University of Florida faculty now have access to a brand-new service!

Course development cohorts offer many of the benefits of instructional design, providing unique and customized learning opportunities about educational technologies and services available at UF, while also connecting faculty with colleagues across the UF community.

Cohorts for course development

Instructional designers meet weekly via Zoom with their cohorts as a group to review course design best practices, the UF+QM Standards for online courses, student engagement, assessment strategies, and technology selection and implementation. Participants help drive conversations and identify areas of interest.

Instructional designers and education technologists also offer periodic individual consultations with cohort members to take a deeper dive into specific questions an instructor has about their course(s). When the cohort concludes, participants have been guided through the same course design principles reviewed in a full instructional design project. Participants also have the option to receive an informal UF + QM Course Review.

Cohorts to build community

Course development cohorts connect faculty from across the institution in small groups. Because these groups connect weekly, members have many opportunities to share teaching or course design challenges and learn from one another. In addition to the weekly meetings, faculty have opportunities to pose questions and share ideas in a digital collaboration space (specifically, a channel in Microsoft Teams). Despite the differences in discipline and subject matter, participants often find that they share common experiences. Participants are also connected with colleagues from different departments and colleges from across the institution, often meeting people they may not encounter otherwise in their daily lives.

Join us for our next round of cohorts!

UF instructors (and teaching and graduate assistants!) can sign up for a cohort to meet during the Fall 2020 semester via our easy online cohort sign-up form. UF instructors and staff in any role can always reach out via our standard form to request assistance. New for fall 2020, UF instructors and staff can also review a menu of instructional support services available across the institution.

Tags: Canvas, Collaboration, Course Design, Education Technology, Faculty Development, Instructional Design, Services, UFIT