Teacher's checklist for a course
Aalto is a multidisciplinary university, with each of its six schools possessing unique teaching traditions and needs. Despite these differences, there are certain administrative and pedagogical considerations that teachers must address in every course they offer.
This page outlines the key points to keep in mind before, during, and after the course. At the end of the page, you will also find a collection of links to delve deeper into the topic.
This page outlines the key points to keep in mind before, during, and after the course. At the end of the page, you will also find a collection of links to delve deeper into the topic.
Before the course
- Each course is part of the curriculum, which aims to ensure aligned teaching. The curriculum defines key information about the course and its implementations, such as intended learning outcomes, content, and methods of working and completion. You can check these in the student information system Sisu. Also, check Sisu to ensure the teachers listed for the course are correct, as this informs MyCourses and the course feedback system.
- Tip: Discuss the planning and implementation of teaching with your teaching community: How does your teaching fit into the overall degree structure? How has the course been taught previously? What good practices and challenges have others experienced in teaching?
- Ensure that you can access your course workspace, which is located in the digital learning environment MyCourses.
- Plan the teaching based on the course's intended learning outcomes and prepare the teaching materials, such as lectures and assignments, ensuring they align with the learning outcomes. You also need to plan the assessment and feedback practices.
- Tip: Explore ways to create course practices and learning situations that support the learning of all students. Make your teaching inclusive and participatory.
- Update the course syllabus and create a structure for the course in MyCourses. If you need help with bookings, changes, or cancellations of teaching spaces and times, contact your school's Learning Services.
- Upload the teaching materials to the MyCourses workspace and create learning activities there. Remember to ensure that the learning materials, videos, and MyCourses pages are accessible.
- Tip: Estimate the workload for students and plan your teaching considering the intended learning outcomes. Also, consider your own workload and that of any other teachers or course assistants – wellbeing is a matter for the whole community.
- Confirm students' course registrations in Sisu. The students' information will then be automatically transferred to MyCourses.
During the course
- At the beginning of the course, inform students how communication will be handled during and at the end of the course.
- Strive to create a safe atmosphere for interaction together with the students.
- Remember continuous feedback. Collecting feedback during teaching allows for quick, small-scale improvements throughout the course. Feedback can be collected during the course through, for example, learning tasks or various surveys, either individually or in groups.
- Tip: Remember to document your own observations during the course to make it easier to develop it after it ends.
- Ensure that students know which learning activities they will be assessed on and what the assessment is based on.
At the end of the course
- Assess the performances and assignments in light of the intended learning outcomes, based on the assessment principles and criteria you planned before teaching. Submit the final grades to Sisu within 28 days of the last course activity. The course completion date is the date of the last performance, such as the exam. Communicate the assessment to the students.
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Aalto course feedback is collected automatically at the end of each implementation through an electronic system. Review the course feedback and your own notes made during teaching and critically assess what succeeded and what could be improved for the next implementation.
Tip: Respond to students' feedback and help other members of your teaching community improve their teaching by sharing your observations with them.
Links to the instructions and support services
Read more about the core topics
Some of the links open to outside the Teacher's Hanbook.
Template examples to support lesson planning
Below you can download material that includes various templates for planning a course or an individual teaching session or for evaluating consistency.