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CATL Course Offerings

CATL offers a wide array of educational courses designed to foster engaging, welcoming, and effective teaching while supporting meaningful learning experiences. Our course offerings are thoughtfully designed, with a keen focus on meeting the specific needs of the MUSC community and staying attuned to the ever-evolving trends in health professions education. By providing invaluable knowledge and skills, our courses empower faculty and staff to optimize the attainment of learning outcomes.

Foundations in Teaching and Learning is offered annually during the Spring semester, while Foundations in Quality Online is offered during the Fall. Additionally, our Fundamentals in Digital Accessibility course is available throughout the year, with up to four sessions annually. For comprehensive course descriptions and the latest offering dates, please refer to the information below.

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Foundations in Teaching & Learning

Dates:

  • March 31 through May 11, 2025

Target Audience:

  • Foundations in Teaching and Learning is designed for instructors, learning designers and academic support staff who teach and support instruction in a didactic setting. This can include both classroom and online learning.

Time Commitment:

  • 1.5 hours a week 
  • 1 hour asynchronous content 
  • 45 minute synchronous meeting (see dates)

Synchronous  Meeting  Requirement:

  • Synchronous Meeting Requirement – April 2, 16, and 30
  • 12:00 to 12:45 p.m.

Overall Summary 

The Foundations in Teaching and Learning course will explore current and future methodologies and topics in pedagogy from a critical perspective. Each course topic is designed to provide participants with opportunities to explore and think critically about their role as an instructor and discover how to apply various instructional strategies and ideas to their learning environment. This course will look back even as it looks forward as we invite participants to examine their current teaching practices while being mindful of how these will evolve in the future.

In this course, we will: 

  • Work to understand various topics that will lay the foundation for thinking critically about teaching and learning.  
  • Think about teaching and learning and how to apply instructional practices to your specific course context.  
  • Discover and identify ways that different learners experience educational situations and experiences.  
  • Engage together as a community to support and discuss the topics outlined and encourage critical review and thought processes related to them.  
  • Have epiphanies.

Certificate  Completion

  • Attend two of the three synchronous virtual meetings
  • Complete one of the two Micro-Challenges for each topic

Topic Outline

  1. "Syllabus Day"
  2. Reach all, Teach all 
  3. The Innovative Teacher's Curriculum Design
  4. Learner-centered Teaching Methods
  5. Alternative Assessments
  6. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Foundations of Quality Online Instruction

Dates

Target Audience

  • Foundations in Quality Online Instruction is designed for instructors, learning designers and academic support staff who have experience with or are new to teaching and supporting instruction in a didactic setting online.

Time Commitment

  • 5 to 10 hours over 4 weeks

Synchronous Virtual Meeting Options

  • None required, virtual office hours offered

Overall Summary

Foundations of Quality Online Instruction is a 6-week self-paced course hosted in Brightspace that is designed to introduce best practices, tools and theories related to online instruction. This includes background on how online learning differs from in person, an introduction to designing both online content and interactive activities as well as the various tools that can be implemented to support all learners.

In this course, you will:

  • understand the importance of relating to the online learner and how to design content specifically for this type of instruction.
  • explore best practices for online instruction related to the theories and tools that support them.
  • evaluate the different types of supported technologies that enhance online learning.
  • explore various strategies for meeting the needs and preferences of all learners within an online platform.

Certificate Completion

To receive a certificate for this course, participants will need to complete the Foundations in Quality Online Teaching Course Template at the end of the course. The template includes the five module topics from this course. You will be asked to create two goals for each module topic and a timeline for implementation your goals.

Topic Outline

  1. Understanding the Online Learner
  2. The Instructors Role in Planning and Designing Online Content
  3. Supported Instructional Technologies and Tools
  4. Creating Effective Online Activities
  5. Engagement and Support for All Learners

Fundamentals of Digital Accessibility

Dates

Target Audience

  • All MUSC employees who create digital content with a focus on academic content

Time Commitment

  • 15 to 18 hours over 6 weeks

Synchronous Virtual Meeting Options

  • None

Overall Summary

The Fundamentals of Digital Accessibility course is designed to introduce the foundations of digital accessibility. This includes background on why this initiative is important and how to create and implement digitally accessible materials into your everyday work.

In this course, you will:

  • understand the importance of digital accessibility why it is necessary.
  • understand the different types of assistive technologies and appreciate how they impact individuals with disabilities.
  • apply best practices for accessibility by learning about the different requirements for making items accessible.
  • investigate various resources for digital accessibility and how to apply them to your work.

Digital Badge Completion

  • The digital badge completion includes engaging with the course through the videos, readings, interactive activities, all discussion forums and creating digitally accessible files for review by a course facilitator.

Topic Outline

  1. Getting to know Digital Accessibility
  2. Introduction to Universal Design for Learning
  3. Types of Barriers and Assistive Technologies
  4. Best Practices for General Formatting
  5. Accessible Work Documents
  6. Accessible PowerPoint Documents
  7. Accessible Excel Workbooks
  8. Accessible PDF
  9. Captions, Subtitles and Transcripts
  10. Accessible Outlook Emails
  11. Accessibility in Brightspace
  12. Library Resources in Brightspace