Modes of course delivery & engagement resources

Modes of delivery and engagement affect your course design, the decisions you make, and student learning.

Course design

Every course contributes to at least one program. Programs are designed using Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs) and courses are designed to support and achieve those outcomes using their own Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs). Fink’s (2003) Model for Integrated Course Design incorporates situational factors connecting to the realities of designing courses. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is another design framework “…to guide the design of learning environments that are accessible, inclusive, and challenging for every learner.” (CAST, 2024). Combining these two frameworks offers a more inclusive outcomes-based course design model.

A box with "situational factors" typed inside with three arrows pointing up from this box to a red circle encompassing a model incorporating the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles and Fink's model of integrated course design. In the middle is a triangle with circles at each point. The top point, inside the circle, is "Learning goals" the bottom left point, inside the circle, is "Teaching and Learning Activities" and the bottom right point, inside the circle, is "Feedback & Assessment". Encompassing this triangle are each of the UDL principles. Below and to the left is a green heart with "Engagement: Different ways of engaging in learning" with "Why?". Above the triangle in the center is a purple head outline with the brain visible inside the head with "Representation: Different ways of accessing learning" and "What?". Below and to the right of the triangle is blue outlined hands with "Action and Expression: Different ways of demonstrating learning" with "How?".

Step 1: Situational Factors
Step 2: Learning Outcomes
Step 3: Assessment & Feedback
Step 4: Activities & Lesson Design

As recommended by Fink (2003), begin by identifying the situational factors for your course that will influence the decisions you make in course design (e.g. steps 2-4). A worksheet (Docx.) offers guiding questions to assist you in identifying your situational factors.

Examples of situational factors and additional resources

The Technology-Enhanced Learning page offers descriptions and guidance for choosing between the various modes of delivery at a program-level. Guidance for choosing a mode of learning at the course-level, is also available. Resources per modality:

BOLD (Blended and Online Learning Development) open session - An opportunity to gain theoretical understanding, practical examples, and a whole host of highly useful resources for the pedagogy, planning, and hands-on production involved in designing, creating, and assessing eLearning activities in fully online or blended courses. All members of the York University community are welcome to check it out; access is granted automatically based on self-registration (followed by agreeing to a consent agreement).

Preparing for teaching online - This checklist is meant to help guide you in preparing to teach online, whether synchronous or asynchronous, blended or fully online.

Designing blended and online learning with impact - An ebook in support of learner-centered, thoughtful design of blended and online learning. Topics include design principles, designing for impact, and evaluating for impact & evolving your practice.

Did you know that the way you set up your eClass site affects student engagement? Learn from York students what works best for them.

Frequent and concise communication with students is critical in a remote environment.
Being ‘seen’ online is important when there is no opportunity for face-to-face interaction.
Learning is often social, so encouraging virtual communities of learning can strengthen motivation and break isolation.
Everything takes longer and more effort online. Students will need more time or a greater amount of energy to manage demanding self-management skills and stay cognitively focused.
Content delivery may need to be adapted to formats better suited for remote learning. You may need to make choices about the amount of content or number of activities, or making some of it optional.
The learning environment needs to provide structure and a consistent navigation experience for students to navigate your course with ease
In the end, aim to deliver your courses remotely in a manner that creates a satisfying experience for you and your students.
Seek student feedback early on to know what works well and what could be enhanced
And reach out to us at teaching@yorku.ca

Teaching Online Pedagogical Repository - University of Central Florida's open, peer‑reviewed resource for faculty and instructional designers around the world. It highlights effective online and blended teaching strategies, each supported with real course artifacts and relevant research or professional practice.

Audio Visual Services and Technology (AVST) supports technology in classrooms and other spaces on campus. The classroom technology tab on the AVST page has extensive resources including:

The Learning spaces page has a list of the classrooms on both the Keele and Glendon campuses, that offers room type, capacity, an image of the space, and information.
Instructional videos for using the classroom technology in various types of rooms.
Instructions for using single screen classroom technology
Instructions for using double screen classroom technology

Teaching in-person may incorporate technology and digital tools in your course design. Use Microsoft Forms FREE at York:

Using Microsoft Forms for activities and feedback

Did you know that the way you set up your eClass site affects student engagement? Learn from York students what works best for them.

Doing digital humanities and social sciences in your classroom - Samantha Cutrara (Office of the Vice Provost Academic) created an instructor’s guide for integrating digital humanities and social sciences into your course design. The guide includes sections on theory, practice, and assignment guides.

Recording lectures - A detailed but easy-to-follow page from Learning Technology Services (LTS) dedicated to assistance with recording lectures, including everything you ever wanted to know about Panopto (how to use it, how to migrate to it, etc.) as well as to legacy questions and concerns with TechSmith Relay.

