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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.