Course Inquiry Starter Kit

Choose a direction. Each cluster contains activities, starter prompts, and tools sized to a single course. Pick the question that feels most urgent for you right now.

1. Who is my course designed for — and who does it actually serve?
   Every course is designed with an imagined student in mind. This cluster helps you make that imagined student visible — and ask whether your course works for the students actually in your room.

2. Where are students getting lost?
   The data in your gradebook and LMS already tells a story. This cluster helps you read it — looking for patterns that are easy to miss when you're in the middle of the semester.

3. Does my course actually do what I think it does?
   Misalignment between what a course says it does and what it actually measures is one of the most common — and most fixable — problems in course design. This cluster helps you audit the gap.

4. What do my students actually think is happening?
   Student feedback is easy to read reactively and hard to read systematically. This cluster helps you step back from the loudest comments and find what's actually recurring across time.

All activities use tools you already have access to at UMD. No new accounts. No new software. Your data stays secure and private.

• ELMS-Canvas (your LMS): Built-in analytics including grade distributions, assignment performance, weekly engagement, page views, and individual student activity reports.
• NotebookLM: Upload your own documents — syllabus, assignments, eval reports — and have a structured conversation with them. Best for deep analysis of your own course materials.
• Gemini (linked to Google Workspace): Access your Google Drive files directly. Best for structured comparison tasks when your materials already live in Drive.
• TerpAI: UMD's open-access AI tool, available to all faculty, staff, and students. Best for open-ended prompting and quick reflective exercises.
• Microsoft Copilot: Integrated with Microsoft 365. Best for faculty working primarily in Word, Excel, or OneNote — useful for rubric analysis and document comparison.

We encourage you to exclusively use UMD-approved GenAI tools, which are deployed in alignment with institutional security and compliance requirements.

Need a sounding board?
The Teaching Innovation Team is here to answer any questions you have about the kit, refining your pedagogical approach, or brainstorming your project inquiry. Request a consultation today!

Ready to go further?

The activities in this kit are designed to help you start the inquiry. When your questions get bigger than what you can see from inside your own classroom — when you want to know how your course compares to similar courses at UMD, or to understand patterns across student populations — that's where deeper support comes in.

Our Educational Effectiveness team works with faculty to analyze institution-level data, identify systemic patterns, and connect findings to teaching interventions. This is not a self-serve service — it's a collaboration.