Course Design Institute

Course Design Institute: Three Days of Intensive Course Building

The CDI is designed to give faculty time, space and support for reflecting on and reimagining their courses to help all students thrive and develop skills they will need for their futures. Faculty members work in small groups with faculty from various disciplines, as well as with institute facilitators and colleagues who have successfully implemented changes in their teaching.

Course Design Institute Quick Facts

105
Faculty participants since 2023
43
Unique departments represented since 2023
92
Courses created or transformed during CDI since 2023

COMS 232 Reimagined

Anne Kretsinger-Harries, an assistant specialist in the Department of Communication Studies, goes beyond the poster to share her course design results for COMS 232.
Woman writes on a large white piece of paper stuck to a white wall.

Redefining SPLH 571: A New Approach to Teaching and Assessment

Courtney Summers, a lecturer with Speech-Language-Hearing: Sciences & Disorders Department, discusses changes made to SPLH 571 during the May 2023 Center for Teaching Excellence Course Design Institute.

CDI Empowers Instructors to Transform JMC 302

Redesigning a course can be daunting for any instructor. However, for Gerri Berendzen and Alyssa Appelman of KU's William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications, the CTE's Course Design Institute provided crucial guidance and su
Two women sitting at a table with laptops open. One is speaking while the other listens in.

Fractured Fairy Tales

Andrea Meyertholen, associate professor in the Department of Slavic, German, and Eurasian Studies, talks about her experience creating the course, GERM 145 through the CTE Course Design Institute. In the final project of GERM 145, students reinterpret fairy tales to convey updated social and moral messages.
Photo of Eric Thomas

Changing the class from a strictly lecture format to an interactive class that encourages small-group discussion has improved student learning and collaboration.

Eric Thomas
Course Design Institute

Through the Course Design Institute, Thomas implemented small group writing activities in a large lecture classroom for JMC 101.

Engaging strategies like in-class writing, quizzes, and pair-and-share activities created a dynamic classroom experience where a class of 470 students could regularly practice writing about the course content, earn credit for various academic work, and foster new connections within the large class.