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 A newsletter devoted to the support of teaching and learning at the University of Pittsburgh 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Course Changes Inspire New Teaching Strategies

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A multitude of factors prompt faculty to make changes in their courses. These can range from, for example, departmental or school requirements to an instructor’s desire for more student interaction.

A commitment to continually enhance teaching and learning is evident in the faculty who seek assistance on course revision and development from Center for Instructional Development & Distance Education (CIDDE) instructional designers. Representing all schools and disciplines, these faculty range from veterans—some with 30 or more years of experience—to new faculty.
In this issue of the Teaching Times, Pitt faculty share their experiences revising and enhancing an entire course or portions of a course. Their narratives touch upon a number of factors that prompt faculty to revise their courses. Some of these are summarized as follows:

Externally motivated

  • A course moves to a higher or lower level within the curriculum or the number of credits for a course may be increased or decreased. This can impact both the number of students and the background and skills of the students taking the class.
  • A face-to-face course moves to online presentation.
  • Formal student evaluations point to parts of the course cited for improvement.
  • A course is taught by a different instructor

Instructor motivated

  • Faculty find that existing content is out-of-date or stale or discover new content that needs to be included.
  • Faculty learn about new teaching technology or strategies that they would like to use for presenting content.
  • Faculty receive feedback from students about confusing content.

In this issue, faculty discuss these and other scenarios for course revision.

A newsletter devoted to the support of teaching and learning at the University of Pittsburgh

Center for Instructional Development & Distance Education
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Editor: Carol DeArment, Graphic Design & Illustration: Alec Sarkas
Questions or comments, please contact CIDDE Webmaster, 05/23/2008