Plan
Getting Started
Whether you’re new to teaching or it’s been a while since you’ve taught, this section guides you through the important first steps toward creating inclusive and engaging learning spaces.
- Principles of Learning — Before planning a course and/or a class, we need to remind ourselves of how learning works. Lovett et al. (2023) provide eight research-based principles of learning along with teaching strategies we can implement to support students across these principles.
- Course Outlines — The course outline is an essential document. It is both a contract with students and a vital communication tool. Course outlines set the tone of a course and let students know what to expect and who we are as instructors. This section outlines the college’s policy on course outlines, along with strategies for creating inclusive and accessible course outlines
- First Day(s) of Classes — First impressions count. Students often decide whether or not to continue with a class based on this first experience. In this section, we explore quick tips for creating a welcoming and engaging first day of class
- Creating Accountable Spaces through Effective Classroom Management — As instructors, it’s our responsibility to ensure all students feel welcome in the learning space. Co-creating with students from the outset, guidelines on how everyone will come together, communicates to students that their voices matter.
- New Faculty Resources — New to North Island College? This section provides useful resources to get you started.
Design and Align Learning
Some of us have the opportunity to create a course from scratch; most of us inherit an existing course. Either way, it’s important we approach designing and aligning learning with intention.
To begin, understanding the implications of how the course will be taught is an important starting point.
Teaching Modalities — In this section, we explore the opportunities and challenges of different digital modalities
Learning Outcomes — Reflecting on learning outcomes (LOs) allows us to align the ‘what’ (content) and the ‘how’ (pedagogy) with how we assess student learning. Establishing clear learning outcomes provides the basis for course design.
Course Design — Course design and redesign are ongoing processes. They require continual reflection and a focus on how to ensure our courses are learner-centered. In this section, we explore a process called backward design. [‘course design’ links to the Taylor Institute. Needs to be linked instead to a page for this site.
Lesson Planning — Ultimately, effective lesson planning is crucial for successful course delivery. If we don’t have a plan for each class, how do we know our students are meeting the course learning outcomes? Equally, planning each class enables us to continually reflect on how we have designed our course, making tweaks and adjustments along the way as we get to know the students taking this iteration of the course.
Indigenous Pedagogies
Collaborative Projects (Edit — include link to Brightspace COIIL Course when complete)
Decolonization, Reconciliation, and Indigenization (Create a page and include link to First People’s Principles)
Indigenous Learning for Instructors (Edit — include link to Indigenous Open Resources and Guides and Indigenous Territory Acknowledgment Videos)
TRC Calls to Action, UNDRIP, and DRIPA (Create a page)
Inclusive Teaching and Learning
Diverse Learning and Students (Edit and update)
Inclusive Teaching and Learning (Edit — this is just a page of links to other sites)
Intercultural Fluency (Include link to Brightspace Course Engaging Intercultural Understanding & Engagement when complete)
Pedagogies of Care and Kindness
UDL (Create a page and incl. Making Digital Classroom Accessible for All & Digital Exams for Students with Disabilities)