Planning Logistics: Credit Hours

• Visit the SON Faculty/Staff Handbook for guidance on credit hour calculations in accordance with University policy PROV-22 and the SACS credit hours policy statement.
• This page has examples of total hours for a 2 credit, 3 credit, and 4 credit didactic course over the course of a semester as well as examples of classroom (or direct) faculty instruction and out-of-class student work.

Planning for the Student Experience

• Student accessibility
• While access to resources is important, access to usable resources is critical. Student needs vary during any given semester or course. Developing new or adapting existing resources to meet these needs provides equitable engagement with content for all students.
• Some key points to consider:
• Closed-captioned videos
• Offering black and white copies along with colorful copies
• Using consistent font style and size throughout a document
• Sharing multiple file versions of a document for better screen reader performance (a Word document as opposed to a PDF file)
• Including alternative text on images within documents or slideshows
• Balancing colors used to eliminate high contrast or hard to differentiate color schemes
• Consider using Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles
• Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework to help guide the instructional planning purpose to be as accessible as possible for all learners.
• Resources, examples, and infographics can be found on the UDL Guidelines website.
• More accessibility resources, ideas, and support can be found on the UVA Academic Accessibility website.
• Consider using backward mapping and design
• Backward mapping and design starts with the end goals/objectives and works backward.
• The work of Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe (1998) demonstrated the powerful results of reversing the standard forward design methods found within education. (Wiggins, G.P., McTighe, J., Kiernan, L.J., Frost, F., & Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. (1998). Understanding by design. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.)
• An overview, details, and additional information can be found here.
• Develop a “no-secrets classroom” and communicate accordingly.
• Be clear about expectations.
• Be transparent and share the ‘why’ as much as possible.
• Be flexible and understanding as able.
• Establish norms for the learning experience.
• Creating norms can be done prior to the course or with the students in the first meeting.
• Creating with students gives them a voice in the course design and can help with engagement.
• This can be done for both asynchronous and synchronous experiences.
• Calendar and organization
• Consider and decide what a learning week looks and feels like.
• What are the days the learning week begins and ends?
• Are all assignments due on the same day each week?
• When will new material be shared?
• How will changes in the calendar be communicated?
• Share an agenda/plan for each session either prior to the session or at the beginning of the session meeting.