For faculty and instructors teaching a course for the first time or looking for fresh ways to teach familiar classes, “Designing Courses for Effective Student Learning: Faculty and Instructors Institute” provides intensive instruction in current best practices, moving the focus from teaching to learning.
During the institute, presented by the Office of Support for Effective Teaching Thursday-Friday, May 22-23, 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. at the UNM Student Union Building, instructors will learn what research in cognition, teaching and learning implies for college instruction and pick up fresh ideas through conversations with colleagues.
The institute demonstrates teaching and assessment methods consistent with diverse learning styles. Instructors learn to design goal- and learner-centered courses, guided by three central questions: What should my students learn? How should they learn it? How will I know that they learned it?
Hope Garcia, UNM-Valencia sociology faculty, participated in the institute when she started teaching Sociology 101.
“I began the institute as a desperate doctoral student, who was about to be loosed upon a herd of unsuspecting freshmen,” she said. “As I heard in the institute, ‘When all you’ve got is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.’ So, I was hoping for a few pointers – a few different tools besides my trusty lecture hammer.”
Garcia said the tools she picked up at the institute have helped stimulate discussion and lead students “to understand and apply principles, not just memorize definitions and dead guys.”
Maria Lane, assistant professor of geography, joined the institute to design a course she hadn’t taught before – Geography of the Southwest. She said the main point she took from it is “that you have to orient your class around students learning, not yourself teaching.”
“Of course I’d heard about importance of active learning before, but the institute put it all together, from the fundamental level of course design,” she said.
She added that it was a good opportunity to meet with faculty from other departments, get feedback and see other learning styles in action.
Laurie Schatzberg, associate professor in the Anderson School of Management, said the institute helped her “to find ways to add new components to my class [Introduction to Management Information Systems] and to pause from time to time for the students to see the how the class work ties to the objectives and the real world.”
The institute is free and open to all UNM instructors. Visit unm.edu/~oset to register.