In the blended mode, also known as ‘hybrid’, class time is a combination of in-person and online.

External resources

Learning module: Blended learning from the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning at the University of Calgary

one student handing another student the last puzzle piece to complete the puzzle they are working on together

Pedagogy that Aids Transition for Higher-Ed Students (PATHS)

The PATHS instructor toolbox offers resources to support first and second year students transition to university.

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Envision YU: Tools for student success

Envision YU is a pedagogical approach supporting students to gain the skills necessary to successfully transition into, through and beyond their university studies.

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Supporting graduate students

The Faculty of Graduate Studies' Graduate Supervision Toolkit includes a wealth of resources to inform your course design to support all graduate students.

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Assessment in large classes

A collection of resources, including a guide to large class assessments, and videos of York instructors sharing their practices.

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Faculty-specific teaching and learning supports

Many Faculties at York have their own discipline-specific teaching and learning resources.

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A classroom with individual desks looking toward each of the SDG stickers

The SDGs-in-the-classroom toolkit

The toolkit will enable the pan-university interdisciplinary infusion of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into classrooms at York University.

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Characteristics of York students (coming soon)

Knowing general characteristics of York students can assist you from the beginning of your course design.

A group of York students arranged in a U-shaped classroom looking at the camera, as if they are looking at the instructor

Learn about your students

This one-page handout offers strategies and resources for getting to know your students before and during the term.

Supporting your students

A two-page handout that offers strategies for supporting your students and resources for you and for students from across campus.

Small groups of students engaging at tables in front of a mural with keywords related to pedagogies.

Pedagogies questionnaire

A questionnaire with ten statements for instructors to rate in terms of their importance to their beliefs in teaching and learning that will guide instructors to identify with the corresponding pedagogies, with links to additional resources.

instructor at front of lecture hall teaching to engaged students, image taken from side perspective from behind instructor facing toward group of students

Teaching philosophies and teaching dossiers guide

A comprehensive resource by the Taylor Institute that offers guiding questions and worksheets, as well as extensive information for instructors to discover and document their teaching beliefs, values, goals, and experiences.

An instructor sitting in nature, with a notebook on their lap, pen in hand, looking into the ether, reflecting on teaching

Reflecting on your teaching

A resource by Laurier offering insights into the process of reflection and its connection to course design. The University of Waterloo's Tools for Reflecting on Your Teaching is an excellent complement offering strategies for feedback from students on your teaching.

Taking a backward design approach means beginning with the learning outcomes, that is, the expectations of student learning and achievement by the end of the course. This may or may not be your approach, so choose the resources below that connect to your teaching beliefs and processes.

Resources

a room with small groups of students collaborating and behind them a mural on the wall with keywords like freespaces, solidarity, etc.

What to do if you don't believe in learning outcomes? (coming soon)

There are many critiques of learning outcomes, and there are other ways to design courses. This handout offers alternatives and strategies to design courses that require learning outcomes without making them central to the design process.

What are effective learning outcome statements?

The video and handout define learning outcomes and how to write effective learning outcome statements. Additional tools:

Bloom's taxonomy
Fink's taxonomy (Docx.)

How to work with learning outcomes?

Whether you've written your own learning outcomes, or have been given learning outcomes, the question is, how to use them in your course design. This handout offers guiding questions and processes to design your course.

Worksheet for constructing course learning outcomes (Docx.) - a narrative based worksheet designed to assist with constructing course learning outcomes

Worksheet: Course learning outcomes (Docx.) - An alternate worksheet consisting of a table to build-up course learning outcomes, including an example to guide its use.

Activity: Course learning outcome statements (Docx.) - An activity sheet to evaluate and improve given, or constructed, learning outcomes.

The main purpose of assessment is to support and ultimately determine how well students achieve the learning outcomes. In backward design the learning outcomes guide the design of assessments, but this can be an iterative process. Assessment design can inform the creation and refinement of learning outcomes.

Resources

Mapping Assessment Paths in the AI Landscape

Wherever you stand on AI in your teaching — enthusiastic, cautious, or still working it out — we offer a shared framework for thinking clearly about assessment design.

Assessment resources

The Teaching Commons has collected and created extensive resources for designing assessments, from examples of assessments to strategies for feedback and grading.

Multiple means of action and expression

This Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principle guides accessible assessment design. Consider how you may incorporate choices into your assessment design and support.

To balance the cognitive load and workload for both you and your students, aligning your teaching and learning activities with your learning outcomes and supporting your assessments will help you to focus on what is necessary and most important to you and your course. There are instructional frameworks that you may find useful to help organize your lessons: