Quick help
We’re here to help. At the Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship (CNDLS), we provide faculty with space and opportunity to focus on teaching practice, both individually and in community. We want to assist however we can, whether you are unsure how to articulate your teaching challenge or you already know what you need.
Get in touch with us quickly using the information below:
- Our email address: cndls@georgetown.edu
- Our main phone line: 202-687-0625
- Our location: Car Barn 314 (open in Google Maps) From Prospect St., go down a floor and head to the Potomac River side of the building; from M St., go up to the 3rd floor.
- Canvas support phone number: 833-476-1171
Teaching consultations
The CNDLS team is composed of learning designers, media producers, faculty developers, technologists, visual designers, application developers, and many other roles. Many of us teach courses ourselves, while others have extensive disciplinary knowledge and professional expertise. When you get in touch with us, we’ll take a look at your question or interest, and connect you to a colleague (or group of colleagues) who can help.
If you want us to connect you to someone who can help, email us or ring our doorbell. If you’re looking to put a face together with a name, browse our staff listings.
Group consultations
We are available to meet with larger groups, including joining departmental meetings (at Chair’s request) to share about a teaching topic. Please be in touch to let us know about your group’s particular needs.
We’re ready to talk about anything that will help you as you teach, or as you look to better understand how students learn. We’ve held consultations that sometimes even lead to long-lasting collaborations, on many topics.
Course and curriculum design consultations
Design encompasses the act of making intentional, reflective choices about how an activity, course, or curriculum will lead to desired student learning outcomes. CNDLS’ focus on course design provides structure to consultations, shaping our conversations with faculty to better understand current teaching goals and practices in a particular course. We then work with faculty members to identify teaching methods and strategies that align with those learning goals.
Course design
Here are some sample topics of course design consultations:
- Goals for students: What do you want them to know and be able to do at the end of the semester? How will the course build on where students started and help them move through the rest of the curriculum?
- Authentic assignments: What assignments will allow students to reach those goals and develop skills that are enduring?
- Relevant course content: What course content will directly contribute to students’ understanding and help them to reach the goals you have set for them?
- Feedback and assessment: How will you know that students have reached those goals? How can you incorporate feedback opportunities within the course to know that?
Course design consultations might also include discussing syllabi, teaching large classes, incorporation of technology to support goals and assignments, organizing group work, large-scale student-driven projects, or belonging and inclusion. Let us know what you’d like to discuss.
Curriculum Design
Using questions similar to those used in course design, the curriculum design process broadens to include teams of faculty working on a particular aspect of a major curriculum. Discussions about the skills, experiences, and knowledge you expect of your graduates contribute to the redesign of gateway and capstone courses, new tracks within the curriculum or common assessments that gauge disciplinary development. See our Creating Courses and Curricula teaching guide to explore these approaches on your own, or reach out to us to discuss.