Course Design/Redesign for Student Success Fellowship

 

Course Design for Creating Quality Learning Environments and Experiences for Students

Lumen Circle’s Course Design/Redesign for Student Success fellowship explores how to use evidence-based course design practices to create courses that actively engage students in the learning process. Learn how backward and universal design principles create a learning environment where all students can feel they belong, fully participate and learn, have their voices heard and respected, and are the drivers of their learning.

Benefits of Course Design or Redesign

  • Course Design allows educators to personalize their courses to incorporate accessible and diverse materials, encourage critical thinking, and more profound learning outcomes
  • Establishes optimal learning experiences for students in an environment that is supportive and appreciative of learning and intellectual development
  • Well-designed courses are more likely to engage learners and positively impact their performance
  • Promotes quality, efficacy, and equity in instruction

Expected Outcomes of Course Design for Student Success Fellowship

  • Create course-level learning outcomes

  • Develop measurable learning outcomes

  • Identify learning objectives, assessments, and learning activities to gauge student learning and adapt course to meet student needs

  • Apply UDL practices to learning activities, assessments, and syllabus design

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Brief Overview of the Fellowship Curriculum

Complete your profile, familiarize yourself with the platform, your Circle mates, and the Circle focus. Meet with your facilitator and get ready to start your Circle.

Course Vision and Learning Goals: Explore and practice the starting point for course design- identifying course goals and establishing course-level learning outcomes that create a course where all students belong. You will use a Course Map template to guide your course development process. Share results with your Circle and give and receive feedback on course goals. 

Establish Enabling Learning Outcomes: These outcomes describe the path the students must take to meet the course-level outcomes and provide the foundation for learning activities and assessments, creating a sense of belonging for all students. Then, write or revise a course description based on your learning outcomes. Give feedback to your peers on their work, and receive feedback on yours. 

Examine and Reflect on the Importance of Course Alignment: Learn about aligning the learning outcomes, assessment, and learning activities in the context of the backward design process. Effective alignment of inclusive course elements — learning outcomes, resources, activities, and assessments — will promote students’ success and belonging, enabling all students to achieve the intended learning outcomes.  Give feedback to your peers on their work, and receive feedback on yours.

Examine Learning Activity Design and Associated Teaching Practices: Build skills and knowledge around evidence-based teaching practices and Universal Design to ensure all students succeed and feel they belong. Focus on aligning the learning outcomes, assessment, and learning activities in the context of the backward design process and bring these elements together in a teaching plan. Reflect on your course design and what you learned during the Circle experience.

Course Design for Student Success Circle is available as an intensive or immersive experience for 4 weeks or as a less intensive experience for 8 weeks. Both cover all 4 modules.

Appropriate For:

  • Non-Teaching Faculty

  • Teaching Faculty

  • Instructional Designers

What are Lumen Circles?

Lumen Circles are professional development experiences that use virtual learning communities to connect faculty members with peers and help them hone their expertise as student-centered teachers.

Grounded in evidence-based teaching practices and self-reflection, Lumen Circles work well for any faculty member, in any discipline, and at any stage of career.

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How Do Lumen Circles Work?

  • Set goals. Identify how you want to develop your teaching practice and pedagogical profile.

  • Build skills. Virtual, workshop-style learning opportunities expand your teaching repertory, help you work smarter through teaching “hacks,” and deepen your understanding of evidence-based practices.

  • Teach and reflect. Apply what you’re learning, consider how it’s working for your students and where to improve.

  • Share via virtual learning circles. Connect with peers, exchange feedback, and collect new ideas through expertly-facilitated learning circles. Our user-friendly platform makes it simple to connect and collaborate.

  • Recognize growth and progress. Track progress towards goals and see your teaching evolve as you incorporate new practices with students.

Pick the Offering that Works for You

We offer Lumen Circles experiences with different areas of focus, levels of depth, and duration.

