Introduction | Teach, Design, Thrive: Why and How

Why Teach, Design, Thrive

Teaching at the tertiary level is more than just delivering content; it’s about connecting with students, fostering their critical thinking, and creating inclusive  and engaging learning environments so that they can achieve their personal and professional goals.

In today’s rapidly evolving educational landscape, it’s crucial to stay adaptable and informed. Quality induction and ongoing professional development are essential; yet institutional resources are often limited or not available when needed. As a result, many educators are left to figure out learning design and teaching tasks on their own, often drawing from their own experiences as students. If you are one of these educators, this can leave you feeling uncertain about how to run tutorials, prepare online videos, or provide meaningful feedback on assignments.

In an ideal world, the professional development of a tertiary educator would begin with an introduction to theories of learning, followed by teaching and learning design principles, and exposure to examples of best practice. This knowledge would then be applied to the design and development of courses and teaching materials, which would eventually be implemented in the classroom – either on campus or on-line.

In reality, people’s careers as tertiary educators often travel in an opposite direction. If you are on your first teaching appointment, you may find yourself initially facilitating student learning in tutorials and practicals designed by somebody else. For some time, you may operate in ‘survival mode’ – sometimes learning the content one week ahead of your students, refining your teaching skills by trial and error, and relying on your own experiences as a student and on your instinct when making decisions about teaching practice.

Gradually, as the muddy waters begin to clear and you can finally catch your breath, you may begin to reflect on your practice and seek to understand the underlying principles behind your successes and failures. You may also wish to broaden your horizons and explore other strategies, techniques, and approaches that educators who have come before you may have found effective. With time, if your knowledge and career as a Tertiary Educator continue to develop, you may be called on to design courses and even entire programs of study.

All through this process, you will have to navigate the many pressures of modern academia. You will have performance indicators and quality criteria to meet which rightfully place students at the centre of tertiary education, but that sometimes appear to do so at the expense of your work-life balance, well-being, and job satisfaction.

Reflecting such reality, this book takes a ‘backward’ approach – starting from the day-to-day demands of online and classroom facilitation, we aim to offer practical, evidence-based strategies that you can learn and implement rapidly to support your students’ learning while ‘surviving’ the transition into your new role. Links to relevant principles and theoretical underpinnings are provided throughout, but the emphasis of the first part of this OER is squarely on what you can do today to make your teaching as effective as you want it to be. The second part is where we start placing greater emphasis on principles and practices that are relevant to curriculum and learning design.

Before we move into practical advice on how to use this OER, we would like to acknowledge that there is a wealth of excellent resources that you might want to explore to further expand and deepen your knowledge of Tertiary Teaching and Learning Design. Some of these resources are also published under a Creative Commons licence; we highly recommend the following as a starting point:

• The Contemporary Approaches to University Teaching (CAUT) MOOC offered by CAULLT. This is a Massively Open Online Course (MOOC) that is self-paced and asynchronous, but it does have start and end dates to facilitate interaction between participants. The MOOC is usually offered twice a year, with start dates in February and July/August. For further information, please refer to the relevant CAULLT page.
• The Learning to Teach Online MOOC, developed by the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and available from the Coursera platform, offers approximately 17 hours of learning focused specifically on online learning and teaching.
• The Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Waterloo offers over 150 Teaching Tips sheets. These are similar in format and purpose to our Teach, Design, Thrive chapters, and cover a wide range of topics, from using eportfolios, to strategies for effective lecturing and overcoming imposter syndrome.
• A recent OER titled Designing Learning Experiences for Inclusivity and Diversity: Advice for Learning Designers provides useful suggestions for designing learning experiences that respond to a range of student diversities, including cultural, linguistic, physical abilities, and socio-economic backgrounds.

Finally, we encourage you to check back frequently, as we expect that Teach, Design, Thrive will keep growing and expanding, as we work with Educators and identify topics of interest and emerging needs.

How to Use Teach, Design, Thrive

Teach, Design, Thrive is divided into two parts. Starting with the day-to-day demands of teaching, we cover the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of teaching – the immediate, practical aspects – in the “Teach” section. In the “Design” section, we explore the ‘why’ and the ‘so what’ – the big-picture thinking that underpins effective education and learning design.

So, if you are a new tertiary educator, perhaps a professional transitioning into academia, a doctoral candidate, or an early career academic, the “Teach” section will help you rapidly upskill and establish effective teaching strategies. The “Design” section will become relevant as you start to engage in designing courses and degree curricula.

If you are an experienced tertiary educator and are looking to deepen your knowledge, enhance your skills, or just explore new ways of designing and teaching, the ‘Design’ section will be especially beneficial. However, you’re likely to find valuable insights throughout the entire OER.

Our goal with Teach, Design, Thrive is to make good teaching visible, achievable, and hopefully enjoyable, by providing you with tips, tricks, and strategies that are grounded in research and best practice. We invite you to explore the chapters, try out the activities, and reflect on your own teaching practice. We hope that this OER will help you navigate the challenges and opportunities of university teaching, in a way that fosters a learning environment where both you and your students can thrive.

You can access the chapters in any order that suits your needs, as each chapter is concise and focused, addressing specific topics and immediate concerns, with information organized into manageable chunks. We hope that this will make it easy to find the information that you need, when you need it, so that you can tailor your learning journey to your unique interests and requirements. In each chapter, you’ll find practical advice and activities that you can apply directly to your teaching context, making this OER a valuable handbook for success in your work as tertiary educator.

As this OER is published under a Creative Commons licence, you are also welcome to adapt and customise the content to your own context, perhaps by creating a separate OER that addresses your local concerns. If that is the case, we ask that you acknowledge our work and we would love to know how you are using this content, so please do share your own resources with us.

All the very best on your Tertiary Educator’s journey – we hope that this OER will be a small contribution toward making your experience in this role a fulfilling and enjoyable one.

Antonella, Claire, & David