Core Design Course

Relational Course Design (An Iteration of the Core Design Course for the Faculty Certificate Program)

Below is a shortened description of the course. Please visit the syllabus to see full details about the course.

Facilitator

Kate Crane
Educational Developer, Online Pedagogies, (interim) Faculty Certificate Program Coordinator
kate.crane@dal.ca

Course Description

Learning outcomes and learning management systems; rubrics and syllabi; PowerPoints and post-its—neutral pedagogical objects, or sites of "meeting"? Inert matter, or agents with whom to act relationally, enacting care and justice in the world?

In this "core" design course (designed for instructors without a social science background), we will deal with important course design questions: how do we write strong learning outcomes that communicate what's important to students? How do we design authentic assessments that prepare students for their lives beyond graduation? But rather than treating "outcomes" and "assessments" as the neutral means of getting students through the content and into their professions, we will re-know them as sites for relationship, and imagine what kind of enlivening possibilities open up in our classrooms if course design is not a "tool" in our hand, but a relational response to the on-going dynamism among students, colleagues, spaces, objects, landscapes, technologies and texts.

As we collaborate, these questions will guide our practice: How might doing design—and doing design in, with, and for relationship— contribute to social and material ripples of justice and care through our more-than-human¹  world? How do decisions about what matters to a course (which authors are on the reading list, how students are assessed) contribute to "matterings" in the world—a reinforcement, or breaking apart, of inequities and injustices?

Despite what our students sometimes think (and despite what we sometimes think), our courses are, in fact, the "real world". They matter, and how we engage in design, matters. By doing theory (yes, "doing" and not only "understanding"), and engaging collaboratively in lectures and labs, we will enact design as a relationship, trying on concept-practices drawn from sociomaterial and Indigenous educational theory, taking up our parts — and helping students to take up theirs — in the "lively, relational becoming of the world."²

[1] See the Glossary in the syllabus for definitions to some key course terms!
[2] Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway: Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. Duke University Press.

Course Length and Structure

Course start date: Monday, September 16, 2024

The course is 12 weeks long, made up of 6 modules. The course includes two “intermissions”. One intermission is reading week; the other is during the exam period and the holidays. After the holidays, we will have an optional writing lab (a chance to complete the essay portion of the portfolio assignment and make up for any missed labs). The due date for the final project (January 27th). Participants are not required to continue participating in the course beyond the end of the Fall 2024 term if they do not wish to.

Course Contact Hours and Delivery

The course contact time consists of lectures and labs. Lectures familiarize us with the concepts and the tools; labs get us using the concepts and the tools. Because relational design is an effect of collaborative, situated responsiveness to students, colleagues, spaces, landscapes, objects, technologies and texts, we will be doing a lot of our design work together, in the lectures and the labs. Not only does this align with the pedagogical vision and theoretical underpinnings of this course, it has the added benefit of reducing how much work participants need to do outside the contact hours.

Lecture

Lectures occur every other Monday, 9am – 12pm, in the first week of each module.
Hyflex delivery (participants may attend in-person, online, or asynchronously)**

All lecture dates: Sept. 16; Sept. 30; Oct. 15; Oct. 28; Nov. 18; Dec. 2

Lab

Labs occur in the second week of each two-week module, and there will be two sections of it. One will be held on the Studley campus, and one will be on the Truro campus. You choose which one to attend. You could attend all labs at Studley, all at Truro, or a mix. 

Labs are only delivered in-person.

Truro (room TBD): Every other Tuesday, 2:30 - 4:30, OR
Studley (room TBD): Every other Wednesday, 3:30-5:30

All Lab Dates:
Sept. 24/25; Oct. 8/9; Oct. 22/23; Nov. 5/6; Nov. 26/27; Dec. 10/11

Registration Cap: 12

Please complete the expression of interest form to be considered for enrollment in the course. Priority enrollment will go to participants of the Faculty Certificate Program. Seating will then be offered to non-participants on a first-come, first-served basis. If the class fills, you will be placed on a wait list, and possibly granted a seat if someone else declines theirs. Thank you for your interest!

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**Participants may attend asynchronously, but only if:
a) you have teaching obligations during our lecture time; 
b) you, or a loved-one, are ill (please rest); or
c) you want to complete a design artifact on the experience/design of asynchronous course aspects for your portfolio (we'll talk more about this in class)

Please visit the syllabus to read more about expectations. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you are unsure about your ability to meet participatory and attendance expectations.