Course Design: Ideas for Graduate Student Instructors

General

Syllabus Checklist (pdf)

Sample Syllabi
Sample syllabi, exams, assignments and real-time lectures of selected courses.

Active Learning
These worksheets offer options for incorporating active learning into your instruction sessions. This resource is provided by UT Library Online.

Promising Practices

"When I first started out as an AI, I would spend days preparing a lecture for my “Introduction to Sociology” class. I would have pages and pages of concepts, detailed examples, and numerous tables for each class. It was too much. I was excited about the material, but found myself rushing in an attempt to squeeze it all in. In doing so, I was providing all the examples, making all the connections, and dominating the entire class time. This took the onus for learning off of students and placed it solely on my shoulders. I was overworked and stressed." (more...)

Application

Applied Learning Theory
While a lot of research in psychology is too specialized, too basic or too new to have much direct application to the classroom, there are some well-documented concepts in the literature which, with a little imagination, have very direct implications for instruction.

Enhancing Learning and More! Through Cooperative Learning (pdf)
Some of higher education's most challenging goals include enhancing critical thinking, promoting "deep" (as opposed to superficial) learning, encouraging both self-esteem and the acceptance of others, and improving interpersonal effectiveness (with an emphasis on team skills). This paper describes cooperative learning, an instructional approach designed especially with these objectives in mind.

Basic Cooperative Learning Structures
Advanced Cooperative Learning Structures

Organizing and Conducting a Class Discussion or Review
Classroom instructors often have as a goal the encouragement of student participation in class. When the students are actively involved in manipulating ideas and information, they have a much greater chance of learning them and remembering them. The ideas presented here should help you get your students responding and learning in class.

Evaluating Discussion
The discussion method of teaching, according to Wilbert McKeachie (1978) and summarized in the review by Smith (1978), has most often been used when goals of instruction are to: stimulate critical thinking, develop interest in further learning and give the teacher information about how well instructional objectives are being met.

The Discussion Class: Interaction Functions
The discussion class is essentially a small group attempting to complete a task. As such, the class can function more efficiently if the individual members are aware of the kinds of actions they can take to make things move smoothly. Each of us has a typical way of acting in a group. Some people like to lead, some act to keep the group focused on the task and some serve to keep the group from taking itself too seriously. Listed here are several different ways people normally act in a group. Which ones describe your own style?

Why Write Objectives? (pdf)
Effective teaching depends upon 1) how clearly the students understand what they are supposed to learn and 2) how accurately that learning can be measured. Well-written objectives can give studetns precise statements of what is expected of them and provide guidelines for assessing student progress.

Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (pdf)
Brief summary of Taxonomy developed by Benjamin Bloom.

Test Construction: Some Practical Ideas (pdf)
General steps in test construction (elaborations for some of these steps are presented in this document).

Grading

Evaluating and Grading Students (pdf)
The topic of this discussion is the design of an evaluation system for your course. Now you may be saying to yourself, "I haven't even met the class yet. How can I and why should I be thinking about how to evaluate them already?"

Pertinent Questions About Grading (pdf)
The grading system an instructor selects reflects his or her educational philosophy. There are no right or wrong systems, only systems which accomplish different objectives.

TA Talk Highlights
TA TALK is a publication of the Division of Instructional Innovation and Assessment (DIIA) at UT Austin. TA Talk provides information for GSIs regarding teaching, learning, and university resources.