Instructional Design
Our Instructional designers break down barriers between teaching, learning, and technology. We partner with instructors to match technology with learning objectives and instructional needs. We can help you with projects big and small, from using Canvas effectively, to redesigning your course to optimize flexibility, and student engagement.
Digital Pedagogy Training
We provide online workshops, individual consultations, and hybrid office hours to help you leverage Canvas, Panopto, and other University supported teaching tools to meet learning objectives. We can help you with a wide range of digital pedagogy issues, from organizing your Canvas course site, engaging students with Hypothesis for close reading, to helping speed up grading with Gradescope or extending the class conversation with Ed Discussions. If your teaching staff, department, division or other group has particular needs, we customize training opportunities to meet your needs.
Partner with Us
Are you looking for new ways to engage your students? Are you trying to meet the challenge of expanding class sizes? Our instructional designers can partner with you to leverage technology in ways that best suit your teaching goals and learning objectives. We can work with you to design an appropriate blend of learning technologies and digital pedagogies for your course. With an eye toward designing your course for improved student engagement and outcomes, our team brings expertise in the use of Academic Technology Solutions’ platforms, tools, and capabilities to your course design needs. In addition to helping you develop the right blend for your course, our team can work with you to design assignments that inspire creativity and engagement in students while helping them practice higher-order thinking skills. We can help you design and implement a particular assignment, incorporate digital learning tools in your curriculum, or flip your class.
Assessment of Emerging Technologies
We evaluate and conduct pilots of emerging technologies, such as classroom response systems, blogging platforms, and video management platforms, for University-wide adoption. We work with service providers to ensure that their tools are feature-rich, accessible, FERPA-compliant, and meet the University’s privacy and data security standards.
Ready to partner with us?
Five Simple Steps to Humanize Your Pedagogy
Successful pedagogy means more than just imparting information. For your course to achieve its aims, it’s vital that there be a meaningful human connection between you and your students. In this post, we’ll consider five steps that you can take to “humanize” your...
Help Students Cultivate Scholarly Habits by Engaging with Art (Even Outside of the Museum!): “Habits of Mind” Blog Series, Part Three
“Dispositions…arguably are the key to helping learners mobilize their mental powers. Art assists in a natural way. Looking at art invites, rewards, and encourages a thoughtful disposition, because works of art demand thoughtful attention to discover what they have to...
Disassemble Big Ideas for Greater Student Understanding Using Concept Maps: Habits of Mind Series, Part Two
UChicago’s well-known undergraduate Core Curriculum serves the goal of “cultivat[ing] in students a range of insights, habits of mind, and scholarly experiences.” This series of blog posts highlights ways in which technology can support those valuable habits of mind....