GTA Toolkit: Beginning Steps of Course Design

When you’re teaching a course you’ve never taught before, it can be challenging to know where to start — especially if you’re still fairly new to teaching. How do you make good decisions about which topics to cover, what to assign, or what to do in class? This workshop will introduce participants to backward design, an approach to course design that focuses on producing student learning. Participants will have the chance to practice working through the first few steps of the backward design process — clarifying the goals they have for students and choosing assignments that are aligned with course goals — in an environment where they have the feedback and support of other graduate instructors at Ohio State.

After this workshop participants will be able to: 

• Articulate the benefits of using backward design to plan a course and summarize the steps of the backward design process.
• Develop course goals and learning outcomes for a course and consider how to share them with students.
• Begin mapping assessments in alignment with course learning outcomes and goals.

You may register here.

If you have registered for this event, or are on the waitlist and require an accommodation such as live captioning or interpretation to participate, please contact drakeinstitute@osu.edu. Requests should be made at least two weeks prior to the event, but the university will make every effort to meet requests made after this date.

All members of the university community are welcome in Drake Institute activities, programs, services, and employment —regardless of age, ancestry, color, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity or expression, genetic information, HIV/AIDS status, military status, national origin, pregnancy, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, or any other bases under the law.

Institute for Teaching and Learning programming is offered in accordance with university guidelines associated with in-person and remote activities. The Institute will inform registrants of delivery modifications should those guidelines change.