Teaching Larger Classes Faculty Development Program (2019-2020)
How can you maintain the quality of instruction and a sufficient level of individual attention for students in larger classes? What pedagogical approaches can contribute to more active learning? How can you efficiently manage the logistics, grading, and facilitation of a larger class? Whether you teach face-to-face, hybrid, or entirely online, this faculty development program will provide you with practical tips and techniques for the design and management of a larger class that can result in greater efficiencies and student engagement, all while preserving instructional quality.
About the Program
During the program, you will learn about managing larger courses and/or redesigning and will have an opportunity to share your prior experience teaching a larger class (if any). You will interact with and share ideas with instructional designers and fellow faculty in the cohort group. At the end of the program, you will have the opportunity to receive individual feedback on your course planning document. During the course of the program, you will develop new skills that will enable you to create engaging learning experiences for your students.
Prerequisites for participation include:
- The program is open to all faculty (full-time or part-time) who self-select and register before the program start date.
- You must have access to a device that supports remote participation in online video conferencing.
- The program has limited capacity, priority will be given to faculty who are scheduled to teach a larger class
Format
A Blackboard course shell has been created to provide structure, opportunity to share resources, and engage with fellow faculty and the Office of Online Education staff via scheduled live sessions and asynchronous discussions, submit a revised course planning document, and receive feedback. All online meetings will take place in real-time, using video conferencing (schedule below), the presentation part of the live session will be recorded and shared. During each online meeting, there will be a presentation on the main concepts and fellow faculty will share their experiences and practical tips. Program participants will use a course development planning document to redesign, refresh and prepare to teach a larger class.
Structure and Engagement: Fall 2019 - Winter 2020 Schedule
- Thursday, November 21 Teaching Larger Classes: Maintaining Quality and Your Sanity with Donna McGregor (Teaching & Learning Series)
- Friday, December 13 Designing for Larger Classes: Basic Principles, Models and Course Planning
- Friday, January 10 Instructional and Assessment Strategies and Tools
- Thursday, January 16 Management Strategies
- Friday, January 10 - Wednesday, January 22 Course Design and Syllabus Feedback
- Friday, May 22 Faculty Showcase Lessons Learned
Note: All meetings are 60-75 minutes long and start at 12:00 pm. The presentation part of all meetings will be recorded.
Spring semester support: Faculty are invited to check in with fellow faculty and Office of Online Education staff while teaching a larger class. You may reach to ask to attend a class or invite a colleague to attend your class and offer constructive feedback. We will schedule additional times for the program participants to meet and discuss any aspects of teaching a larger class when in action.
We would like to invite you to participate in the faculty development program during the Fall 2019 and Spring 2020 semesters. The program is fully online (synchronous and asynchronous), there are several interactive live meetings where we will dive into the essential topics of teaching a larger class.