What to expect from this course

Course Topics

This course contains units that provide introductions to the following topics:

• Mindset

• Emotional Intelligence

• Effective Feedback

• Identity

• Belonging

Learning to be an effective educator is an ongoing process where there is always room for growth. These topics were selected as a foundation upon which you can continue to build.

How Long Will This Take?

Everyone reads and processes new information at a different pace, and it's possible that not all of the content in this course will be new to you. This makes it difficult to predict how long it will take you to complete this course.

Course Structure

Each course topic will contain a sequence of short "modules". Most modules will take 5 to 15 minutes to complete. Ideally, this content would be something explored in person with someone who can provide you with personalized guidance. Since that is not a realistic model for the scale of today's Computer Science programs, we have structured each topic to contain more than one path through the content, with your responses to occasional Check-In questions determining your path at key decision points.

We strongly recommend that, when answering Check-In questions, you select the response closest to your own thinking rather than trying to guess the "right" answer.

At the end of each topic, the final activity will be to provide anonymous feedback about your experience. You will also have the option of notifying your supervisor that you have completed the topic, if that is something they require.

At the end of each feedback page for the first 4 topics, you will see a button that will take you to the next topic and a button that will take you to the Topics page.

Course Navigation

Reflections

Throughout the course, you will encounter a "Reflection" icon. This indicates a moment for you to pause, consider the material you just completed, and reflect on the provided prompts. You will get more out of this course if you allow yourself time for these reflections.

We have created a separate document with all of the reflection prompts and space to write your thoughts. Using the links below, you can either download the PDF version or open the Google Docs version and make a copy that you can then edit.

We designed the course so that a topic could realistically be completed in a single sitting, with the transition between topics offering a good place to take a break. If you need to stop in the middle of topic, you can bookmark the page where you left off and return to it later. If you stopped at the end of a topic and would like to start a new topic from the beginning, you can do so from the Topics page.

A note regarding the videos: Some of the videos we are using to introduce particular topics have very quiet audio. Unfortunately, this is not something over which we have control. All the videos have captions available if you are unable to hear them clearly enough.

How to approach this course

We expect that people completing this course will be coming to it with a wide variety of backgrounds, knowledge, and life experiences. Whether the content is completely unfamiliar or you've already studied these topics in-depth in other contexts, we encourage you to keep an open mind and avoid making assumptions.

Some of the content in this course addresses things that can be difficult to discuss. We believe that you will get the most out of this experience if you challenge yourself, notice your level of discomfort, and take a break if at any point you feel as though you've travelled too far outside your comfort zone to learn productively.

In our first topic, Mindset, we'll discuss why it's useful to find that "learning zone" and how to respectfully and responsibly challenge others to do the same...