Certificate in College Teaching
During my PhD I participated in the Certificate in College Teaching (CCT) program offered by the Duke Graduate School. The goal of the program was to equip and train early career academics in to be effective educators in the college setting. The program had three major components:
More information about the program can be found here.
More information about the program can be found here.
Coursework
Through the program I was able to take two semester length courses on different topics in teaching.
Online College Teaching
I took Online College Teaching during the Spring 2018 semester. During this course I engaged in several different forms of online teaching and learning, including enrolling in a Massive Open Online Course and completing multiple reflective exercises about the structure and delivery of the course, interviewing a Duke faculty member about their experience using online classrooms and using multiple different software programs to create a course site and materials including a sample video for an online setting. Using Sakai I created a course page for an introductory level Environmental Biology course, adapted a pre-existing syllabus for a flipped classroom setting, and compiled all of the necessary materials for a 2 session unit on "What is an Ecosystem?" These materials can be found here.
The course objectives were enable students to:
College Teaching and Course Design
I took College Teaching and Course Design during the Fall 2019 semester. During this course I developed a syllabus for a semester length college course. I expanded the syllabus for Environmental Biology course that I began working with during Online Teaching, by identifying the learning objectives, scaffolding the course around these objectives, and choosing assessments that would serve the objectives. I also provided feedback at all stages to peers in the class on the syllabi they were creating. Materials from this course can be found here.
The course objectives of this class were that students would be able to:
More information about this class can be found here.
Online College Teaching
I took Online College Teaching during the Spring 2018 semester. During this course I engaged in several different forms of online teaching and learning, including enrolling in a Massive Open Online Course and completing multiple reflective exercises about the structure and delivery of the course, interviewing a Duke faculty member about their experience using online classrooms and using multiple different software programs to create a course site and materials including a sample video for an online setting. Using Sakai I created a course page for an introductory level Environmental Biology course, adapted a pre-existing syllabus for a flipped classroom setting, and compiled all of the necessary materials for a 2 session unit on "What is an Ecosystem?" These materials can be found here.
The course objectives were enable students to:
- Describe and discuss the different formats of online and hybrid courses: What are they and what is their purpose(s)? What is the range of online and face-to-face instruction?
- Participate in current conversations in higher education around the growth of online instruction. Who are the actors: are they single faculty members or international consortia? What are the advantages, disadvantages, trends, and implications for the future?
- Identify necessary components of an online/hybrid syllabus.
- Modify a traditional syllabus for an online/hybrid course.
- Contribute to the development of online course materials, including assessments, rubrics, video, and communication tools.
- Select materials with appropriate IP considerations.
- Employ strategies to promote academic integrity.
College Teaching and Course Design
I took College Teaching and Course Design during the Fall 2019 semester. During this course I developed a syllabus for a semester length college course. I expanded the syllabus for Environmental Biology course that I began working with during Online Teaching, by identifying the learning objectives, scaffolding the course around these objectives, and choosing assessments that would serve the objectives. I also provided feedback at all stages to peers in the class on the syllabi they were creating. Materials from this course can be found here.
The course objectives of this class were that students would be able to:
- identify quality student learning outcomes.
- draft measurable student learning outcomes for a proposed course.
- examine and illustrate teaching strategies that align with course goals and student learning outcomes.
- generate appropriate methods of formative and summative assessment and evaluation for your proposed course.
- design an effective syllabus, rooted in sound principles of course design.
- evaluate the quality and effectiveness of your peers' proposed syllabi.
More information about this class can be found here.
Teaching Experience and Evaluation
Students in the CCT program must have at least one semester in a formal teaching role. The requirements go beyond administrative TA roles, such as grading or office hours, with a minimum of 4 hours leading class in lecture, lab, or discussion section. I fulfilled this requirement while TA'ing Hydrologic Data Analysis in Fall 2019.
In addition, students must participate at least one semester in "teaching triangles," a group of three graduate instructors who observe and provide written feedback on each others' teaching.
In addition, students must participate at least one semester in "teaching triangles," a group of three graduate instructors who observe and provide written feedback on each others' teaching.
Online Teaching Portfolio
The third and final requirement of this program is to create an online teaching portfolio. The "TEACHING" section of this website fulfilled this requirement.
