By: Shay Morrison and Sarah Ginsberg

Imagine there was a way for faculty to reflect on their own teaching and its effectiveness, while also giving students the opportunity to become active participants in their own education. Perhaps this method could enhance faculty-student relationships and lead to more effective courses taught by faculty. Fortunately, there is a process that can provide all these things. Collaborative course (re)design (CCRD) is a partnership between faculty and students in which they work together to redesign a course taught by that faculty member, which the student has previously taken. CCRD challenges traditional faculty-student dynamics as students and instructors share power in the course redesign process (Mead, 2018). Engaging students in CCRD acknowledges that they have worthwhile input and that they can be effective collaborators in higher education.

         Traditionally, dynamics of faculty-student relationships and expectations in higher education have led to resistance in engaging in collaborative work such as CCRD (Bovill et al., 2015). For faculty, their concerns lie with finding time (due to an already heavy workload) and a lack of understanding of how students can contribute without having pedagogical experience. For students, they may not recognize the value their unique perspectives and experiences offers, or they may not see any benefit to collaborative work with faculty. By changing these mindsets, instructors and students can recognize that their collaborative efforts can lead to more effective teaching and learning. 

A new CCRD learning community, funded by the COE Leadership Legacy award, will take place during the 2023-2024 academic year. As part of this learning community, faculty-student pairs will engage in the CCRD process. The Fall 2023 semester will focus on establishing partnerships and engaging in the redesign process so that the redesigned course can be implemented in the Winter 2024 semester. This learning community will provide support to faculty and student pairs in the process of working together to redesign the identified course through a collaborative process in an engaging environment. The CCRD LC will provide not only guidance and support for engaging in the redesign process, but all participants will develop a small research project associated with their process in collaboration with the learning community. Each participant (student AND faculty) will receive an $800 honorarium for their full participation in the year-long learning community.

CCRD has shown to have benefits for both the faculty and student collaborators. Giving students the opportunity to share their individual experiences and feedback from the course allows instructors to clarify and enhance their understanding of student learning (Mead, 2018). As instructors establish stronger relationships with their students, their curiosity and enjoyment in the teaching process can be revived. The CCRD process can give student collaborators agency in their own education and provide them with new insights into teaching and the way they learn (Cook-Sather, 2008). 

For faculty who would like to redesign one of their courses, determining which aspects of the course should be redesigned can seem like a daunting task when first beginning the CCRD process. Within the CCRD approach, a backward design framework can be utilized to assist with pinpointing which components of the class need to be enhanced (Bowen, 2017). Using this framework ensures that there is purpose behind each element added to the course curriculum and that those elements support the overall goals of the course. 

Within the backward design process, instructors identify the goals of the course and then work backwards to determine appropriate assessments and then learning activities. The goals of the course drive the assessments and activities as they establish what students should have a deep understanding of by the time the course is complete. The result of pairing the backward design framework with the CCRD approach can be a more accessible course that teaches students effectively while keeping them engaged.

         The Teaching and Learning Together (TaLT) initiative at Eastern Michigan University’s Faculty Development Center works to rebuild the faculty-student relationships that have been affected by the COVID pandemic over the last few years.  The CCRD learning community will continue to provide faculty and students with opportunities to develop collaborative relationships around the teaching and learning process. This year-long learning community was developed by Sarah Ginsberg, professor of communication sciences and disorders, and her student partner, Shay Morrison, a graduate student in the same program. They worked collaboratively to design the learning experience for the coming year using the same approach as will be used in CCRD.

         If you are a faculty member, full-time or part-time lecturer who has a course in mind that you have previously taught and would like to update with input and collaboration from a student who has previously taken the course, please consider applying to be part of this new learning community. Educators from all programs are welcome to apply to be part of this community. More information, including a link to the faculty fellow application, can be found here.