Introduction

This guide offers information related to policies and protocols around the Steinhardt DIL course design process.

Who teaches the course I develop?

It might be you, but it might also be future faculty members or adjuncts! Thus, it is so important that the course be logically presented and clearly organized. It should essentially, “stand the test of time” (with some improvements over time, of course).

What if I think my class needs additional readings or more explanation on a topic?

That’s a very important part of teaching -- we call this reactive teaching. Reactive teaching can be hard to facilitate online because so much planning and decision-making go into the course before students are met or their pre-knowledge is gauged. We really rely on faculty to anticipate what the needs of the students are while we design, and we rely heavily on our reviewers to provide feedback for curriculum improvements based on how students have performed with certain pieces of curriculum content in the past.

We’ve utilized a couple of strategies to help with fostering reactive teaching which we can discuss with you in planning meetings.

Can I make any changes to the course via In-Flight Support? What support is offered during In-Flight?

Not really. In-flight support maintains the course site and ensures everything that was built by DIL functions as it should. For example, if a PDF fails to download or an assignment doesn’t open on the scheduled due date, that is when DIL’s in-flight support kicks in to assist.

Will DIL be checking my course each week? How do I contact DIL when I find an error and need to activate the In-Flight Support?

We wish we could review the course each week but we support just too many courses to do that successfully. We rely on our faculty to submit tickets via steinhardtDIL@nyu.edu for support. Once a ticket is placed, we will monitor its completion (and DIL will get to it much faster than emailing the DIL partner directly)! We also encourage you to have your students place a ticket if they encounter any issues throughout the semester. Please remember to send screenshots of the issues so that we might resolve them faster and more efficiently!

We log and record the length of time spent resolving each in-flight ticket request. The instructor is also able to view a live ticker of course requests placed by them or a member of their course throughout the semester in real-time. Please consult with Digital Innovation & Learning to learn more about this.

Will you make larger content changes (like adding a new piece of media content) when the course is In-Flight?

No, we do not make changes to content when the course is active. We don’t do this for a variety of reasons but the main reasons are that: 1) the curriculum was reviewed and approved as is and 2) we just cannot ensure that those changes won’t affect other components on the course site in a negative way. We are very concerned with maintaining a positive student experience and take these precautions in order to ensure student success.

Additional Support

For additional support or questions, feel free to email Steinhardt Digital Innovation & Learning at steinhardtDIL@nyu.edu.