Experience & Expectations

CDI’s design, learning goals, and its facilitators' practices are motivated by the following beliefs. We believe that:

• Instructors care deeply about student learning and want to be the best educators they can be.
• Teaching and learning do not happen in a vacuum; instructors must attend to the contexts of their environment(s) and the current moment.
• Effective, high-quality teaching will work to disrupt and address biases within a given discipline.
• Course design and teaching practices will vary with instructors’ identities, backgrounds, disciplines, professional statuses, and teaching contexts.
• Learning is a continuous, non-linear process of exploration. In recognition, we embrace course design and teaching practices that acknowledge imperfection, nuance, complexity, and iterative development.
• Effective course design works to eliminate barriers to student learning.
• Effective, high quality course design and teaching attends to the well-being of both students and instructors.

As a participant in CDI, you will spend five days exploring learner-centered design principles in a large group setting and then work on your individual course design in a small, discipline- or pedagogy-focused learning team. Your learning team, led by an experienced facilitator, will provide you with opportunities for brainstorming, individualized feedback, and ongoing support. You will also have opportunities to consult one-on-one with CDI facilitators and student consultants throughout the week.

Some specific features include:

• In-person meetings from 9-4 Monday-Thursday, and 9-1:30 on Friday;
• Opportunities for independent work for at least 90 minutes each day;
• Regular breaks and a 45-minute lunch provided each day;
• An additional optional hour of open work time M-Th (from 4-5 PM), with facilitators available;
• Written feedback on your course design from your facilitator;
• Multiple rounds of peer feedback, both within and across learning teams.

Beyond the time spent in the institute itself, participants complete independent work to develop their courses. The amount of additional engagement varies depending on the participant’s schedule and availability, but you can expect to spend anywhere from 4-10 hours during the week of CDI independently working on your course design outside of the scheduled meeting times.

To support participants’ learning, CDI facilitators commit themselves to the following practices. We will:

• Intentionally model learner-centered, inclusive, accessible, and evidence-based pedagogies;
• Provide growth-oriented feedback on participants’ work;
• Encourage participants to learn from each other;
• Honor participants’ disciplinary expertise, teaching experiences, and lived experiences;
• Situate ourselves as learners along with and from participants;
• Invite participants to position themselves as students, to better appreciate and empathize with students’ experiences;
• Welcome questions and critical feedback from participants.

What have past participants said about their experience in CDI?

Intense, demanding, but extremely productive. I worked harder and faster than I would have on my own. I also loved the environment—being surrounded by people who care about and love teaching was inspiring.

I emerged from the Institute having a much richer sense of the possibilities and the types of bonds that can be forged between my students and the subjects they study.

The institute gave me life! And it totally changed my approach to course design and teaching.

In two words: [the CDI experience was] life-altering. This may seem overblown, but it is 100% true. I came in thinking I had a handle on my course, but realized very soon I needed to go back to the drawing board. The result is exponentially improved.

What have students said about their experience in CDI-designed courses?

This class has given me a completely different perception of the world around me. It has taught me a new way to view everything I encounter.

This class really made me think in ways I never thought I would have and opened my eyes to different kinds of learning that, gasp, one might even begin to call fun.