Preparing your teaching team

As a Course Coordinator you will:

• provide leadership in course and curriculum development and quality assurance
• negotiate the goals and academic content of the course
• monitor the student experience
• provide appropriate information on the course to students and other staff as appropriate
• provide course-specific training of team members
• teach into the course
• manage the assessment of the course materials
• provide consistent, accurate and timely feedback to students on all aspects of the course
• liaise with stakeholders, including:
  • students in the course
  • all contributors to teaching in the course
  • program convenors, major convenors and year coordinators relevant to the course
  • School Director of the relevant School Teaching and Learning Committee
  • the Chief Examiner in the School
  • School professional staff (e.g. staff supporting laboratory, field or computer teaching).

As a Course Coordinator, your duties and responsibilities include:

• liaising with the Program Coordinator and Teaching & Learning Chair, as appropriate, regarding course objectives
• liaising with coordinators of prerequisite courses to establish expected prior knowledge of students
• ordering textbooks and other learning resources
• ensuring that appropriate tutorial assistance is in place
• ensuring that appropriate locally controlled space is booked as required (e.g. tutorial rooms, computer laboratories etc.)
• developing a coherent schedule/timetable for all learning activities and assessment in the course, in collaboration with other contributors and year coordinators, where appropriate
• developing and submitting the Electronic Course Profile (ECP) for the course by the due date
• developing the Blackboard site for the course – refer to Getting started with Learn.UQ
• checking Allocate+ for any changes to the timetable and venues and for class lists
• communicating in a timely fashion with all contributors (lecturers, tutors, etc.) and students, so that they are clear about the expectations of them in the course (including times, dates, places and deadlines).

When communicating with your teaching team (e.g. tutors, co-facilitators), it is vital to communicate in the most effect manner to ensure your message is successfully delivered, received and understood. For example: how are you going to communicate with your teaching team? Do they know that? How will you tell them?

To develop your communication style with your team members, you can consider the following options:

• meetings
• email
• private discussion boards on Blackboard
• Basecamp 
• Trello
• Microsoft Teams.

If you have meetings, when will these meetings occur and why? They may be scheduled, impromptu or emergency meetings for:

• start of semester
• assessment
• planning
• moderation
• marking parties
• wrapping up, reflection and end of semester celebration
• addressing problems as they arise
• checking in to keep your finger on the pulse
• setting up regular communication is very important for coordinating large classes.

Tutors and sessional academic staff are an integral part of your teaching team and the recruitment, training and management of your tutorial team is an important Course Coordinator role. Ensure that staff are aware of their roles and responsibilities and have the abilities and resources to do them.

Resources for tutors

UQ welcomes collaborations with industry experts and guest lecturers. The opportunity to learn from industry experts both in the classroom and on industry placement provides students with rich and authentic learning experiences. Ensuring that your guest lecturers and industry experts are well prepared and understand their role in your course is a shared responsibility. As the Course Coordinator, you are responsible for reaching out to these external people and providing them with the resources they will need. They, in turn, need to be prepared and organised, understand what the learning outcomes of each session will be and how they will contribute to student learning.

 Resource
A guide for industry experts and placement supervisors (PDF, 310 KB)

During the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been vital to prepare for unexpected absences, but it is always good to have a backup plan if you need to take leave. You can plan to:

• Identify course contributors who can teach your course if you are absent from campus.
• Ensure that your support staff are enrolled in Blackboard and any systems used in your course (e.g. Edge).
• Upload or share teaching material for the semester to a 'Staff only' folder on Blackboard, Sharepoint or UQ shared drive. Ensure your teaching team has access to any resources they may require.
• Upload all marks to Blackboard Grade Centre as soon as they become available.
• Check that the marks uploaded to Blackboard are only visible to students when appropriate.