Spring 2023 Module
TECHNOLOGY & TOOLS
February 13 – 24
Asynchronous, Online
Applications for Spring 2023 are now closed.
About Design Forward
Design Forward (DF) is a holistic faculty development program that supports a community-based exploration of the intentional design of teaching and learning. DF incorporates the values and approaches of critical pedagogy, which sees teaching as inherently intertwined with social justice. At its core, Design Forward emphasizes faculty ownership and autonomy to develop flexible and custom learning experiences; meaningful partnership and collaboration with instructional designers and other academic-adjacent staff; and a thoughtful consideration of learning across different modalities, technologies, and institutional structures. And DF is centrally concerned with the human care of students, faculty, and staff in teaching and learning.
Design Forward is centrally concerned with the human care of students, faculty, and staff in teaching and learning.
Design Forward focuses on equipping faculty to develop into confident, agile, and adaptive designers of teaching and learning.
The Modules
Design Forward is organized into eleven modules. The entry points are the One-on-One and Orientation modules, which introduce faculty to the DF approach and inventory faculty prior experience and personal goals.
From there, we encourage participants to explore the standard DF modules that more deeply explore teaching and design; these modules focus on issues of care and equity, moving between and among modalities, and approaches to incorporating digital tools and technology.
Finally, DF provides several flexible module experiences for institutional collaboration and alignment, focused cohorts, intensive seminar communities, and independent study. Rather than certifying single courses, Design Forward focuses on equipping faculty to develop into confident, agile, and adaptive designers of teaching and learning.
The Workbook
The Design Forward Workbook is an exploratory notebook and journal, designed to accompany the DF curriculum. Some workbook activities are formally introduced in specific modules; others are simply available for further exploration by participants.
Design Forward in Context
The original Design Forward program and curriculum was developed by the Open Learning and Teaching Collaborative at Plymouth State University, and when offered there is inflected by PSU’s unique cluster learning model. However, DF is imagined as a program that can be offered in many different institutional contexts. Other institutions are free to use and modify DF to match their own unique institutional needs, opportunities, and challenges.