Advanced Online Instructor Training

Recognizing that your method of teaching is as important as your subject matter is essential. The way you teach has a strong influence on how the content is understood, engaged with, and enjoyed by students.  

In this training, you will have the opportunity to reflect on your teaching practices through activities that are designed with a focus on reflection and intentional design. This training will challenge you to analyze your teaching practices while encouraging you to continually improve and apply these practices to better facilitate learning in your own courses.  

1. Identify one course to redesign/revise fully  
2. Consider, discuss, and determine alternative teaching strategies, such as storytelling, as a method of teaching to engage students and deliver educational content effectively  
3. Identify and implement active learning techniques and effective course design to promote student learning and engagement  
4. Develop and expand upon your work currently underway related to teaching, learning, and leading online 
5. Provide a written plan outlining varied feedback strategies  
6. Complete feedback reflection questions

Any UWL instructor who is teaching an online course for at least a second time around AND that course is anticipated to be offered online in an upcoming term. Instructors who have successfully completed UWL’s Online Instructor Training or been granted a waiver.  

The work is intentionally spread out over several weeks to allow the tasks to be more tolerable during the semester. Each online module and corresponding activities are 3 weeks in length. The first 2 weeks of each module is focused on learning and experiencing new ways of design and teaching and are designed to take approximately 3-4 hours each week in total and you can decide how to spread that out over time. The 3rd week of the module is for you to continue to deepen your knowledge of strategies for online teaching and learning as it pertains to your course redesign/revision. 

Summer 2024. The tentative schedule looks like this: 

Module 1: The Landscape of Teaching and Learning Online (The New Normal)   

During this module, you will have the opportunity to reflect on three pedagogical trends are provided by the new normal (post-COVID) for online instruction and identifying how each can be used in your course redesign to engage students and deliver educational content more effectively.   

There will be 1 scheduled Zoom meetings (date and times to be determined) and 1 or more one-on-one scheduled meeting CATL training facilitator (TBD).  

Dates: June 3-16, 2024 (2 weeks)

Module 2: Re-imagine Your Teaching Goals (Intentionality) – 

In Module 2, you will begin to re-imagine your teaching goals through the lens of intentionality.  Discussions about rethinking assignments and intentional design will be a focus.  

There will be 1 scheduled Zoom meetings (date and times to be determined) and 1 or more one-on-one scheduled meeting CATL training facilitator (TBD).  

Dates: June 17 - July 7, 2024 (3 weeks)

Module 3 - Redesign the Learning Experience (Active Learning) – 

Module 3 consists of creating engagement and interaction through intentional active learning and thoughtful feedback. 

There will be 1 scheduled Zoom meetings (date and times to be determined) and 1 or more one-on-one scheduled meeting CATL training facilitator (TBD). 

Dates: July 8- August 5, 2024 

We receive feedback from students and reflect on our online teaching, we know things that need to change.  This training provides the opportunity to harness that moment of change and the time to consider new strategies to teach targeted concepts. 

This training provides devoted time to review and reflect, to actively make changes to one of your courses with the knowledge that what you have learned can be applied to multiple courses. Walk away with a redesigned course; supported edits and revisions by CATL staff.

Faculty and instructional academic staff teaching at least a 50% course load in the coming term and on record as teaching the course for revision in the coming term online will receive a $500 stipend upon successful completion of the training.