The CTL also provides an array of programs and services for educators across campus. To arrange a one-on-one consultation with one of our Educational Developers, please consult our Connect with… page to identify who you should reach out to (depending on your needs).
CTL Resources for Teaching (PDF, 978KB)
Planning for your Course
Campus Bookstore
The Campus Bookstore provides access to the most up-to-date course materials, as well as an extensive range of automated online faculty services to facilitate textbook and courseware orders.
Subject liaison librarians work with faculty to ensure that the library's collections support the curriculum needs of departments and faculties at Queen's. Consult the Library's collection development policies or speak with your liaison librarian to discuss the information resource needs for your courses.
Subject liaison librarians also work with faculty to provide curriculum integrated library instruction. Consult with your liaison librarian to discuss how information literacy and library instruction might be integrated into your courses. Information on developing effective library assignments is also available.
Faculty and instructors are invited to create course reading lists in the course reserve system to enable one single access point for all reading materials and to support copyright compliance. For more assistance with creating your Reading List, please complete and submit the Course Reserves Form.
In addition, liaison librarians maintain subject guides to help students uncover appropriate scholarly information resources. Please consider including a link to relevant subject guides on your course syllabi.
Centre for Teaching and Learning
The mandate of the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) is to enhance the quality of student learning and support instructors from all disciplines in their teaching. Our Educational Developers can assist new faculty with curriculum planning, writing a syllabus, strategies for engaging students, preparing for the first class, course planning and more. Contact the CTL at ctl@queensu.ca to make an appointment for a one-on-one consultation.
Classroom Booking (Registrar’s Office)
Regularly scheduled classrooms are assigned through the timetabling process. Special timetabling requests must be submitted through your departmental timetabling administrator.
Ad hoc academic booking requests (e.g., one-day seminars, midterms, in-class exams, etc.) may be emailed to acadbook@queensu.ca. Please allow 3-5 days for processing.
Enhancing Your Teaching
Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL)
The mandate of the Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL) is to enhance the quality of student learning and support instructors from all disciplines in their teaching. We do this primarily by providing resources, programs and services, and tips for good practice to anyone who teaches at Queen’s. Here are some examples:
Resources: The CTL maintains a Resource Library of over 4000 books, articles, journals and videos on university teaching and learning. All items have been catalogued and are searchable in our online library database. In addition to our library resources, we also provide several online resources and publications.
Programs and Services: In addition to offering a wide range of workshops and programs on various teaching topics, the CTL also provides a teaching consultation service for individuals and departments. For further information, see the Programs and Services section of our website.
Good Practice: The CTL offers information on curriculum development, discipline-based teaching, graduate supervision, case-based learning, field-based learning, inquiry-based learning, lab-based learning, problem-based learning, community service learning, integrating technology, teaching more students, and help with your teaching.
Scholarship: Teaching is a major professional responsibility for all academics, and good teaching is a scholarly activity, which involves reflecting on our teaching practices, documenting how we teach, what our students have learned, and what changes we've made to improve their learning. Teaching scholarship necessitates making instructional processes more public than they typically have been in universities, enabling colleagues to discuss them and learn from each other about practices that are effective in enhancing learning. The programs and resources we provide and promote are intended to help making teaching a more scholarly activity at Queen’s. This includes information about teaching awards (including grants that can fund innovative teaching projects) and the evaluation of teaching.
For further information about ways the Centre for Teaching and Learning can support you in your teaching, please contact us at ctl@queensu.ca.
Course Design
Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Modules (this is an oldie but a goodie). The following modules can be found on this page:
- How Students Learn
- Active Learning
- Globalization of Learning
- Principles of Course Design
- Assessment Strategies
- Ethical Principles and Professionalism in University Teaching
Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Modules Website
Course Organization: Follow principles of course design and adopt methods for organizing and delivering course content and designing a course website in onQ or your faculty's learning management system.
Teaching Toolkit: Course Organization
Tips for Creative Syllabi: Beyond simply redesigning for better communication and visual appeal, there’s also the need to engage students more actively in working with the information presented in a syllabus. This resource provides you with examples of where to start.
Tips for Teaching Professors: Tip: Creative Syllabi.
Workload Estimator: While there are no defined standards for readings/pages assigned for each level of study, we would recommend using the following workload estimator from Rice University. Remember that students who have a full-time course load may be taking up to 6 courses a semester.
Innovative Approaches to Course Design: Innovative course design enhances student engagement and learning by instructors intentionally thinking about how to motivate students, promote interaction and assess student learning (Mintz, 2021). Innovative Approaches to Course Design by the Taylor Institute at the University of Calgary summarizes three innovative course designs that can be used in your courses to enhance the student learning experience while supporting students to achieve course learner outcomes.
Taylor Institute: Innovative Approaches to Course Design
Accessibility Support and Resources
Universal Design for Learning:
- Campus Supports
- UDL Basics
- Accessibility and UDL Misconceptions
- Scheduling your semester
- Making your instructional space physically accessible
Teaching Strategies
Active Learning Strategies:
Active learning is an approach to instruction that involves actively engaging students with the course material through discussions, problem solving, case studies, role plays and other methods. The CTL also has resources and examples, including:
- Active Learning Webpage
- Active Learning Module
- Focus on Active Learning: Active Learning Strategies by Sue Fostaty Young
The Big List of Class Discussion Strategies: 15 formats for structuring a class discussion to make it more engaging, more organized, more equitable, and more academically challenging.
