How TLC Helps | College of Southern Idaho

In the Teaching & Learning Center, we support all College of Southern Idaho teachers for student success across any modality. We work with you toward the best solutions for your course. Your goal is our goal: positive student outcomes.

Please read this page to learn more, and navigate the help menu to the left to access help.

We Support Faculty Success in Teaching.

We listen to understand your goals, priorities, and needs, and then we partner with you to apply pedagogy, learning design, and other principles to achieve your goals and support student success.

We Guide in Teaching with Technology.

We explain educational technology that supports teaching and learning and partner with you to achieve your teaching outcomes using digital tools and learning technology, as appropriate.

We Demonstrate Learner-Centered Course Design.

Course design that best helps students begins with clarity about their outcomes. We can ideate with you to stimulate engagement, inclusivity, outcome achievement, and student success in your courses.

We Provide Resources and Training.

We work to empower and support you in your teaching with access to just-in-time resources, actionable ideas, and collaborative training while fostering connections between instructors.

We Build Community at CSI and Beyond.

We all experience an innate human need to belong; teaching and learning environments are rich spaces to see and achieve shared goals through culturally responsive pedagogy and related resources.

We Try to Never Stop Learning For and With You.

Continual improvement is key! We prioritize bringing instructor development to campus, and actively pursue our own academic teaching and professional growth to enrich our faculty support.

Why would I want to consult with a learning designer?

As you consider a TLC consultation for yourself or department, here are examples of the type of questions we partner with faculty on a regular basis to answer:

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Can you help me to learn how to use Canvas to teach?

If you have questions like: “I’ve never used Canvas, help!”, or “I’d like to change my home page, but I’m not sure how?”, we can help! We offer 1:1 or small group workshops to help instructors get started using Canvas, either in real-time or asynchronously through a course you can self-enroll in at any time.

I have a question about (insert Canvas tool) in my course; can you help me?

Yes! When you have questions like, “I can’t remember how to cross-list; can you show me?”, we provide you with a simple Canvas Guide for Instructors to remind you of the specific steps, or we can walk through any Canvas feature or process with you, as you ask questions and click the buttons.

My assignment prompt is not returning the type of student response I intended. Can you work with me to evaluate this prompt and how I might improve it?

Absolutely! We love to think about assignment design, and we’ll work with you to consider your desired student outcomes and how best to achieve them. We can recommend proven tools such as TILT in Higher Education that may help you.

I use a (insert student engagement activity) in my face-to-face courses. Can you help me to brainstorm ideas to implement something like it in my online-only course?

We can help! We will listen to understand your current activity and desired outcomes, your learners’ needs, access to technology, and other criteria. Together, we can explore alternative delivery modalities and identify creative and tangible ideas for activities to help your students to meet learning outcomes.

My student discussion board in Canvas is more rote than I’d like it to be. How can I encourage authentic and consistent student participation?

We have ideas to share! We love to collaborate with you to explore how best to set clear expectations and purpose for online discussions, how to frame and use thought-provoking questions, how to participate as an instructor to embed relevant and engaging content, and most of all – how to facilitate peer interactions.

I’ve been assigned to teach in a Zoom Room next semester. What do I need to know to be successful, to share my content, and to engage students in multiple locations?

Thanks for asking, you need training! We can help. TLC partners with IT to train instructors who deliver instructional content in or to CSI Zoom Rooms. With a small investment of your time, you can assure your course is correctly scheduled to include the Zoom Room(s) and all participants for the entire semester, and that you are prepared to correctly share content and manage all technology on the first day of class.