Teaching Materials
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Course Design and Planning Materials
You may download the Syllabus Template if you'd like to follow some recommended best practices for syllabus
construction. There are two versions: a MS
Word
version with word processing formatting, and a PDF
version
that you can print out if you can't open the Word version.
You can use the Word version to simply type in your course material
and information without having to format everything.
To assist you in writing learning objectives, Bloom's Taxonomy of
Educational Objectives provides some useful verbs to write objectives
for different levels of learning.
An introduction to Bloom's Taxonomy from the U of West Florida
Bloom's Taxonomy: 3 types of Learning
For general course planning, the Course
Materials Checklist is helpful to review the components of your
course and the elements of your syllabus to make sure you haven't forgotten
anything that may be helpful to your students.
If you are just beginning to design a new
course, the Course
Planning Questions provides a series of questions through a
logical progression that can help you avoid common mistakes in course
design.
Active Classroom Teaching Methods
The Getting
Students Involved framework provides a conceptual overview of
classroom dynamics and communication behaviors that either help or hinder
classroom learning and exchange.
A companion piece to the Getting Students
involved is the Classroom
Structures matrix with a number of suggestions of how to structure
learning activities with students, along with a list of preparation
activities and limitations for each.
Assessing Student Learning
The Test
Construction Manual will be very useful. to help you write discriminating
test questions, avoid common mistakes in multiple-choice and true-false
questions, construct and grade essay questions and plan an exam.
The Assessment
Resources is a bibliography of helpful books on effective ways
of assessing student learning.
For more on assessing student learning visit the Assessment Resources page.
Professional Development
The Mid-Term
Evaluation Form is a questionnaire you can give your students
around the 4th week of the semester to get a sense of what components
of your course are helping your students learn the most effectively.
The Observation
Checklist is helpful if you want a colleague to observe you
teach and give you constructive feedback. It is also useful if you are
part of an evaluation team for peer review of teaching.
The Teaching Feedback Form is designed to be part of a peer evaluation
of teaching process. It can help provide consistency and structure to
pre-observation meetings, guide the observer in how to observe effectively,
and how to provide constructive feedback after the classroom observation.