The Big List of Class Discussion Strategies
Student Success
Several resources exist at the University to support students with their academics. Consider sharing them with your students, on your syllabus, in class, or on your OnQ.
Academics 101: Success Starts Here: This module can be incorporated into your onQ on how students can organize their time, take notes, pick out key information in complex lectures and textbooks, write great university essays or lab reports, and prepare for exams.
Resource on Academic Integrity: For a more in-depth and interactive discussion of academic integrity, check out the online tutorials for undergraduate and graduate students from Student Academic Success Services.
Resource on Generative AI for students
https://rise.articulate.com/share/BEjkjM5O78eE1YYxVbK8Fg2cYAKiZRMh
Assessments
Assessments of Learning: This resource goes over the different types of assessments (formative, diagnostic, summative) and provides ideas for creating rubrics.
Authentic Assessment: From Queen's, here are a few examples of authentic assessments as well as a few from Indiana University-Bloomington. They have indicators of authenticity that can be used, as well as faculty-specific examples.
Accessibility Checklist for Alternative Assessments: If we have learned anything from teaching during a global pandemic, it is that accessibility and flexibility in our teaching are essential. Different students have different needs; there is no one-size-fits all strategy that can support all of them equally, and Universal Design for Learning helps in incorporating multiple means of engagement, representation, and expression. We encourage you to use Universal Design for Learning as you create new courses or adjust older ones.
Accessibility Checklist for Alternative Assessments
Moving from feedback to feedforward: When we give feedforward, instead of rating and judging a person’s performance in the past, we focus on their development in the future.
How to Ungrade: With examples of contract grading, authentic assessments, self-assessments or process letters, Jesse Stommel goes through some of the basics.
Using a “menu of options” assessment approach: This is another example we discussed.
Using a “menu of options” assessment approach
Educational Technologies and CTL Supports
Create a course on onQ: A step-by-step guide that walks you through the different steps you need to take to create your course.
onQ Support: Create a Course
Educational Technologies Guide: Technology can connect us like never before. But with infinite possibilities comes many challenges in making suitable and judicial decisions about best fit – what technologies will be the best solution for instructors, course contexts, and students? This guide maintains that:
- Less is more – stick to a limited number of tools and technologies and simplify wherever possible.
- The Learning Management System (onQ or other LMS offered by your faculty) is the single best technical solution for course management.
Teaching Toolkit: Tech Solutions
EdTech Toolkit: Use the search filters to help narrow your criteria by tool category or pedagogical goal or browse the list of tools that have already been reviewed.
Ventus: Ventus is a management system that allows students, instructors, and Queen’s Student Accessibility Services (QSAS) to easily communicate about accommodations for students with disabilities. Use the Ventus instructor portal to view and manage student accommodations in all your courses.
Supporting your Teaching Assistants
TA Toolkit: This TA Toolkit was developed by the Educational Development Associates (EDA) at the Centre for Teaching and Learning, and it seeks to introduce you to some of the basic principles needed for in-class, or online instruction. This toolkit does not include everything, rather, it is a starting point for discussion, and an invitation for further learning.
Teaching Assistant Checklist: Questions to review with your TA in the beginning of the semester: The Teaching Assistant Checklist. Questions to Ask was compiled by the University of Waterloo and is a great resource that includes an extensive list of questions TAs might ask their course instructor to ensure that they are aware of TA responsibilities and that they have sufficient resources and support to complete their TA role successfully.
The Teaching Assistant Checklist
Creating Community Guidelines: Consider creating community guidelines with your students to create a more inclusive classroom. Community guidelines are agreed-upon protocols that act as a contract for the duration of the semester. Collaborating with students in the creation of such guidelines is central to its success. This practice will foster a collective space for mutual respect and collaborative inquiry. Community guidelines have the potential of cultivating a sense of belonging amongst students and help to facilitate a space in which they can engage productively and respectfully.
Advancing your career
As you continue to grow as an educator and
Evaluation of Teaching:
- Collecting feedback on your teaching
- End of course student experiences of teaching (QSSET)
- Preparing a Teaching Dossier
You can consult with an Educational Developer to help with your teaching dossier, and/or tenure and promotion dossier!
Annual Events and Programs at the CTL
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Event |
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Offered |
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TDC is an opportunity for all educators to start the academic year with networking and professional development on innovations in teaching. This event is for graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, faculty, and teaching staff from across disciplines to come together to learn and share ideas.
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End of August |
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The Institute is a two-day intensive that guides participants through the process of designing an academic course. The Institute is open to all educators at Queen’s University preparing a course to be taught in the upcoming year.
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July |
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The Showcase provides an opportunity to meet with colleagues and to learn about the teaching and learning initiatives and innovations that are taking place across the institution.
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May |
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Teaching and Learning Month brings together faculty, instructors, post-docs, support staff, and graduate teaching assistants in a shared mission to foster a culture of excellence in student learning. The month is an opportunity to come together, learn from each other, and deepen our commitment to providing an exceptional learning environment for all at Queen's University.
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May |
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This course is intended for graduate students and post-doctoral fellows across the disciplines who want to develop as skilled, thoughtful, and confident post-secondary teachers. The goal of this course is to challenge and broaden conceptions of learning and approaches to teaching.
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Winter Semester |
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Professional Development in University Teaching and Learning (PUTL) |
The PUTL modules are a series of online, self-paced modules for any graduate student or postdoctoral fellow interested in teaching and learning. The PUTL modules span topics across teaching and learning practices, leadership, and inclusive pedagogy.
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Ongoing |