Category: Lesson and Course Planning

February 19, 2025

Accessibility Considerations in the Development of an Asynchronous Course

Reading Time: 4 minutesOne of the most important considerations in developing an asynchronous course is ensuring it is accessible to all learners. Accessibility is particularly essential for supporting...

Categories Lesson and Course Planning/Online Asynchronous/Teaching/Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

January 21, 2025

Designing Meaningful Asynchronous Lessons

Reading Time: 3 minutesAs you embark on developing your asynchronous online course, you likely already have a course outline, an instructional plan, a mapped evaluation strategy, and a...

Categories Lesson and Course Planning/Online Asynchronous/Teaching

January 7, 2025

Backwards Design Made Simple: A Step-by-Step Guide

Reading Time: 3 minutesAs you begin planning your asynchronous course, it’s important to think about what makes an online course effective. Successful courses are accessible, flexible, engaging, and...

Categories Lesson and Course Planning/Lesson Planning/Online Asynchronous

December 4, 2024

Making Learning Comprehensible: Build it, Model it!

Reading Time: 5 minutesWhat does making learning comprehensible mean? Are you being understood by your students and helping them retain information they are learning? Scaffolding and Modelling foster engagement and increase student success.

Categories Lesson and Course Planning/Teaching

October 21, 2024

Designing the Core Activities in Your Lesson

Reading Time: 3 minutesBy Dr. Nasreen Sultana, Teaching and Learning Before you start reading, ask yourself the following questions: Ideally, when a professor receives a course, in most...

Categories Active Learning and Engagement/Lesson and Course Planning/Lesson Planning/Teaching

August 27, 2024

Introduction to Planning Courses 

Reading Time: 3 minutesThe Teaching and Learning 5-part learning series on planning and developing courses, developed in collaboration with Curriculum Planning & Operations and the Online Learning Centre, will be offered again in Fall 2024.

Categories Lesson and Course Planning

July 23, 2024

Implementing BOPPPS Framework in the Hybrid Classroom

Reading Time: 3 minutesIn this teaching tip we will explore the implementation of BOPPPS in a weekly hybrid class.

Categories Lesson and Course Planning/Teaching

June 24, 2024

Planning for Post-Assessments: So…What did they Learn?

Reading Time: 4 minutes“It’s Not What We Teach; It’s What They Learn” – Alfie Kohn Wondering what students have learned in the lesson you’ve just delivered? Have students...

Categories Assessing Learning/Giving Feedback/Lesson and Course Planning/Teaching

May 28, 2024

Content-Based Bridge-Ins

Reading Time: 9 minutesMany of you are likely already familiar with the BOPPPS framework for lesson planning. While BOPPPS is not the only way to plan a lesson...

Categories Active Learning and Engagement/Lesson and Course Planning/Teaching

May 7, 2024

Online Asynchronous Teaching Toolkit

Reading Time: 2 minutesThis toolkit provides resources to support your new teaching role in an online course or your continued growth as an online educator.

Categories Lesson and Course Planning/Teaching

April 3, 2024

Pre-Assessments in Lesson Planning

Reading Time: 2 minutesWondering what students already know about a topic and how this informs our lesson planning? This post will provide a short explanation as to why...

Categories Concept Mapping/Lesson and Course Planning/Teaching

April 2, 2024

Start, Continue, or End Learning with AI

Reading Time: 5 minutesUse AI selectively and in only part of your learning activity or assessment to foster student engagement while building genAI literacy skills.

Categories Active Learning and Engagement/AI and Learning/Lesson and Course Planning/Teaching

March 27, 2024

Controlled, Semi-Controlled, and Free Practice

Reading Time: 3 minutesThis post describes how controlled, semi-controlled, and free practice activities can support and develop student knowledge, skills, and confidence throughout your classroom lesson.

Categories Active Learning and Engagement/Lesson and Course Planning

March 12, 2024

Leveraging your slide deck, Part 2: Engaging students in the classroom 

Reading Time: 5 minutesA slide deck can be the focus point of a lesson, presenting key information related to the week’s learning outcomes. A slide deck, however, is...

Categories Active Learning and Engagement/Lesson and Course Planning/Teaching

February 15, 2024

Dealing with Too Many Slides

Reading Time: 3 minutesAs a faculty member, you may receive or inherit “legacy” slide decks filled with more content than can be covered in a single class. This...

Categories Lesson and Course Planning

February 13, 2024

Leveraging your slide deck, Part 1: Scaffolding assessments for student success

Reading Time: 5 minutesA slide deck can be the focus point of a lesson, presenting key information related to the week’s learning outcomes. A slide deck, however, is...

Categories Active Learning and Engagement/Lesson and Course Planning/Student Focused Assessment

January 31, 2024

Make your Lessons “Bloom!”: Leveraging Bloom’s Taxonomy for Lesson Planning Alignment  

Reading Time: 4 minutesAre you ready to plan your lessons with clear objectives and see exactly what students learn by the end? Do you have your BOPPPS template...

Categories Lesson and Course Planning/Teaching

January 17, 2024

Planning Ahead for the Last Weeks of Semester

Reading Time: 3 minutesManaging the last few weeks of the semester can be a busy and stressful time for you and your students. Here a few tips to...

Categories Lesson and Course Planning/Teaching

November 30, 2023

Connecting Active Learning Activities and Assessments to Sustainability

Reading Time: 3 minutesLaura Matheson, an educator since 2008, joined Conestoga College in 2013 to develop and teach in the Sustainable Business Management post-graduate program. Passionate about education,...

