The Final Stretch: Designing a Meaningful Course Ending
As the term draws to a close, students are not the only ones counting the weeks left. Instructors, too, often feel a mix of relief
Dr. Amena Shahid
December 1, 2025
A FREE PUBLICATION FROM THE CREATORS OF THE TEACHING PROFESSOR
course design strategies
Design Smarter, Teach Better: How Thoughtful Course Webpages Can Improve Online Learning
Even as in-person classes return post-pandemic, online courses haven’t gone away. In fact, many students still opt for online learning because of the flexibility it
Dr. Kelly M. Babchishin, Emma J. Holmes, and Alexis G. Hinkson
September 3, 2025
Building a Course from Scratch: When Time is Not on Your Side
I recently found myself in a the all-too-familiar situation where I was handed a course at the last minute. The course consisted of a catalog description
Kristen Portner-Lauerman, MHA, RDH, and Dr. Julia VanderMolen, CHES®
August 20, 2025
What Your Students Aren’t Telling You: Listening, Learning, and Leading with Empathy
This article includes a free, open-access resource for educators: What Your Students Aren’t Telling You: Listening, Learning, and Leading with Empathy. The book, co-authored with
Toni Gist
May 16, 2025
It’s Been a Privilege: A Series of Successful Teaching Techniques
It’s been a privilege to teach over some two decades, and during that time, I’ve found a series of techniques that were successful in the
Richard A. Giaquinto, PhD
January 15, 2020
11 Steps to Planning a Course You’ve Never Taught Before
You wait with anticipation. You receive the email: Course assignments are posted. You click on your Course Assignment. And—you’re assigned to teach a course that
Megan Pietruszewski
September 18, 2019
Multi-Faculty Collaboration to Design Online General Studies Courses
In the face-to-face classroom, each faculty member typically designs and teaches their own course with minimal input from departmental colleagues. Reflective of this approach, many
B. Jean Mandernach, PhD
September 10, 2019
On Diets, Politics, and Faculty Development
In the world of diets, movements are the thing that sells…Vegan, Paleo, Whole 30, Keto, and, now, Carnivore (…seriously, it’s a thing). Yet, upon closer inspection, many of these diets perform similarly in the long run, which is to say they perform underwhelmingly. When a dieter fails to get the pseudoscientific benefits promised, they are likely to blame themselves. They relapsed, cheated, or otherwise failed to follow instructions (succumbing to the fate of being an imperfect human being). It is less likely that we question the diet. Instagram before and after posts abound. Diets can put people in a bind: why won’t this work for me? Given the gap between basic principles (eat your vegetables, less processed foods) and the dos and don’ts of diets, it’s worth asking what value diets add to our lives.
Adam Smith, PhD
May 22, 2019
Backward Design, Forward Progress
Readers of Faculty Focus are probably already familiar with backward design. Most readily connected with such researchers as Grant Wiggins, Jay McTighe, and Dee Fink, this approach to course construction asks faculty to initially ignore the specific content of a class. Rather, the designer begins the process by identifying desired learning goals, and then devising optimal instruments to measure and assess them. Only thereafter does course-specific content come into play—and even then, it is brought in not for the sake of “covering” it, but as a means to achieve the previously identified learning objectives. Courses designed this way put learning first, often transcend the traditional skillset boundaries of their discipline, and usually aim to achieve more ambitious cognitive development than do classes that begin—and often end —with content mastery as the primary focus. Although the advantages of backward design are manifest, it’s probably still the exception to, rather than the rule of, course planning.
Pete Burkholder, PhD
December 5, 2018
Designing Developmentally: Simple Strategies to Get Students Thinking
I continue to be concerned that we don’t design learning experiences as developmentally as we should. What happens to students across a course (and the collection of courses that make up a degree program) ought to advance their knowledge and skills. Generally, we do a good job on the knowledge part, but we mostly take skill development for granted. We assume it just happens, and it does, sort of, just not as efficiently and extensively as it could if we purposefully intervened.
Maryellen Weimer, PhD
October 11, 2017
