Instructional Design Services

You can schedule a 25-minute or 50-minute online consultation with an instructional designer to get help with:

• Designing course elements (e.g., you want advice on creating learning activities for students to practice skills and apply knowledge in an online synchronous course).

• Determining which EdTech tool meets your curriculum needs or instructional challenges (e.g., you want to improve student engagement and need guidance on what type of tool might work best for your course and students).
• Deciding how to adapt curriculum and instruction for different course modalities (e.g., you want advice on how to take an in-person course and convert it to an online asynchronous course).

The instructional design team can partner with you to complete several types of course designs, including:

• Full course design – developing a new course at UIC
• Full course redesign – an existing course that needs a complete redesign in the same modality or adapted for a new modality, for example, redesigning an in-person course for an online asynchronous course

• Partial course design – an existing course that needs one element redesigned, for example, adapting traditional papers and exams to authentic assessments.

• Course conversion – an existing course in Original Course View is adapted to Ultra Course View and a UIC course review is completed with recommendations for continuous quality improvements.

If you would like to partner with the instructional design team for a course design project, please contact us and the senior instructional designer will set up a meeting to discuss your course needs.

The instructional design team can provide you with a course review to support the continuous quality improvement of your curriculum, instruction, and course, including:

• UIC course review – developed as a synthesis of the other course and peer review tools. Instructors are provided with a report containing feedback and suggestions to improve course design based on the evaluation criteria.
• UIC continuous quality improvement review – developed as a set of tools to support instructors in reviewing and addressing collected feedback and data. Instructors are provided with a report analyzing the collected data with recommendations for improvement based on the data.

• Quality Matters internal self-review – a course review using the Quality Matters (QM) Higher Education Rubric that does not lead to official QM certification. Instructors are provided with a PDF from Quality Matters self-review tool with evidence on how each standard is met or suggestions for meeting the standard if not met. You can also schedule a consultation with an instructional designer to guide you through using the tool for a self-review.
• Accessibility review – developed based on the POUR (perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust) principles of WCAG to evaluate the accessibility of course elements. Instructors are provided with a report containing suggestions for improving the accessibility of their course, as well as a statement of work detailing the hours needed to make the course site accessible.

If you would like to partner with the instructional design team for a course review, please contact us and the senior instructional designer will set up a meeting to discuss your course needs.

Whether you are teaching online or in the classroom, instructional designers can help you:

• Design accessible course elements, including course goals, learning objectives, assessments, learning activities, and instructional materials.
• Develop engaging, high-quality curriculum, instruction, and courses.
• Leverage educational technology aligned with course goals to enhance learning activities.
• Implement effective synchronous or asynchronous pedagogy.

• Overcome instructional challenges (e.g., student engagement, student performance, etc.).
• Determine how to collect and review data and feedback for continuous quality improvements.
• Improve student performance and outcomes in courses.

To learn more about instructional innovations at UIC, consider watching the following video series about teaching strategies and technology innovations in videos by UIC instructors.

Teaching Guides

• Active Learning
• AI Writing Tools
• Assessment Planning
• Authentic Assessments
• Backward Design
• Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives
• Equitable Assessments & Grading Practices
• Formative Assessments
• Learning Objectives
• Micro-lecture Videos
• Rubrics
• Summative Assessments
• Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

Course Design Templates

Course Organization & Alignment

• Course Goals & Learning Objectives Template
• Course Map
• Course Outline – 8 week course
• Course Outline – 15 week course
• Course Types, Modalities, and Activity Times
• Self-Review Checklist

Assessments

• Analytic Rubric Template
• Assignment Template – 8 week course
• Assignment Template – 15 week course
• Checklist Template
• Gradebook Template – 8 week course
• Gradebook Template – 15 week course
• Holistic Rubric Template
• Multiple-Choice Exam Items
• Single-Point Rubric Template

Learning Activities & Instructional Materials

• Journals
• Micro-lecture Video Storyboard
• Online Discussions
• Online Synchronous Session
• Readings & Resources – 8 week course
• Readings & Resources – 15 week course

Accessibility

• Accessibility Checklist for Documents
• Accessibility Checklist for PDFs
• Accessibility Checklist for Slides
• Accessibility Checklist for Instructional Material (All)

The instructional design team recognizes and respects that all content and materials contained in a course site are considered academic copyrightable works. The instructional design team utilizes the learning management system to review the course site, identify problems, find solutions, and perform tasks requested by the instructor.

The instructional design team complies with all applicable laws and policies regarding course sites and learning management systems, including the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA). The instructional design team is not authorized to utilize confidential material or academic copyrightable work accessed during the consultation, and they will remove their role as an instructor upon completion of the work and/or consultation.