Teaching and Course Design in Higher Education

Teaching and course design in higher education

Introduction and contents

Teaching and course design in higher education

About this course

Course materials

Course guide 2005

Assessment guide 2005

Pack 1 Teachers Learning and Their Professional Development

Pack 2 Students Learning

Pack 3 Assessment for learning: practices and programmes

Pack 4 Design for learning

Pack 5 Ways of Teaching

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Acknowledgements

Introduction and contents

The materials listed below are presented on the following pages of this unit in pdf format.

Course guide 2005

Assessment guide 2005

Pack 1: Teachers learning and their professional development. All the chapters in this Pack focus the participant’s work and own learning as a teacher. For example, you will find:

Pack 2: Students Learning. In this pack you will find theories and research that encourage you to think about the different ways in which learning can happen, with the focus on your students’ learning. You will also notice that these ideas resonate with many of the theories and ideas from Pack 1 that focused on your own professional learning. Practical hints and guidance for tutors and advisors suggest ways to support the diversity of your student groups and encourage learning.

Pack 3: Assessment for learning: practices and programmes. This pack encourages you to look back over the past ten years in higher education and consider how assessment practice has adapted in response to the changing environment. The pack’s narrative draws on a variety of selected writing whilst inviting you to join in the current debates within higher education on assessment:

Pack 4: Design for learning. Whether you are designing a whole curriculum for an undergraduate year of study or a series of loosely related learning events, this Pack provides a framework that relates the ideas covered in the other packs to the complex design task. You will find:

Pack 5: Ways of Teaching. Teaching in groups, lecturing, e-learning, supervising, demonstrating and field trips are all considered in this Pack. The focus is on the ‘bones’ of teaching. This Pack uses a combination of resources (both print and online, originally) to encourage you to try new approaches with students.

In addition to the Packs, the course includes also a Study Guide, an Assessment Guide, and further, supplementary reading material provided on the course Web site to registered participants. Participants registered on the course were supported online using the conferencing system FirstClass, and tutor- as well as peer-supported discussions formed an integral part of the course experience.

OpenLearn is making available the OU-written elements of the course, including the Study Guide, the Assessment Guide and the main text in the packs. The latter use a variety of readings (‘Extracts’) selected from the relevant literature that was current when the course was last updated (2004), and, although the OpenLearn version does not include these readings, it does provide all the bibliographic details that should enable you to locate them.

By the end of H850, participants will have developed their ability to:

 Design and plan effective learning environments in the form of learning resources, programmes of academic study, or student support systems;

 Select and use a range of teaching methods to support learning and offer learner support;

 Configure and implement effective assessment schemes using a range of approaches, and link these with their ability to give feedback to students on their work;

 Monitor and evaluate their teaching using a range of self-, peer- and student-monitoring techniques, to appraise their own teaching and to inform the course review process;

 Reflect on their own personal and professional practice and developments, assess their future development needs and plan their continuing professional development.

Teaching and course design in higher education

About this course

This course was designed for people teaching or supporting teaching at higher education level, such as teachers, tutors, lecturers, supervisors and student support staff (such as librarians, educational technology and e-learning managers or academic supervisors). The course was originally accredited by the Institute of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (ILTHE, currently part of the Higher Education Academy) as a route towards membership.

The work of a teacher clearly involves much more than classroom performance and the traditional activities that have always aimed to engage students in learning. Teaching embraces planning and running sessions, designing learning environments, supervising and mentoring students in practice situations, marking and giving feedback on student work, undertaking the associated administration, coping with a multifaceted workload and managing complex relationships with colleagues. Successful teachers will also be reflecting across the range of their experiences and planning for continuing development.

Participants are required to compile a portfolio and write a substantive piece of assessed work that together provide concrete examples of their abilities and show how they relate their practice to the underpinning values and principles that they have chosen.

Many colleagues find that they have to develop new ways of writing and using evidence because educational research, like other disciplines, has its own practices of argument and making claims.

Professional practice as a teacher is likely to be underpinned by many or all of the following:

an informal understanding of how students learn;
a concern for students’ development;
a commitment to scholarship;
a willingness to work with and learn with colleagues;
a wish to work effectively with diversity and promote inclusivity;
continuing reflection on professional practice.

The course requires participants to consider the relationship between their abilities and the underpinning values that drive their professional choices. For examples:

the teaching sessions or support activities that they plan should be driven by their interest in helping students to learn and to develop;
in monitoring their teaching and support activities in a scholarly way, they will need to draw on the findings of research into obtaining and using feedback from students.

On successful completion of this course, participants will have demonstrated not just that they can teach, but that they have thought critically about what it means to teach well. In addition, they will have shown that they are continuing to develop and learn.

Suggested study hours 300

Format pdf for 30 books

Course materials

Course guide 2005

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Assessment guide 2005

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Pack 1 Teachers Learning and Their Professional Development

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Pack 2 Students Learning

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Pack 3 Assessment for learning: practices and programmes

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Pack 4 Design for learning

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Pack 5 Ways of Teaching

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Acknowledgements

This material is taken from The Open University's OpenLearn website. OpenLearn provides free open educational resources for learners and educators around the world under a Creative Commons licence. Third party materials have been removed but for ease of use the original acknowledgements copy has been included. For the online version of this unit and for other free educational resources across a range of topics, please go to