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Certification in College Teaching

MSU’s Graduate Certification in College Teaching (CCT) aids graduate students and postdocs in developing, organizing, documenting, and reflecting upon teaching experiences. The last two objectives are achieved via an e-portfolio. This webpage fulfills the e-portfolio requirement of the CCT, but I encourage you to explore the additional elements of my teaching e-portfolio by visiting my Teaching page.

 

My pedagogical learning experience can largely be traced by following my completion of the requirements of the Certification in College Teaching which in addition to the e-portfolio include the following elements:

  1. Coursework

  2. Demonstration of Core Area Competencies via participation in workshops, seminars, and other professional develop opportunities.

  • Developing Discipline-Related Teaching Strategies

  • Creating Effective Learning Environments

  • Incorporating Technology in your Teaching

  • Understanding the University Context

  • Assessing Student Learning

   3. Completion of a Mentored Teaching Experience

   4. Development of a Teaching Philosophy Statement

You can click through the slideshow below to read more about my experiences completing each of the CCT steps, or you can download the required CCT Portfolio Checklist for a compact summary.

EAD866: Teaching in Post-secondary Education

Spring 2017 Semester

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  • This course introduced students to the steps instructors take throughout a college semester, from instructional design to student assessment.

  • It prepared students to face common challenges that arise for higher education instructors including creating inclusive environments and encouraging participatory learning.

  • These practicalities were book-ended by meta-cognitive activities exploring the role of instructors and reflecting upon one’s own teaching philosophy.

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The attached syllabus describes the course in the instructor’s own words, identifies the course learning objectives, lists resources, and describes the produced materials (grading requirements) of the course.

          The syllabus demonstrates some of the aforementioned steps that higher-ed instructors complete, and instructional design options available, in developing discipline-related teaching strategies. One of the benefits of completing this particular course was that the content discussed applies across any field. Teaching interdisciplinary courses in agribusiness, labor economics, human resource management, or sports economics, or undergraduate introductory courses which serve as requirements for a variety of majors, require adapting a variety of teaching strategies from many disciplines.

          Finally, the syllabus is one example of how to structure an online course. This was the first online college course that I had taken and some familiarity with the medium is useful for instructors as more courses are integrated into blended learning environments or online learning systems. After experiencing how Dr. Dirkx clearly marked how students should navigate his unit, by using introductory text including “Start Here”, check-lists, and dates, I began to incorporate similar elements into the online course page for my course . The class design also demonstrated how group work can be incorporated into online classes, extending interaction with peers beyond discussion boards to remote, joint production.

Coursework

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