University course design and delivery

How to design in-person, hybrid and online courses that maximise student engagement, inclusion and learning. Here, you can find advice on instructional design including lesson planning, creation and organisation of educational materials and effective use of digital technologies; as well as teaching methods and styles to help you achieve specific learning outcomes.

‘Great teaching does not mean more work. It means better choices’

Becoming a better teacher starts with a few deliberate choices. Find out more here

Urbi Ghosh

Colorado State University Global

A teacher gestures to a screen in a lecture hall

Six ways to design a class students look forward to

Give students a clear reason to pay attention to your content. Here’s how to design courses to spark curiosity

Ricardo A. Ramirez-Mendoza

Universidad del Caribe (UNICARIBE)

AI literacy as habit, not bolt-on

Let’s avoid teaching students that AI is a topic separate from the rest of the course content. Instead, embed it in course design. Find out how

Lucy S. Méndez Santiago

Universidad del Caribe (UNICARIBE)

A mechanical robot hand writes on a notepad

A tool for teaching argumentative writing to EFL students

Even students with a solid grasp of English can find it hard to construct coherent arguments in their academic writing. A six-week training course centred around an AI-powered corpus platform could help, writes Liu Kanglong

Liu Kanglong

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

To AI or not to AI? That is the question

Educators should embrace their role as advocates for higher education and the critical thinking skills it imparts, argues Sarah Birrell Ivory. Here, she shares a classroom exercise that compares the learning benefits of a written source with generative AI

Sarah Birrell Ivory

Independent academic

A professor teaches from the front of class

We promise our graduates will be employable. Are we keeping that promise?

How can our degree programmes prepare future graduates to be employable and equipped? Chathura Sooriya-Arachchi envisages a better way

Chathura Sooriya-Arachchi

University of Westminster

An illustration of a figure balancing on a tightrope

The balancing act involved in teaching a class of mixed-ability students

Have you faced a situation where half of your class are subject-matter experts, and the other half are absolute beginners? Find practical strategies for bringing novices up to speed while keeping experts motivated

Lolita Edralin

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

A student on a zoom call in her home office

Make tech work in large online courses

Students on large online courses can sometimes feel like a face among the crowd. Keep them engaged with interactive activities such as digital escape rooms or business simulators

Nelly Ramirez Vásquez

Tecnológico de Monterrey

Three people working in an industrial design studio

‘Collaboration is not a slogan or aspiration but a deliberate educational practice’

Higher education leaders often praise interdisciplinary collaboration, but their systems make it difficult to achieve. For innovation to flourish, universities must teach students and faculty to work across disciplines – and differences

Lu Liu

Virginia Tech

A hand pulling out a book from a library shelf

Helping students find and learn from high-quality sources

From celebrating your university library to demonstrating your own source selection process, learn strategies to help students confront increasing misinformation and disinformation online

Tom Hayward

UCL

A group of students wearing green t shirts discussing a sustainability initiative

A beginner’s guide to systems thinking in education for sustainable development

Systems thinking can better equip students to engage with sustainability challenges. It helps to treat it as a competence and a journey, says Fatima Lopez Castellanos

Fatima Lopez Castellanos

The University of Bristol

Female teacher doing chemistry demonstration

Training tomorrow’s citizen scientists in introductory science courses

Faculty who teach large introductory STEM courses often experience burnout, writes Michael Evans. Thinking of yourself as a trainer of citizen scientists and seeing your field in the world around you can help keep teaching fresh

Michael Evans

Georgia Tech’s Center for 21st Century Universities

How to make interdisciplinary teaching a reality

While disciplinary expertise remains important, future graduates will increasingly need broader capabilities to cope with uncertainty and change. Lei Zeng offers advice on how to develop them

Lei Zeng

The University of Manchester

An unenthused student receives a test back in the classroom

Why first-year courses should be pass/fail – and how to make the case at your institution

First-year students suffer from disproportionate levels of stress. But there’s one structural fix that costs almost nothing: pass/fail assessment in year one. Find six steps to implement change

Lasha Markozashvili

Nazarbayev University

Want industry speakers? Get them in early

Guest speakers offer an informed, personal perspective on their discipline and a chance for learners to make an in-person connection that a recording cannot replicate. Here’s how to maximise the benefits and get students to turn up

