Center for Excellence in TeachingChallenging discussions 7: Evaluation of efforts
Methods of evaluating the effectiveness of academic discussions and increasing their impact on students.
Resources: In-person
Challenging discussions 6: Managing upset
Strategies for addressing students who become upset during academic discussions
Challenging discussions 5: Lead a challenging discussion
Techniques for leading academic discussions, including defining terms, including all voices, and warning signs that a discussion is becoming challenging.
Challenging discussions 4: Plan a challenging discussion
Strategies for planning class discussions, including a positive class atmosphere, discussion norms, grading discussions, and acceptable sources of information.
Challenging discussions 3: Speaking about race and gender
Strategies to consider when discussing topics such as race and gender in classes.
Challenging discussions 1: Welcome and introduction
An introduction to the CET Challenging Discussions series and the principles guiding its development.
Deciding between synchronous & asynchronous modes of teaching
Considerations to inform your decision on when, why, and how course materials and activities should be accomplished asynchronously or synchronously.
Review of instructor assessments and grading guide
A guide to review an instructor’s assessment and grading in their course.
USC Syllabus Template
This editable syllabus template reflects the most current USC guidelines and is suggested for faculty use; please check with your school or program to see if a customized template is already provided.
Note on Versioning: To review changes from the previous template, please refer to the USC Syllabus Template with Track Changes document, which includes the dates and comments associated with the modifications made.
Course design syllabus review checklist
This syllabus review checklist was developed to include recommended course design practices relevant to most teaching environments at USC; it is editable so that schools may add or delete items to customize it to their needs.