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Course Development

Our consultants often meet with individual faculty members and associate instructors to help design new courses or revitalize existing ones. The principles guiding our work include Backward Course Design and Universal Design for Learning (UDL).

The CITL offers IUB faculty multiple opportunities to develop a new course or revise an existing course through various Course Development Institutes. All Institutes are highly active multi-day events that utilize peer groups to help facilitate the process. If you have plans to develop or revise a course, you may want to consider applying to participate in the Institute that best fits your needs. These are all offered free of charge for instructors of any rank, from any discipline or department at IUB:

Traditional CDI, held in early Summer The Foundational Course Development Institute meets for five 3-hour morning sessions over one week to implement a backward design and UDL approach to develop a new course or revise an existing course. By the end of the Institute, participants can expect to have determined learning outcomes for their students and outlined a major final assignment (or exam) that gathers evidence about the extent to which students have achieved those outcomes. They will also have the opportunity to lay out a basic calendar for the course they are developing and to map out and align assignments and grading strategies that motivate students toward the learning outcomes they have delineated.

Recommended for faculty who are new to these approaches or would like the accountability and structure of guided course design.

DEIJ Institute, Held in the Summer

The Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ) Institute offers an extended opportunity to learn more about inclusive and equitable teaching, and to make concrete plans for integrating these concepts into courses. Topics include inclusive course/syllabus design, equitable course policies, inclusive assignments and equitable grading, inclusive classroom activities and environments, building a sense of belonging, and more.

Recommended for faculty who wish to focus on equitable and inclusive approaches to course design and instruction.

The Online Course Development Institute (OCDI) helps instructors design, develop, and learn how to teach an online course. Participants meet in person for five 4-hour sessions over a 5-day period in May, then complete asynchronous activities online over the summer to help them develop further skills and become comfortable interacting and teaching in the online environment. By the end of the institute, participants will have a plan in place for developing and teaching their course, be able to apply quality standards to review and improve online and hybrid courses, and be able to use backward design principles in all their courses and lessons.

Global Community-Engaged Learning Course Development Institute The Global Community-Engaged Course Development Institute helps instructors design and develop new, high quality community-engaged learning courses with a global learning focus. The goal of this Institute is to prepare educators to teach community-engaged courses with global/international perspectives. Applicants will join in three stages of course development from May to August, starting with a 3-day virtual workshop where participants will explore the theory and practice of community-engaged learning and global learning. By the end of the institute, participants will have a plan in place for developing and teaching their course.

This institute is a partnership between the CITL Service-Learning Program (SLP) and The Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies Center for the Study of Global Change.

We can help you address...

developing a course that takes into account the class size, the nature and demographics of the students enrolled (e.g., majors versus non-majors), the constraints and opportunities of the physical space and technology available (e.g., IUB’s active learning classrooms), and other factors.

developing course goals to articulate how students will be different at the end of your course, and how they will acquire the knowledge and skills needed to achieve the course goal.

designing an assessment (a test, writing assignment, or other form of assessment) that will enable you to determine whether your students have achieved your course goal; helping with the development of rubrics to evaluate student work; designing and interpreting the results of informal assessments such as Classroom Assessment Techniques.

using the Decoding the Disciplines model to determine the specific points in a course at which students struggle to learn key course concepts or disciplinary ways of thinking, and discussing how to address those bottlenecks.

ensuring that all the content in the course connects with and helps students reach the course goal and learning outcomes; determining a logical sequence of topics and activities in the course to prepare students for the final assessment; designing in-class and out-of-class work to ensure that students are prepared for activities and assignments.

motivating students to complete the work required for them to achieve the course goals and learning outcomes.

writing a syllabus that clearly communicates expectations and course policies to students; making your syllabus accessible to students with disabilities.

designing new service-learning courses or revising existing courses to include a service-learning component; identifying appropriate service-learning activities that meet academic objectives and community needs; establishing and maintaining partnerships with community agencies and organizations.

designing connecting assignments that fit your course goals, help students learn course material, address disciplinary concerns, and are as easy and fast to grade as possible. Contact the CITL Writing Program.

Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning

Course Development