and cohesive course outline of your planned course.
4) Create: Build Your Course
The Create module walks you through creating your course materials as well as developing your teaching strategy.
5) Teach
The Teach module provides you with tips for creating and maintaining an inclusive and engaging learning environment.
6) Iterate: Start Planning Again!
The Iterate module helps you use your experience as well as student feedback to improve on your course.
7) Technology Petting Zoo
The Technology Petting Zoo module introduces you to Georgetown tools, set up so that you can experience them as students. We have also include a self-assessment to help you decide where to start.
8) Learning Labs
The Learning Labs include additional resources that you can use while you are engaged in the course design process.
Interested in knowing more?
Anyone with Georgetown credentials is welcome to enroll directly in the course. If you’d like to be in touch with someone about the Course Design Institute, please write us.
