Teaching Tip: Make your course matter

April 1, 2014

Marissa Carl

Instructors and students both want courses that frame content in engaging ways. However, because instructors are so familiar with their subjects, they often fail to appreciate that some facets may not be so obvious to students. But it can be easy, and hugely beneficial, to bring a subject's relevance to the fore.

Assigned material can take on new significance by establishing multiple dimensions of relevance. Here are some examples:

• relevancy to grade


• relevancy to employment


• relevancy to an important life skill


• relevancy to intellectual curiosity


• relevancy to current events


• relevancy to personal passion

Think about the different ways in which you can treat the material you know your students need to learn, so that they come away knowing they need to learn it, too.

Click here to read more about relevancy and for some current event examples: http://elearning.uaf.edu/go/tt-relevance.

-- Teaching Tip by Dan LaSota, UAF eLearning instructional designer