MSHE Instructional Design and Technology logo

Welcome! Let’s get started.

MSHE Director Lois Trautvetter has met with you about your interest in teaching a MSHE course. We value your expertise and experiences in the subject you teach and are excited that you want to share it with students. Welcome to the MSHE family!

✔  Contact Chris Neary, MSHE’s instructional design and technology consultant, to start planning your course.

✔  Gather relevant readings, classroom activities, and professional experiences that could apply to the course. If you are unsure of where to start, Chris can help.

✔  Student-centered learning is an important part of the MSHE experience. Work with Chris to identify effective instructional techniques for our graduate students.

It’s time to build your syllabus.

As you begin to make the course your own, start to build the official syllabus. This document guides students on all course activity, assessment, and other pertinent information. The earlier you start on this, the better.

✔ Review course description, topics, and learning objectives from most recent course offering.

✔ Use the Course Syllabus template to guide you.

✔ Identify textbook(s) students should buy.

✔ Submit syllabus to Jeanine Breen no later than 6 weeks before your course begins.

Curious about general components of other MSHE courses? Browse MSHE course briefs.

Determine and prepare for your course’s learning environments.

MSHE courses are offered in a fully in-person, synchronous format or in a blended learning format. We work with you to ensure you are prepared to effectively deliver the course in a given platform.

• In-person

  This conventional course format is where students and instructor(s) physically meet in a space. Class typically runs three hours in the evening (6pm-9pm) the same day every week. Canvas, Northwestern’s learning management system, is used as an online resource for course announcements, the syllabus, assignments, readings, class agendas, some homework activities, and individual student communication.

• Blended learning

  This course format is a mix of in-person and online class meetings. The in-person component typically is two full Saturday, workshop-style classes, one at the beginning and another at the end of the course (9am-5pm each Saturday). The online component is on Zoom, a virtual web-conferencing tool where the instructor(s) teach(es) using their login to Northwestern’s Zoom license. Online classes are typically two hours in evening (7pm-9pm) the same day every week. The course utilizes Canvas for this format, as well.

• Fully remote synchronous

  This format is currently not offered. MSHE classes were once facilitated remotely at scheduled times via the virtual platform Zoom. A course included some asynchronous components, such as 1-on-1 meetings with instructors, pre-recorded lectures, and group work time; however, a significant portion of a course was delivered remote synchronous.

✔ Determine how the course’s delivery (in-person, blended learning, or fully remote synchronous) ensures student-centered learning. If you are unsure of where to start, Chris can help.

Explore the five learning assessment realms

✔ Determine assessments, conducted during class and outside of class, based on desired learning environment: readings, videos, quizzes, tests, group work, presentations, and participation. To what extent are assessments graded and ungraded? If you are unsure of where to start, Chris can help.

Use the MSHE Course Briefs

✔ Work with Chris to identify technologies you want to use in the course.

It’s time to build the Canvas course.

Whether students attend class remotely, in person, or in a blended learning format, Canvas houses assignments, readings, communication, and some activities for all MSHE courses.

Use the two months leading up to the first class to build your Canvas course.

✔ Be sure to activate your Northwestern net ID and password. This is required for access to Canvas (your access is “Log In to Canvas”)

✔ Chris Neary can help apply syllabus content and course activities to the Canvas course.

Ready to launch the course? Welcome students, and begin teaching!

Use the two weeks leading to the first class to prepare the following:

✔ Send a Canvas welcome/introduction announcement to your students about 1 week prior to first class session. Introduce yourself, introduce any co-instructors/TA’s (if applicable), note readings or assignments due prior to the first class session, and briefly provide student expectations for the first class session.

✔ Chris Neary facilitates a brief Canvas and Zoom tutorial sometime during the week prior to summer and fall quarters. Please invite your students to this tutorial, as they may be unfamiliar with the course technology setup.

✔ Ensure you have access to and can view your course in CAESAR (your access is “Log In to CAESAR”). This access is required for you to submit final grades at the end of the quarter.

Chris is available throughout the quarter for changes to Canvas, technology issues, and other things to help keep the course going. We are in this together!

• One recommendation is to facilitate a weekly prep or debrief session with Chris Neary. Chris is available to reflect on your ideas and suggest any design or technological approaches for your lesson plan.
• Lois Trautvetter may check in occasionally, as well, to discuss any questions or concerns.
• MSHE also hosts a quarterly faculty check-in, where you meet virtually (on Zoom) with all other MSHE faculty teaching during your quarter to share best practices and discuss any questions or concerns that faculty may want to address.

Thank you for teaching this course! Now, let’s assess.

Reflection and continual improvement are important practices in higher education. A couple of to-do’s occur after the course is done. We consider what works well and what we can improve based on the course objective and learning objectives.

✔ Review CTECs

Northwestern facilitates Course Teaching Evaluations (CTECs) for every credit-bearing course. The Registrar’s Office will notify you, within a few weeks of the course completion date, on when you can view your course CTECs. Students evaluate the course on the following criteria:

• Time per week students spent on course activities
• Effectiveness of course materials on the student’s learning (detailed criteria support this)
• Instructor(s) effectiveness on the student’s learning (detailed criteria support this)
• Open-ended summarization of course

✔ Meet with Lois and Chris

Soon after you review CTECs, you will meet with Lois and Chris to discuss feedback on the course. Together we will consider your comments, note pertinent student feedback, and assess the course based on the course description and learning objectives set at the beginning of the quarter. This is an informal conversation used for future course planning.