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Short Courses

Our short courses explore a variety of themes related to teaching and learning. Once you self-enroll you’ll gain indefinite access to the course and its resources. Although there will not be a facilitator in this space, the courses include opportunities to engage asynchronously with other learners who pass through and to connect with a TIPS instructional designer at any time. 

These courses are for the University of Colorado Denver | Anscutz Medical Campus faculty only.

 

Post-it Notes

Backward Design Basics


Are you beginning to prepare and plan for next semester? Consider thinking “backward”! Conceptualizing your course from a Backward Design perspective creates a more focused and meaningful experience for your students. The process is learner-centered and helps ensure that your course content and assessments are aligned with the overall goals and objectives of the course (and your program!) The Backward Design Basics short course walks through key elements of the process and helps you to take intentional design and development steps to prepare your next course. 

 

 

Student with raised hand

The Community of Inquiry Framework: Developing "Presence" for Meaningful Learning


Are your students struggling to engage in your online courses? The Community of Inquiry (COI) framework can help you create deeper and more meaningful learning experiences! The Community of Inquiry is a systematic framework designed to help students experience complex learning. Through the development of social, teaching, and cognitive presence, the COI provides a holistic, student-centered approach to course development and facilitation rooted in the idea that we all learn better together. 

 

 

Group of Students

Designing for Collaboration: Group Projects in the Classroom and Online


This course will cover the potential rewards of taking on this challenge even if your past experience with such an endeavor hasn’t been the best. We’ll work to steer you clear of potential pitfalls, share strategies you can incorporate in different settings and provide you with practical ideas for effective and rewarding course group work. 

 

 

Colorful building blocks

Getting Started in Canvas: Building Blocks for an Organized and Effective Course


Learning how to use a new technology tool can feel overwhelming under any circumstances. When the goal is learning the primary communication and organization tool you will use to do most of your work, the importance of feeling confident in using the new tool can make the process feel like an even steeper climb. 

This resource, designed for face-to-face, hybrid, and fully online instructors, can help. Here you will find information, tips, videos, and how-to guides specifically created and selected to help you use Canvas to teach your course, regardless of modality, including topics such as using Canvas to organize your course and share materials, send messages and course announcements to your students, and receive and grade assignments. 

Instructor providing feedback to a student

Giving Student Feedback

This course is for you if you are looking for research-based ideas for increasing your impact on student learning with feedback, while also being efficient with the time you spend getting feedback to students. 

 

 

Students at a table

Open Educational Resources and Open Pedagogy


Are you interested in exploring the concepts, benefits, and practical applications of open education, specifically OER and open pedagogy? In this course, we will outline how open education can promote equity in the classroom, provide resources on how to find, evaluate, and integrate high-quality OER, and discuss the transformative potential of open pedagogy in fostering inclusive, collaborative, and learner-centered environments.  

 

 

Design

Universal Design for Learning


Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework that is meant to create more meaningful and accessible learning experiences for everyone. This course provides a background to UDL and an overview of its three guidelines (providing multiple means of representation, engagement, and action/expression). There is also a discussion of some entry points for making common tools and resources used in online teaching more accessible.   

 

Teacher talking to classroom of students

Using Student Feedback


In this course we discuss inviting and using feedback from our students to deepen and document our development and success as teachers. We will highlight various ways to increase formative student feedback opportunities in your teaching and share ideas on making the most of end-of-semester student feedback (FCQs). 

 

 

You may want to speak with an instructional designer about pedagogical practices. Our instructional technologists and instructional designers are especially experienced in online and hybrid teaching modalities, but much of our work applies to in-person classes as well. 

Division for Teaching Innovation and Program Strategy (TIPS)

CU Denver

City Heights/Learning Commons

1191 Larimer St

3rd Floor Learning Commons

Denver, CO 80204


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