High Structure Course Design with Justin Shaffer

This week on the podcast, I'm excited to have Justin Shaffer back on. Justin is a teaching professor in chemical and biological engineering and associate dean of undergraduate studies at the Colorado School of Mines. He's the author of the forthcoming book High Structure Course Design for STEM as well as numerous discipline-based educational research articles, and he's frequent speaker to groups of faculty, particularly STEM faculty, on topics like course design and active learning. Justin is also the first repeat guest on the podcast, having been part of a panel of faculty talking about studio-style biology courses way back in episode 9!

Earlier this year for the slow read of my 2019 book Intentional Tech, I wanted to provide some new ideas and perspectives on each chapter of the book for my Patreon supporters. Justin and I connected a couple of years ago around a shared interest in classroom response systems and related technologies, so I reached out to Justin to talk about his use of technology to make student learning more visible, both inside and outside the classroom. Justin had a ton of very practical strategies for doing this, which worked for the slow read of my chapter on formative assessment, and I'm happy to share his interview this week on the main podcast feed.

In the episode, Justin shares his non-traditional academic journey, one that involved equal parts attention to teaching and research. He also talks through a variety of ways he uses technology for student engagement and formative assessment as part of Justin's "high structure" approach to course design. Remember when we talked about flipping the classroom to shift some lecture outside of class to make more time available during class for active learning? High structure course design is like that, but takes a more holistic look at what we're asking students to do before, during, and after class.

​You can listen to my conversation with Justin Shaffer here, or search for "Intentional Teaching" in your podcast app. I don't have a transcript up for the episode yet, but look for that early next week.

A New Job for the New Academic Year

I'm excited to share the news that I'll be working with the Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Virginia for the coming academic year. I'll be working mostly remotely as an associate director at the CTE, which means I get to work with fantastic people like Michael Palmer and Lindsay Wheeler from my home just outside Nashville! I've been an admirer of the CTE for years now, and I'm looking forward to learning from the team there and getting to support great teaching at a new university. I'll be leading or supporting a variety of projects at CTE, including the new Faculty AI Guides program, which will equip about 50 faculty to help their colleagues explore generative AI's potential roles in teaching and learning, and Teaching Hub, which features curated collections of resources on a variety of teaching and learning topics.

This means, sadly, that my time at the University of Mississippi has come to an end. When I left Vanderbilt University back in the fall of 2022, Josh Eyler managed to create a temporary and mostly remote position for me at the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning he directs at Ole Miss, and I will always be thankful for that! I loved being a part of a growing teaching center, and I couldn't have asked for better colleagues there, especially my fellow associate directors, Emily Donahoe and Liz Norell. Josh is an incredible leader, and if he manages to get my old temporary position made permanent, you bet I'll be encouraging folks to apply. I'm proud of the work I did with CETL, most especially helping STEM faculty get ready for all the new active learning classrooms opening at UM this fall, and I'll miss my visits to Oxford!

While the new UVA position is full-time, I'll still be producing this newsletter and the Intentional Teaching podcast, as well as speaking and consulting on the side. I like to stay busy! It looks like I'll be "on grounds" at UVA (as they say) once a semester, including August 19-22 to meet people and help with the training for the Faculty AI Guides, so if you're at UVA and want to have coffee while I'm there, let me know.

Thanks for reading!

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