Informational Workshops

Two Informational workshops will be held to introduce all interested members of the university community to the SUNY Course Redesign Initiative and the reasons they might choose to participate:

October 4, 2007 from 10:00 am – 4:00 pm at Genesee Community College
October 5, 2007 from 10:00 am – 4:00 pm at SUNY System Administration

Attendance at an Informational Workshop is required in order to be eligible to submit a project proposal. The workshops are also open to all interested faculty and administrators.

These Informational Workshops will feature staff from the National Center for Academic Transformation (NCAT), architect of the successful large-scale national course redesign programs on which the SUNY initiative is based.

The goal of this workshop is for participants to acquire a solid understanding of what is needed to implement a good redesign. Through presentations, case studies, and group work, participants will learn the basic planning steps as well as how to adapt NCAT’s redesign methodology to the needs of their particular institution.

Workshop topics will include:

  • Institutional and Course Readiness. Includes a self-assessment of institutional readiness and a discussion of how to choose appropriate courses for redesign.
  • Planning for Assessment. Provides guidance about how to assess the impact of course redesign on student learning.
  • Planning for Course Redesign. Provides an overview of the Center's Course Planning Tool that facilitates the quality and cost planning tasks associated with redesign.
  • Developing a Cost Savings Plan. Discusses how resources can be saved through redesign and what can be done with the savings.
  • Case studies in redesign. Engages participants in an interactive application of course redesign models to institutional cases.

The outcome of the workshop will be that participants will learn that there are many ways to redesign a course to achieve quality improvements and cost savings and that what can be achieved is only limited by one’s creativity.

Participants will be expected to have completed the following assigned reading about course redesign prior to the workshop:

Who should attend?

All institutions interested in submitting a grant proposal for this program must attend this workshop and the follow-up workshop, which will occur in February 2008. However, participants who attend the workshop are not required to submit a proposal.

We recommend that each institution select representatives from a number of academic areas that might be interested in participating in the program—i. e., we think it would be a good idea not to decide which course to redesign at this early stage but rather make that decision after the Informational Workshop. Participants may be faculty, professional staff and/or campus administrators. The workshop will help each institution decide which course is the most “ready” to be redesigned.

To Register: Send an email to Patti Lubrano at patti.lubrano@SUNY.edu:

1. Subject line: “Registration for Course Redesign Informational Workshop”

2. Please include the following information:

• Your name and title
• Academic unit and university
• Phone and email
• The date and location of the informational session you want to attend

3. You may register multiple attendees from the same academic unit in a single email; please include phone and email for each attendee.

4. You will receive a confirmation email with specific details about the location and logistics of your informational session.

For More Information: For more information about the Informational Workshops, the SUNY Course Redesign Initiative, or NCAT, please contact: