Course Development and Preparation

Teaching Best Practices – Course Design

This Carnegie Mellon site contains extensive resources for course design and development.

Planning Your Course: A Decision Guide

Questions from BYU to consider when developing a course.

Course Design Tutorial

An online version of a face-to-face workshop on course development from On the Cutting Edge.

Course Design Tip Sheet

Questions from Harvard to consider in developing a syllabus.

Course Design

Effective teaching depends on effective planning and design. Many problems that can occur once a course is in motion can be prevented by advance preparation and planning for your students' learning.  This Vanderbilt University site provides guidelines and resources for course design.

Designing a Learner-Centered Syllabus

Your syllabus can be an important point of interaction between you and your students, both in and out of class. This University of Delaware site proposes that the traditional syllabus is primarily a source of information for your students, while the learning-centered syllabus can also be an important learning tool that will reinforce the intentions, roles, attitudes, and strategies that you will use to promote active, purposeful, effective learning.

Instructional Objectives Writing Assistant

In the most general sense, an instructional objective is a goal; it is what the student should gain from the instruction.  This interactive instructional objectives development tool provides a tool to guide the development of course objectives.

Advice and Ideas for the First Day of Class

The first day of class sets the tone for the rest of the term. It is natural for both students and instructors to feel anticipation, excitement, anxiety, and uncertainty.  This Berkeley site references Tools for Teaching by Barbara Gross Davis to provide numerous suggestions for addressing the three important tasks of the first day: handling administrative matters, creating an open friendly classroom environment, and setting course expectations and standards.

More Advice and Ideas for the First Day of Class

This Community College of Rhode Islands site provides a list of advice and ideas that might help you prepare for the all-important first day of class.

Office Hours

Visit this Stanford site for a few suggestions for setting office hours.

Icebreakers

This compilation from About.com provides icebreakers to facilitate introductions and warm-ups to introduce the topic of a course or class meeting.