  • Lumen Circle Fellowships: Build skills in targeted areas, apply what you’re learning, and collaborate within a virtual learning circle
  • Success Accelerator: Engage with peers and accelerate the path to effective teaching and learning using Lumen courseware

Learn more about which fellowship suits you in a Lumen Circles: What to Expect Webinar.

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What’s Your Role 

Your connection with students is paramount to their success, but knowing how to reach them can be challenging. Lumen Circles provide opportunities to expand your teaching repertory in areas you want to grow. You can join colleagues to learn, share ideas, compare experiences, and be part of a thriving community focused on evidence-based teaching for today’s students.

Lumen Circles complement your center’s resources and priorities. Some centers offer a full menu of programs but struggle to generate meaningful evaluation data. Others cater to new faculty, but they sometimes overlook faculty who are later in their careers. Still others struggle to meet the needs of part-time faculty or graduate students. We can tailor offerings to fit the faculty members you want to reach with skill-building and professional growth focused on teaching practices that impact student success. We also offer flexible options around pricing and scale.

Recognizing student success is a result of faculty success, Lumen Circles can help you provide a broader foundation of faculty support to transform teaching and learning with a focus on evidence-based instructional practices. We can also help you track alignment and measure progress towards institutional and faculty goals for improving teaching practice.

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Lumen Circles FAQs

Do you have a question we don’t answer here? Contact us or send a note to info@lumenlearning.com.

Lumen Circles’ evidence-based teaching framework uses a methodology and process originally adapted from research published in Taking College Teaching Seriously: Pedagogy Matters by Gail Mellow, Diana Woolis, Marisa Klages-Bombich and Susan Restler. In work funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Lumen expanded the framework to add a “Belonging” theme that fully incorporates practices associated with diversity, equity, and inclusion into the Lumen Circles model. The framework identifies practices that increase student success, according to research evidence. Lumen Circles’ methodology guides faculty members through a process to recognize, explore and apply these effective practices in their teaching. It helps them become more aware and purposeful about making pedagogical choices that support student success.

Primary principles include:

  • Self-reflection: Faculty fellows examine their own teaching practices to become more aware of pedagogical choices and their impact on student success.
  • Appreciative Inquiry: This inquiry method invites educators to recognize and celebrate their strengths and what’s working in their teaching practice, and then using this as a foundation for self-directed growth and improvement.
  • Evidence-based Instructional Principles: To help faculty make the learning environment more student-centered, we encourage them to explore and try out specific practices aligned in four distinct dimensions of teaching practice: Supportive, Challenging, Organized, and Varied.
  • Pedagogical Analytics: As fellows progress through the Lumen Circles experience, we measure changes in faculty teaching patterns, progress towards their teaching goals, and how this aligns with institutional goals and changes in student outcomes.

Yes. The Lumen Circles professional development platform and learning circle-focused methodology are based the work of Faculty Guild, a faculty-focused coaching service created by serial education technology entrepreneur David Yaskin and a talented team of educators. As part of a strategic decision to expand our support for effective teaching and learning practices with professional development services, Lumen Learning acquired intellectual property and the higher education assets of Faculty Guild.

We construct virtual learning circles with careful attention to the goals and context of faculty members participating in Lumen Circles fellowships. Learning circles always align with the theme of the fellowship to connect faculty with peers working to expand their teaching practice in similar directions. As a rule, learning circles include faculty from multiple institutions teaching in related disciplines, such as STEM or social sciences. We may make exceptions to this rule in order to support specific institutional objectives, such as learning circles to connect faculty with peers from their own institution.

We coordinate start and end dates for Lumen Circles fellowships and other professional development programs to align with the academic calendar and windows when the experience will be most productive for participating faculty members. Staggered start dates generally coincide with the start of term for spring (winter), summer, and fall. Depending on interest, faculty availability, and demand, we can add additional fellowship terms as needed.

Note the Lumen Circles experience does require that faculty are actively teaching during a majority of their fellowship term because reflective practice is most beneficial when there are immediate opportunities to consider teaching choices, evaluate what’s working and try out new pedagogical directions.