Design Your Course

Inclusive Teaching

Inclusive teaching should be at the forefront of your course design. How can you design your course to ensure that all students receive equitable opportunities for learning, regardless of their background? Equitable and inclusive teaching involves cultivating awareness of the dynamics that shape classroom experiences and impact learning. It also involves being responsive to these dynamics and intentional about using strategies, or inclusive moves, that foster a productive learning environment.

• Read more on the Bok Center website.

Develop Learning Objectives

The first step of course design is determining what you hope your students will gain from your course.  What skills and knowledge will your students acquire as a result of participating in your course? Importantly, how might students demonstrate their learning? Having well articulated learning objectives will help guide all aspects of your course design – from developing assignments to determining what happens during class time. Additionally, having learning objectives is important for the interactive accommodations process.

• Bok Center guidance on backward design
• Bok Center guidance on learning goals and learning objectives

Basic Syllabus Information

Before registration, instructors are expected to complete a course information template in Canvas to help students make decisions about course enrollment. The course information template is designed to provide students with a broad overview of a course beyond what is provided in the my.harvard course search. Fields will include: course goals, course format, principal assignments and assessments, and sample reading list. The course information template should be completed by the end of October for spring courses, and by the end of March for fall courses.

• Basic Syllabus Information

Develop a Syllabus

A syllabus is integral to every course. It welcomes students to your course, establishes expectations, and provides information about course content and assignments. The syllabus is more comprehensive than the Canvas course information template, with detailed week-by-week information. Guidance about designing your syllabus can be found at:

• The Bok Center website – including a syllabus template (which can be downloaded).
• The Faculty Handbook

Syllabi should include:

• Information about academic integrity, including collaboration policies
• An accessibility statement
• A policy about the use of generative AI in your course

Although the FAS Add/Drop date is 5th Monday, you can specify on your syllabus an earlier date after which students may no longer add your course.

Develop Assignments

Assignments allow students to integrate and apply new knowledge and skills, and help instructors understand what students are learning. 

• Learn more about assignment design on the Bok Center website. 
• As you develop your assignments, determine what tools and technologies might be needed.

If you plan to include assignments that involve technology or other special resources, develop plans early to make sure you have the tools and resources you need. Reach out to these offices across campus for support:

• Academic Technology for the FAS supports a range of tools and technologies, and can work with you to find tools and resources for your course.
• The Bok Center Learning Lab helps faculty develop and implement creative assignments, often involving a range of media.
• The Lamont Media Lab provides direct course support and workshops for students interested in learning the mechanics of video creation, recording, editing, and media-rich storytelling.
• Cabot Media Studios allow students and instructors to make high-quality audio and video recordings.
• Look to departmental and divisional resources for art making, lab supplies, and other materials. 

Design Final Assessments

As you design your course, you will need to determine how you will assess students’ learning at the end of the course. By deciding whether to assign a final paper, project, or exam, you can ensure that activities throughout the course prepare your students for this final assessment.  

• Bok Center guidance on capstone assignments
• Bok Center Guide to In-Class Assessment

Consider the Impact of Generative AI

The emergence of AI tools like ChatGPT presents both challenges and opportunities for thinking about how we teach across disciplines. Harvard supports responsible experimentation with generative AI tools, but there are important considerations to keep in mind when using these tools, including information security and data privacy, compliance, copyright, and academic integrity.

When considering adapting assignments or assessments in the age of AI, choices should always tie directly to the learning goals of the course and aim to preserve the academic integrity of our students’ education.

• The Bok Center for Teaching and Learning offers guidance on generative AI and a Canvas module that includes information on creating syllabus statements, writing assignments, and in-class assessments.
• The Harvard College Writing Program has created a Framework for Designing Assignments in the Age of AI
• Visit the AI Pedagogy Project (AIPP), developed by the metaLAB at Harvard, for an introductory guide to AI tools, an LLM Tutorial, additional AI resources, and curated assignments to use in your own classroom.
  • The metaLAB has also published a quick start guide for Getting Started with ChatGPT
• Reference the Frequently Asked Questions developed by Office of Undergraduate Education, which includes two relevant videos on teaching with generative AI in STEM and writing courses
• Different divisions and departments may have specific guidance for instruction with generative AI. Consult your division’s resource page. 
  • Generative AI Resources (Division of Science)

Design Class Sessions

How can you maximize the time that you spend with your students in a classroom? What can you do to ensure that your students are learning from each other, and from you?

Read advice from the Bok Center on:

• In the classroom
• Lecturing
• Active Learning

Determine whether you might wish to use tools and technologies to support collaborative work, poll your students, or annotate digital materials.

Develop Sections, Labs, Studios, and Other Components

Many courses include a discussion section and/or a laboratory or studio component. Work with your department to plan for space, materials and supplies, funding, scheduling, and staffing of these components. Faculty are responsible for providing clear guidance for their TFs, TAs and CAs to follow. If you supervise one or more student workers covered by the HGSU-UAW contract, you are responsible for ensuring compliance with its terms. To support you in this, the University has created an explanatory online module available on the Harvard Training Portal.

Read guidance from the Bok Center on:

• Teaching sections
• Teaching labs

Identify Course Materials

Planning your course includes determining what materials students will need (books, articles, videos, laboratory or art supplies, etc), and how students will access these materials (through the bookstore, your Canvas site, the Library, etc). We recommend consulting with the library regarding the availability and accessibility of materials in support of your course early in the course development process. While in many cases the library will have the needed print and digital versions of readings and data sets, as well as equipment and services to support your course, confirming access to these resources early will ensure that services can be scheduled and that needed orders can be placed well in advance.

Teach with Harvard Library

Reach out to your library liaison, a subject matter expert who can help you navigate Harvard Library and connect you with the resources that you need for your courses. Librarians can suggest materials and learning modules and activities tailored to your course, including the creation of course and topic specific research guides, available databases, digitized materials and special collections items. Librarians can also design and integrate specialized trainings into your course, assisting student learners with multimedia projects, qualitative research skills, and data visualization and digital scholarship assignments.

• Teach with Harvard Library
• Faculty Guide to Library Resources

Explore Museum Collections

Take advantage of the world-class collections available at Harvard. Museum curators and educators are eager to collaborate with you and help incorporate Harvard collections into your courses.

• Harvard Art Museums
• Harvard Museums of Science and Culture
  • Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology
  • Harvard Museum of Natural History
  • Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East (formerly Harvard Semitic Museum)
  • Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments

Policies

Familiarize yourself with FAS Policies on Teaching

Take the time to familiarize yourself with FAS policies relating to teaching—everything from policies on extensions of time and seated final exams to privacy and recording policy and use of undergraduate course assistants in the classroom. Note that policies regarding issues including enrollment, grading, and late work and extensions are different for College and Harvard Griffin GSAS students, even when both types of students are enrolled in the same course; refer to the Faculty Handbook for clarification.

Funding

Identify funding needs for your course

There are a variety of funding sources available to support you as you design and implement your course. The Office of Undergraduate Education Course Innovation Funds support course development, and there are dedicated funds for courses on particular topics or themes.

• OUE Course Innovation Funds
• OUE overview of funding opportunities