Treasa Kearney, Anna Egan

University of Liverpool, Manchester Metropolitan University

A group of students discussing an interdisciplinary project at a table

Three ways to foster an interdisciplinary mindset in students

Interdisciplinarity can feel vague and abstract. Read guidance on helping students understand how concepts are defined and how approaches to problems differ across disciplines

Adrian Man-Ho Lam

The University of Hong Kong

Design learning experiences students cannot outsource to AI

A good class creates a sequence of mental events that cannot be outsourced: prediction, surprise, judgement, revision and retrieval, writes Emilia Samit

Emilia Samit

Nebrija University

A professor explaining course structure to a class full of students, some of whom have their hands raised

You only get one first class of term – make it count

How to create a positive first impression and transform the first class from a passive briefing to an interactive launchpad for learning

Svetoslav G. Georgiev

Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University

University students having a discussion about climate change while one presents a poster titled "Save the planet"

Simple ways to bring climate education into every classroom

Strategies to empower students to engage with climate issues in ways that are relevant to their discipline, their futures and the world they are entering

Brittany Vermeulen , Ümit Kennedy

Western Sydney University

Three shifts in course design to update pedagogies for the AI era

How can education truly prepare students for the unpredictability of the working world? Find three ways to encourage students to develop the skills they’ll need

Philip Y. Lam

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

A student wearing headphones speaking to a screen with other students online

How to design an asynchronous COIL project

Intercultural online projects work best when designed around learning journeys with multiple pathways for participation. Read guidance on fostering connection, trust and engagement

Bhawana Shrestha, Chiraz Retimi, Ana Magano

Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University , University of Djelfa, Agrupamento de Escolas da Damaia

A student consults an AI bot for study help

Make AI literacy a foundational element of your course design

With AI becoming commonplace in nearly every industry, educators need to intentionally integrate AI into the learning process. Here’s how to do it, ethically and transparently

Andrea Ramirez-Salgado, Darius Brown, Soohyoun Ahn, Tom Zhang

University of Florida

Academics sharing ideas in a university library

How to redesign a university curriculum at scale

Industries are being shaped by AI, climate change and demographic and geopolitical shifts. We must redesign curricula to better prepare graduates, says Kathryn Woods

Kathryn Woods

UCL

We must stop treating internationalisation as something dependent on an aeroplane

Studying abroad can open students’ minds to the world – but the barriers to physical mobility are mounting. It’s time for a rethink

Anthony Manning

Arden University

‘You can’t just lecture students any more’

GenAI does not make lecturers redundant, but it does weaken one-way content delivery as a reason to bring students together, writes Debra Page. She shares four practical shifts to teaching in the age of AI

Debra Page

University of Reading

A student on a Zoom call with other online students

How a studio-based format transforms online teaching

Online teaching works best when teaching, facilitation and technical delivery are treated as complementary professional roles. Read guidance on studio-based delivery

Multiple authors

Cranfield University

Move beyond technical skills and embed AI literacy that teaches students to question

Learning to use artificial intelligence effectively and responsibly is essential, but it is not enough. Educators should also prepare students to question, influence and shape the future of AI. Find out how

Katie Ledingham, Sarah Hartley

The University of Exeter

How to use AI voice cloning to accelerate online course design

An artificial intelligence voice-cloning feature can make video content production more time efficient, responsive and agile. This guide offers a practical, ethical road map for replicating instructor audio

Ramon Rodriguez, Winston M. King

Georgia Tech’s Center for 21st Century Universities

Students work together in a lecture hall

Co-creation from a student’s perspective

Despite its reputation for embedding autonomy and collaboration skills, for students, co-creation can feel like a box-ticking exercise. Find five practical steps for making it a genuine partnership

Ava Doherty

University of Oxford

A team of coders brainstorming in front of a large code-filled screen

How a university coding competition develops future skills

How to create a pressure cooker environment that forces rapid problem-solving and collaboration among students from different disciplines

Oğuz Şentürk

Istanbul Aydin University

Daniel Guberman is this week's podcast guest

Campus Talks: Backwards course design – from learning outcomes to assessment to activities

An expert in student-centred instructional design talks through the process of creating effective university courses, including the potential of artificial intelligence to support feedback and revision

Daniel Guberman, Eliza Compton

Purdue University

Who provides academic skills support at your institution? The answer may be more complex than you think

Academic skills support can end up spread between teams and departments. Here’s a guide to who’s providing what and how to coordinate

Steve Briggs

University of Bedfordshire

Young woman wearing virtual reality headset with globe in background

How to create a virtual field trip

Virtual field trips have the potential to prepare students more thoroughly for experiences on location. Here’s how to put one together

