COURSE DESIGN & TEACHING RESOURCES

Explore our resources to help you design and teach your courses

For personalized support, contact your school’s Instructional Designer.

College of Arts & Sciences

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGNER:

Chris Whetstine
whetstine@american.edu

Schedule an Appointment

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGNER:

Dominique Swann
dswann@american.edu

Schedule an Appointment

Kogod School of Business

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGNER:

Mike Rodriguez 
mrodriguez@american.edu

Schedule an Appointment

School of Communication

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGNER:

Zhiping Zhang
zhipingz@american.edu

Schedule an Appointment

School of Education 

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGNER:

Rachel Hudish
rhudish@american.edu

Schedule an Appointment

School of International Service

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGNER:

Nick DeMayo
demayo@american.edu

Schedule an Appointment

School of Public Affairs

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGNER:

Chris Whetstine
whetstine@american.edu

Schedule an Appointment

Office of Graduate and Professional Studies

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGNER:

Nick DeMayo
demayo@american.edu

Schedule an Appointment

Explore the resources below.

And remember, 1:1 consultations with CFE are always available. 

Backward Course Design:

Backward Course Design: Alignment of Learning Outcomes, Assessment, and Activities

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Developing Student Learning Outcomes with Bloom’s Taxonomy

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Choosing Course Materials to Craft an Affordable and Ideal Learning Experience
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Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that are made freely available under open licenses. Click to explore more.
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Resources for crafting a course syllabus
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The First Day of Class
The first day of class is your opportunity to engage in collaborative norm setting and build community, setting the tone for the class moving forward.
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The last day of class presents an opportunity for students and instructors to reflect on what they have learned during the semester. Click to explore more.
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The way you structure and facilitate class sessions or other presentations can have a profound impact on learning.
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Both group and teamwork are effective teaching strategies to engage students in collaboration and peer-to-peer learning. Click to explore more.
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Accessibility Guide
The Center for Faculty Excellence (CFE) has prepared guides to help you create more accessible materials for your classroom and beyond. Click to explore more.
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Universal Design (UD) was inspired by architectural design techniques for accessibility pioneered by Ronald Mace at North Carolina State University. Click to explore more.
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Course materials include anything we use in our courses to help our students learn. Click to explore more.
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Equip yourself with tools and best practices for incorporating trauma-informed pedagogy into your classroom. Click to explore more.
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The “hidden curriculum” is the set of tacit norms, policies, and expectations in an educational context that insiders expect all students to follow but are often not taught explicitly. Click to explore more.
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Using Rubrics to Assess Learning
The assessments students complete in your courses (e.g., projects, papers, presentations, performances, exams) provide a way for students to demonstrate how well they have achieved the student learning outcomes. Click to explore more.
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Assessment, or measuring and monitoring learning, is a fundamental aspect of the learning process and can serve many beneficial functions for instructors and students. Click to explore more.
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Alternative Grading Methods (Coming soon)

One-on-One Consultation Requests

CFE has capacity to respond to a variety of requests for one-on-one consultations about teaching, scholarship, career planning, grant-writing, and faculty leadership. We will do our best to support you, or to find resources to support you.

Submit a Request For a One-on-One Consultation

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