CALS Faculty Instructional Resources and Support Team (FIRST)
CALS Course Design and Course Delivery Communities of Practice
To support CALS faculty in designing and delivering student-centered courses infused with authentic learning activities and help online courses achieve the required UF Quality designation, each semester we offer two cohort-based activities designed as Communities of Practice (CoP). During the hands-on and discussion sessions, you’ll work directly with your course plan and materials while honing best practices for developing and teaching high-quality, learner-centered courses ready for the UF Quality review. You’ll have broader support by meeting with a cohort of faculty, guided by our instructional design and production teams, with opportunities to share ideas with and learn from your colleagues and plan course revisions strategically with the support team.
Join a current or upcoming CALS Course Design Community of Practice or CALS Course Delivery Community of Practice by filling out the registration form.
All undergraduate courses that are at least 80% online must meet UF Quality standards for online course quality by the end of 2025. Under the UF Quality review process timeline, you’ll need to teach any revised or new course at least once before submitting it for review. Our two-part offering (Course Design Community of Practice and Course Delivery Community of Practice) will guide you through course development or course improvements (emphasizing learner engagement and authentic learning) and the UF Quality submission process. Although you can take one or both parts independently, the normal sequence is the Course Design Community of Practice the first semester, followed by the Course Delivery Community of Practice the next semester, generally while you’re teaching the course. We support both undergraduate and graduate courses through these offerings (the UF Quality review is recommended although not required for graduate-level courses).
These cohort-based offerings are designed to help you prepare and submit your course for the review, while streamlining the planning time to shift the focus from course builds in Canvas to teaching strategies for authentic learning and assessment. As always, you can use instructional design services from your own department or other UF sources (CITT, COIP) instead of or in collaboration with our team, and beyond our cohort offerings, our team will continue to offer consultations, recording studio appointments, and course design templates and resources.
Why Join the Course Design and Course Delivery CoP Cohort Series
- Learn with and from colleagues through a Community of Practice focused on learner-centered teaching.
- Design or enhance your course with the goal of achieving UF Quality Exemplary rating that achieves a high level of student and faculty satisfaction.
- Help your students achieve deeper learning through authentic learning activities and assessments that apply your course content to real-world context.
- Leverage pedagogy and new technologies to implement student engagement strategies that result in meaningful student learning.
- Use learning analytics, reflection, and peer evaluation to improve course design, teaching practice, and student outcomes.
- Learn how to apply the UF Quality standards to improve course quality and complete the review submission with the support of specialists and peers.
CALS Course Design Community of Practice
This semester-long offering will help you design or revise a course that achieves the highest level of UF Quality standards and will emphasize the standards related to course design. During the semester, you’ll meet as a group for weekly synchronous online or in-person sessions plus related asynchronous activities, and you’ll have opportunities for additional optional time with the instructional design and video teams. Specific synchronous meeting times will be determined by participant schedules shared in the response survey.
Expectations of participating in this cohort offering:
- FIRST will provide resources, physical or virtual space, and facilitation to interact as a Community of Practice (CoP).
- FIRST will support your course revisions and development with an individualized plan.
- For the CoP to be successful, your active participation throughout the semester is expected, both synchronously and asynchronously.
- Your participation requires a time commitment over the semester of 12-18 hours in synchronous meetings, 12-16 hours in asynchronous related activities, and time outside of meetings spent on your course that will depend on your individual course needs.
- While FIRST staff will support your course development and revision needs during and outside of meeting times, you are responsible for completing all instructor course tasks.
CALS Course Delivery Community of Practice
The Course Delivery Community of Practice is for faculty who are teaching a course that has already been designed to fulfill UF Quality standards. It may be taken the semester you teach the new or redesigned course, with the goal of submitting the UF Quality review at the end of the semester once you receive your student evaluations.
During the semester, you’ll meet as a group for weekly synchronous online or in-person sessions plus related asynchronous activities, to incorporate engagement and feedback strategies into your teaching while preparing your UF Quality submission. Specific synchronous meeting times will be determined by participant schedules shared in the response survey.
Expectations of participating in this cohort offering:
- FIRST will provide resources, physical or virtual space, and facilitation to interact as a Community of Practice.
- For the CoP to be successful, your active participation throughout the semester is expected, both synchronously and asynchronously.
- Your participation requires a time commitment over the semester of 10-15 hours in synchronous meetings, about 10-12 hours in asynchronous related activities, and additional time that will depend on your individual course needs and will focus on completing your portion of the UF Quality review for your course.
- While FIRST staff will support your course development and revision needs during and outside of meeting times, you are responsible for completing all instructor course tasks including the final submission of your course for UF Quality review.