When implemented well and in tandem with quality pedagogy and instructional design practices, digital courseware provides faculty with meaningful student learning data that can inform instructional practices and identify critical areas for student interventions. Digital courseware can also facilitate student engagement with course content, improving student learning and understanding so they are better prepared for class. This service engages a team of faculty and faculty support staff that is committed to taking a collaborative, team-based approach to redesigning a gateway course in their academic department. Through interactive workshops, guided activities and assignments, and one-to-one coaching with experts from APLU, faculty teams will:
- receive support to effectively evaluate and select a high-quality digital courseware for implementation
- learn how to pair digital courseware with evidence-based instructional practices in their redesigned courses
- understand how digital courseware and other sources of student learning data should be used to support equitable student success
- complete a collaborative course redesign plan that is ready to be enacted the following academic term
Learning Objectives
- Build critical relationships and community within your department and institution that will support a collaborative, team-based approach to redesigning a gateway course
- Understand how digital courseware, evidence-based instructional practices, and applications of student data can be combined to improve the quality of teaching and learning and increase student success outcomes in gateway courses
- Receive expert guidance on how to effectively identify, evaluate, and integrate high-quality digital courseware for a gateway course redesign
- Align evidence-based instructional practices to your team’s digital courseware integration within a gateway course
- Identify and create data collection tools and processes that will support faculty and departmental use of courseware and student learning analytics in a redesigned gateway course
Service Deliverables
- Evaluate and select a high-quality digital courseware for implementation in a gateway course
- For those already using a courseware product, complete a collaborative assessment process to confirm chosen courseware is the best fit for faculty team and department
- Create a team-based plan to redesigning a target gateway course in your academic department that
- integrates a high-quality digital courseware
- identifies an approach to using student learning data to drive instructional practices and student supports
- outlines a process to test and refine evidence-based instructional interventions
- is ready to implement in the following academic term
Intended Audience
This service is for cross-functional teams consisting of faculty, course coordinators, faculty support staff, teaching and learning experts, and instructional designers. Academic leaders and department chairs are encouraged to participate.
Note: APLU will support participating institutions in identifying ideal candidates based on institutional contexts, need, and capacities.
Service Format
Combination synchronous and asynchronous activities, facilitated workshops with institutional coaching support. The service may be delivered to a single institution or to a cohort of institutions. This service includes:
- a series of five, 1-hr long, interactive workshops, delivered synchronously, and facilitated by experts from APLU and exemplar colleges and universities
- guided coaching sessions with higher education, digital learning, and data analytics experts from APLU and exemplar colleges and universities
- asynchronous course content, educational resources, and activities that support a team of faculty and their institutional colleagues to redesign a gateway course by integrating high-quality digital courseware and evidence-based instructional practices
Service Length
This service is designed as a three-to-six-month engagement, depending on institutional or cohort needs and capacities. This service may also be offered as an intensive, two-day, in-person “boot-camp” for institutions or cohorts.
Facilitated Workshops Include
- Getting Started: How digital courseware and digital learning can support your teaching and your students’ success
- Finding the Right Fit: How to effectively evaluate and select digital courseware tools that best serve your students and you
- Teaching Matters: How to effectively integrate courseware and quality teaching practices into your course redesign
- Data Informed Instruction: How to use courseware and student learning data to inform your teaching and support students
- Continuous Improvement: How to evaluate, assess, and refine your instructional practices and teaching program