Categories Active Learning and Engagement/Build Community/Educational Development Opportunities/Faculty Stories/Group Work/Lesson and Course Planning/Teaching

November 22, 2023

Utilizing eConestoga with your In-Person and Synchronous Teaching 

Reading Time: 3 minutesExplore your teaching approach and engage your students from the very beginning by unlocking the full potential of your eConestoga course shell – not just as a digital extension but as a dynamic tool that enhances your student’s learning experiences.

Categories Lesson and Course Planning/Teaching

November 20, 2023

Pacing

Reading Time: 7 minutesHave you ever struggled to fit all of the weekly content you need to cover into your one or two-hour class meeting and noticed yourself...

Categories Active Learning and Engagement/Lesson and Course Planning/Teaching

July 27, 2023

Considerations for Course Planning

Reading Time: 5 minutesThese considerations for course planning can help guide faculty who are planning a new course or revising an existing course.

Categories Lesson and Course Planning/Teaching

June 20, 2023

The First Two Weeks: Basic Classroom Expectations

Reading Time: 9 minutesAt its best a classroom is a dynamic setting where teacher and learners support each other on the journey toward a common learning goal in...

Categories Build Community/Lesson and Course Planning

December 20, 2022

Assessment Types

Reading Time: 6 minutesConestoga provides students with a wide range of assessment types. This tip describes the goals for choosing evaluation types, explains how discrete assessments fall within...

Categories Assessing Learning/Creating Assessments/Lesson and Course Planning

November 22, 2022

Creating a Harmonized Assessment Tool for Capstone Projects

Reading Time: 4 minutesCapstone projects showcase students’ comprehensive learning. Conestoga’s Computer Science programs host a capstone project at the end of each semester – an opportunity for students...

Categories Faculty Stories/Lesson and Course Planning/Teaching

August 11, 2022

Teaching in a Wide Classroom

Reading Time: 4 minutesThis tip will provide suggestions for making the best use of wide classrooms with two projectors on side-by-side whiteboards, particularly if the first set of rows is close to the front wall so that students at each end of the first row will likely only be able to fully see one whiteboard. 

Categories In-person/Lesson and Course Planning/Teaching

July 22, 2022

Countdown Checklist for Fully Online Asynchronous Teaching

Reading Time: 5 minutesA checklist of “to-dos” before your asynchronous course goes live and during the semester start.

Categories Lesson and Course Planning/Online Asynchronous/Teaching

May 4, 2022

A Quick Checklist for Setting Up the First Class

Reading Time: 2 minutesThis is a collaborative post brought to you by the Teaching and Learning Consultants. If you are new to teaching and to Conestoga College, you...

Categories Hybrid/In-person/Lesson and Course Planning/New Faculty/Online Synchronous/Teaching

April 21, 2022

Modes of Delivery

Reading Time: 4 minutesLearn about what are the modes of course delivery at Conestoga.

Categories Lesson and Course Planning/New Faculty

April 21, 2022

Using the Employee Portal as Faculty

Reading Time: 5 minutesAn explanation of using the employee portal for teaching activities

Categories Lesson and Course Planning/New Faculty/Teaching

April 12, 2022

Content Chunking in Your Lessons

Reading Time: 5 minutesLearn about chunking your lesson into smaller bits for students learning and completing the chunk with practice and feedback

Categories Lesson and Course Planning/Teaching

December 21, 2021

GIRAFES: Charting a Learning Pathway for Hybrid and Fully Online Courses

Reading Time: 7 minutesThis tip provides an overview to develop a lesson plan and learning pathway for units of learning with a hybrid, remote, and/or asynchronous course. Please share...

Categories Hybrid/Lesson and Course Planning/Teaching

July 16, 2021

Review and Reflection and How to Assess Them: Part 2

Reading Time: 3 minutesPart 2 of a two-part teaching tip on assessing review and reflection as skills includes suggestions to help students build their ability to reflect both as learners and as practitioners in their field.

Categories Assessing Learning/Creating Assessments/Lesson and Course Planning/Teaching

July 16, 2021

Review and Reflection and how to Assess Them: Part 1

Reading Time: 6 minutesIn part 1 of a two-part teaching tip on assessing the professional skills of reflection/review, reflection is defined and explained in a historical context.

Categories Assessing Learning/Creating Assessments/Lesson and Course Planning/Teaching

April 20, 2021

Teaching Software, Hardware, and Cybersecurity

Reading Time: 2 minutesApply these tips in your teaching to engage students and to monitor their progress during lessons.  1. Show students the Big Picture Always start with the big picture for a new unit of learning....

Categories Lesson and Course Planning/Tech For Teaching

January 8, 2021

Course Readings (eReserves) Service

Reading Time: 2 minutesAn overview of Conestoga’s Library Services regarding course readings (eReserves)

Categories Lesson and Course Planning/Library Services

November 12, 2020

Creating a CARD Lesson Plan

Reading Time: 4 minutesLesson plans provide structure, flow, and focus to a class meeting. This teaching tip provides information on the CARD lesson plan. The CARD lesson plan can be...

Categories Lesson and Course Planning/Teaching

December 1, 2017

Creating a BOPPPPS Lesson Plan

Reading Time: 3 minutesEffective lesson planning is the greatest tool in your teaching toolkit. In this teaching tip, learn about the BOPPPS Lesson Plan, and find downloadable resources...

Categories Lesson and Course Planning/Teaching

November 10, 2017

Welcoming First Semester Students

Reading Time: 3 minutesStrategies to help welcome students and start the first classes off on the right foot.

Categories Lesson and Course Planning/New Faculty/Teaching