James Allen

University of Southampton

The key to designing outreach activities students remember

Five ways to spark students’ curiosity during outreach activities and encourage them to keep exploring

Kenneth Wai-Ting Leung

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Colourful outlines of people emerging from an illustrated motherboard

Course design for a new age

Learn how to design courses that respond to the evolving needs of both students and employers

Campus contributors, Laura Duckett

Campus

Students in a classroom with an online student appearing on a screen at the end of the table

Give students greater flexibility with HyFlex learning

Designing different routes through the same module so they offer an equivalent learning experience is where the real work begins, writes Stuart Samuels, who offers practical planning advice

Stuart Samuels

Rethinking course design to enliven student engagement

To foster students’ meaningful learning, educators should be using class time to maximise the benefits of the in-person experience, as Nasreen Sultana explains

Nasreen Sultana

The University of Queensland

Five principles for designing industry-relevant microcredentials

Microcredentials that respond to student and employer needs require industry-backed, thoughtful design, writes Karla Margarita Banda Martínez, who offers guidance

Karla Margarita Banda Martínez

Tecnológico de Monterrey

University staff on laptops listening to a speaker out of shot

How to build an inclusive curriculum design toolkit

Educators often understand the benefits of inclusivity but lack the skills to embed it in courses and curricula. An inclusive design toolkit can bridge institutional ambition and everyday teaching practice

Emma Whewell, Sian Davies-Vollum, Faith Tucker, Helen Tiplady

University of Northampton

Black female student taking notes at laptop

Leveraging student agency in course design

Giving students choice is not about reducing expectations or allowing students to take shortcuts in their study, writes Courtney Kimmel. Here, she explains how course structure can create pathways to deeper learning

Courtney Kimmel

Virginia Tech

How to show students’ learning beyond grades: a five-step process

Teaching success should not rely solely on pass rates or student satisfaction. Here’s how to gather evidence that students understand, apply and transfer what they learned

Anabel Campaña

Universidad del Caribe (UNICARIBE)

Show students why your classes matter

When we demonstrate clear benefits, offer incentives that support learning and intervene when students fall behind, we can make attending a more attractive choice. Read strategies based on student insights

Andrew Snyder, Bingqing Wang, Jiayu Zhou

Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University

Young female Asian student doing an online course

Identifying and addressing accessibility issues in courses that use LaTeX

Learn how to use digital tools to solve accessibility issues with online learning materials at the source. Iliria Stenning and Paul Vrbik discuss a pilot programme to improve accessibility using tools such as Blackboard Ally

Iliria Stenning, Paul Vrbik

The University of Queensland

Gamification can support sustained engagement with course content

Game mechanics use feedback, rankings, discussion and participation over time to maintain students’ attention throughout the semester

Fabrizio Marozzo

University of Calabria

Bring playfulness into teaching for collaboration and creativity

In learning, playfulness is often overlooked. Yet it could be key to embedding the soft, ‘human’ skills students will need for the future. Isabel Taurel shows how

Isabel Taurel

Al Akhawayn University

Students sitting in a circle with no desks

Tech-free teaching: how to get it right

Carefully designed device-free lessons can help students learn to articulate their thoughts, engage with peers and brainstorm ideas. Learn how

Arpita Ghosh

The University of Exeter

Young male college student studying in library

AI literacy cannot be bolted on to first-year courses

Future teachers, nurses, engineers, lawyers and business leaders need more than rules and policies about when to use AI. Inexperienced students benefit from courses that help them practise responsible judgement alongside foundational learning

Nicole Brownlie

The University of Southern Queensland

Retro style poster for space tours to Mars

Does student attention have a half-life?

Can a theatrical approach to teaching a dry subject free up brain space? Chris Jones uses cognitive load theory to manage when students’ attention drifts

Chris Jones

Regent’s University London

Back view of student raising his hand to answer teacher's question

When the university lesson becomes a ritual

By turning your classes into ‘interaction rituals’, you could re-energise even the most apathetic of students – and yourself – and spark excitement for learning. Allan McCoy explains how

Allan McCoy

University of Nottingham

"AI" and "..." in speech bubbles superimposed over a chatroom webpage

How an AI-integrated anonymous chatroom boosted AI literacy and inclusion

A single course design choice helped make AI literacy intrinsic and opened up a way to level the playing field educationally

Fridolin Ting

The Education University of Hong Kong

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