Best Teaching Practices in Higher Education: Building a Learner-Centered Course – from Principles to Practice

Course Overview 

The overall goal of this course is to prepare participants with diverse teaching interests to design and deliver a high-quality course in an asynchronous learning environment. During this seven-week course, we will introduce evidence-based educational principles that apply to both online and in-person courses, and we will learn specific approaches to putting these principles into practice in an online environment. This course is for both new teachers and experienced instructors who are new to teaching online, as well as all instructors who want to improve the quality of their online courses. At the end of the course, you will be able to use best practices in adult learning to design and deliver your subject in an online environment, using a range of tools available to you through the Canvas learning management system. 

Weekly Objectives 

Each week we will address one of the following essential questions:   

1. What does the research say about best teaching practices? 

2. What is the objective of objectives? 

3. How do we choose and use appropriate course content? 

4. What kinds of assessments are meaningful? 

5. What is the meaning of instructor and learner presence? 

6. How can students receive meaningful feedback? 

7. What is metacognition and why is it important for teaching and learning? 

Who may take this course? 

FAES is offering this course to current faculty members who will be teaching with us in the next academic year, as well as individuals who would like to propose a course with FAES in the future. All materials will be accessible through the course web site, and there is no tuition for this course at this time.

Important Dates 

The FAES Best Teaching Practices course runs during Fall, Session B and Spring, Session B. Please check the Academic Calendar for specific dates.