Goal: Course should be designed to provide lifelong learning and enrichment opportunities and encourage students to learn new skills, discover a hobby, and enjoy the community of other learners.
To develop a successful course:
Choose the topic you are passionate about and is relevant (appealing) for your intended audience. Make sure your course addresses one of the following: educational, recreational, social, cultural, or health needs of the students.
Decide on the specifics of the course; keep the subject matter original and interesting.
Develop learning outcomes for your course:
What do you want your students to know or be able to do by the end of your course?
What are the key ideas that students will understand after taking your course?
Determine the length of your course based on the learning outcomes.
Determine the best way to deliver your content and plan individual lessons for your course. *Remember that teaching adults is different from teaching children; What teaching methods and tools are most effective to encourage adult learners’ active participation in your course?
Communicate information in different formats: visual imagery, videos, reading content, audio content, hands-on activities, etc.
Create engaging slides to present information (for tips, see below)
Make the learning meaningful to the students: connect to students’ personal experience and/or prior knowledge
Start lessons with an attention grabber: an initial activity that sparks curiosity in your course, a surprising fact or story related to your course topic, a thought-provoking question, etc.
Change activities/formats at least every 30 minutes if applicable
Repeat and review key concepts and processes throughout the course
Design an activity that offers opportunities to practice learned skills in class and encourages students to apply the new content/skill out of the classroom setting
Offer group activities: role play, small group discussions, pair share, etc.
Create and organize materials, provide supply list to the CE or OLLI Coordinator.
Determine the use of equipment and technology. Include them in your course proposal and/or contact CE or OLLI Coordinator.
While teaching, observe students’ behavior to understand their level of engagement. Students are not engaged if they: avoid eye contact, yawn, are easily distracted, and constantly looking at their cell phone.
Adjust your curriculum and instruction to adapt to students’ diverse skill level and degree of engagement.
Offer opportunities for students to share their experience and knowledge with others through reflection, presentations, exhibits, etc.
Consider promoting, advertising and marketing your own classes upon approval from Community Education and Lifelong Learning staff.
Evaluate the course based on self-reflection and student feedback and make improvements.
To create engaging and effective presentations:
Use more images and less text
Create slides that are easy to read; use a 38-40 point font for titles and at least a 24 point font for the body text
Present only one key point per slide
Limit the text on each slide: 6-7 lines of text per slide
Present no more than one slide for every 2-3 minutes of presentation time