Friday 8/19, 10am-2pm, Rooms 9204/5
Monday 8/22 12pm-4pm, Rooms 9204/5
Tuesday 8/23 3pm-7pm, Room 9204

Please join the Teaching and Learning Center staff for one of three course planning workshops on August 19, 22, or 23. Whether this is your first time teaching or you’re a seasoned veteran, whether you’ve got all your course materials prepared or you’ve just started working on them, come by during these sessions and we’ll think together about how you and your students can get the most out of your classes.

In each workshop we’ll focus for roughly the first two hours on syllabus construction, and follow that with two hours discussing assignment design. We’ll also have a staff member available to consult individually with attendees who want to launch WordPress sites for their courses, or are looking for assistance setting up a course in Blackboard.

No RSVP is required, so drop in whenever you can.

Syllabus Construction:

During the first two hours we plan to really workshop your syllabus. We’ll spend some time discussing ways to think of syllabi less as contractual, static documents and more as living, fungible pathways to learning. We’ll spend most of our time working on practical ways to plan your course around what you really want your students to take away.  So bring your syllabus and your ideas, no matter what shape they’re in, and we’ll explore strategies to communicate effectively to your students exactly what you want them to get from your course.

Assignment Design:

During the second two hours of the workshop, we will explore a variety of approaches to assignment design, including foregrounding skills or course objectives through backwards course design, problem-based learning, and finding creative assignments that incorporate a range of NYC resources such as archives, museums, site exploration and field visits. We’ll work on building scaffolded assignments, and also discuss pacing assignments and assessment.

Course Site Consultations:

If you’re considering adding an online component to your course, such as a WordPress site, but are not sure how to integrate it into your course design, or if you’re looking for help setting up a WordPress site or Blackboard space to better fit the needs of your course, please stop by at any time during our pre-semester workshops to sit down with a TLC staff member to work on your course’s online component. Don’t forget to bring your syllabus and any other relevant course materials you might have!

We hope to see you on 8/19, 8/22, or 8/23… or all three!

Whether you can join us on those days or not, please make use of our newly-launched TLC Guides “New to Teaching,” “Teaching in the Disciplines,” and “Educational Technology.”

Best wishes,
Luke Waltzer and the TLC Staff