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Design and Teach Your Course

Many of the decisions affecting the success of a course take place well before the first day of class. Careful planning at the course design stage not only makes teaching easier and more enjoyable, it also facilitates student learning. Once your course is planned, teaching involves implementing your course design on a day-to-day level.

Design Your Course

To design an effective course, you need to:
  1. Students' prior knowledge can help or hinder learning.  |  MORE
  2. How students organize knowledge influences how they learn and apply what they know.   |  MORE
  3. Students' motivation determines, directs, and sustains what they do to learn.  |  MORE
  4. To develop master, students must acquire component skills, practice integrating them, and know when to apply what they have learned.  |  MORE
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learning principles

  1. Effective teaching involves acquiring relevant knowledge about students and using that knowledge to inform our course design and classroom teaching.  |  MORE
  2. Effective teaching involves aligning the three major components of instruction: learning objectives, assessments, and instructional activities.  |  MORE
  3. Effective teaching involves articulating explicit expectations regarding learning objectives and policies.  |  MORE
  4. Effective teaching involves prioritizing the knowledge, skills and attitudes we choose to focus on.  |  MORE
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teaching principles