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Continuum College Instructor Resources

Course Design / Revision

Revision at both the course and program level is expected and routinely occurs in UW PCE programs.

Canvas Resources Library

The Continuum College Learning Experience team created this Canvas Resources Library including tools, templates, tasks, and tips to help you navigate course design from the ground up.

Self-enroll in the Canvas Resources Library

During your Course

As you teach your course, regularly reflect on your teaching practices and use the following strategies to assess and improve your teaching:

  1. Reflect weekly
    Use class breaks to reflect on what is going well and what should be reworked. Review lesson plans, student work, and presentation materials every week and write notes about what was effective and what needs to be redesigned for the course moving forward.
  2. Collect feedback from students
    Formative assessment involves collecting student feedback/data to inform your teaching.
    • Micro-quizzes or end-of class questions – gauge what students took away from your lesson and highlight areas of confusion
    • Regularly invite constructive feedback – ask what works well for students (pace fast/slow, engagement, lesson structure)
  3. Invite an observer into your course
    Program managers (PMs) are often willing to sit in on parts of lessons to provide feedback. They can also recommend an expert teacher in your discipline or colleagues with experience in pedagogy and lesson design.
  4. Observe yourself
    Watching a recording of yourself teaching can be a powerful way to reflect and self-evaluate your teaching style.
  5. Observe someone else
    Observing someone else teach can inspire you to try new things in your own course. Your PM can recommend an expert teacher and inquire about sitting in on their course.
  6. Professional development opportunities
    Communicate with program colleagues to compare your courses, teaching plans, challenges, and triumphs. Take advantage of UW PCE workshops and self-study content on this website!
  7. Use student evaluations
    PM’s can help you solicit anonymous feedback from your students:
    • Mid-Course Evaluations – Web surveys consisting of only a few open-ended questions. After you read the feedback, let your students know that you’ve read their responses, and address what changes you feel you can make immediately.
    • End of Course Evaluations – A two-part evaluation where students evaluate aspects of instruction on a numerical scale, and a sheet of open-ended questions. Results from these are typically shared with instructors a few weeks after the course ends and can be valuable when making decisions about how to modify the course the next time it is taught.
    • Exit Surveys – Exit Surveys are open-ended questionnaires given to students upon completion of the full certificate. They are helpful in identifying gaps or redundancies in the whole curriculum.

Revisions for Future Sessions

Regularly revise your courses to ensure your curriculum includes practical knowledge that can be used on the job and incorporates the latest developments in the field. Here are some things to consider when making course and program revisions:

  1. Feedback from students:
    Your students’ experience in the course will help you know when and what to revise. Use your notes from each class session to guide your revisions.
  2. Changes in the field:
    Update the content of your course to ensure your program reflects the current knowledge and skills required in the field. Check with the other instructors and your program advisory board to refresh content and cut out topics that are no longer relevant to their field.
  3. Total revision of the program:
    Sometimes the field changes so dramatically that a certificate program is totally revised. In those instances, your course may need major revisions and you should review these pages:
  4. Increase course accessibility:
    Link directly to born digital or online resources available via UW Libraries and/or replace scanned content (e.g., PDFs, visual materials) with the same.:
    • This “UW Libraries Search: Online items” example demonstrates how to “Refine My Results” by applying the following filters: “Availability” = “Available Online” and “Resource Type” = “eBooks”. Note you can filter for a variety of Resource Types. Results that yield true born digital or online resources will be best for accessibility. 
    • For more on UW Libraries Course Materials and Online Collections see: UW Libraries Teaching & Learning

Updated 05/14/21