Are you a planner like I am? My colleagues often tease that I love to-do lists. My brain is happiest when I take a massive task and break it into digestible chunks. Are you similar? Or maybe you find big tasks daunting and you want help identifying smaller steps?
However you approach tasks, I think we can all agree that developing or re-designing a course is a big undertaking. But it’s not to tackle alone—the 2025 Foundational Course Development Institute (CDI) can help! During the CDI, we meet every day from May 12th – 16th and participants work through the beginning phases of developing or transforming a course.
During CDI, we introduce strategies for student engagement. Thomas Youle, a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Business Economics and Public Policy at Kelley, participated in the 2024 CDI. Thomas reached out after trying the “gallery walk” activity. The gallery walk is when students hang something they produced (drawings, posters, etc.) around the classroom. Students then walk around observing the work, providing feedback to their classmates. Thomas shared, “I did the Gallery Walk … in my new course G-400 Capstone for Economic Consulting. All the students are working on data-driven final projects, and I had them write explanations of their projects and give each other feedback. The class was a great success! The students learned by writing their projects on the giant Post-it notes, they learned about what their peers were doing, and then they learned from the feedback they got. Very grateful for this and the other ideas and techniques you shared with us this summer.”
Thomas had many reasons for trying the activity, including the timing for their projects. He says, “They had all had decided on their project questions and found their relevant datasets. But they had not yet started writing a rough draft of their paper. In my experience one of the challenges students face in statistical projects such as these is communicating clearly what they are doing to an external audience. Usually, students presume the audience knows more than they do, leading to confusion. My hunch was that their peers could either directly ask clarifying questions or indirectly reveal their confusion, leading to a recognition of the importance of clarity in their writing.”
Reflecting on the experience, Thomas shared, “The energy in the room was great. One student at the time told me she greatly enjoyed it and that I should do it in future classes. And several groups mentioned feedback they got from their peers as motivating them to do X or Y with their projects. Also, I think student attendance has increased in the weeks afterwards. Moreover, it was a lot less work for me than my traditional lecturing! I was pleased also with what my students wrote on the giant Post-its and the comments they gave to each other. My sense was they took all elements of it seriously.”
Give the gallery walk a try! If you’re wanting to learn more activities like these for a new course or a course that needs some revision, apply to the CDI by April 14th, 9 a.m. ET.
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