Graduate Assistant Functional Course Design Endorsement Program
Join the Functional Course Design Endorsement Pilot for Graduate Student Instructors
This summer, the WMUx Instructional Design Team invites graduate teaching assistants to participate in the first run of our 7-week Functional Course Design Endorsement Program for Graduate Student Instructors. This opportunity, with only 10 seats available, adapts our established 14-week faculty-focused course specifically to support graduate teaching assistants in enhancing their course design and development capabilities.
Program Overview
Functional Course Design is a human-centered, systematic approach to course design that is focused on the creation of aligned, navigable, accessible, and interactive experiences for learners. In this program, you’ll collaborate with WMU’s Instructional Design team and fellow instructors to develop concept-focused rather than content-focused courses that leverage Elearning. Functional course design supports instructional flexibility, enhancing self-directed learning, engagement, and accessibility across all learning modalities.
Program Benefits
Participants who successfully complete the program will gain valuable competencies in designing effective and engaging courses. Participants will develop a template course that aligns with WMU-AAUP Standards, HLC Criteria for Accreditation, and U.S. Department of Education Regulations for Postsecondary Education, as well as best practices as defined by Quality Matters and the Online Learning Consortium.
Template courses are intended to serve both individual instructional needs and provide ongoing value to departments as they are intentionally designed for repeated use with multiple instructors within departments and programs. We recommend having a department chair or supervising instructor available to review the completed template at the conclusion of the program.
If you are a graduate student instructor of record or a teaching assistant with permission from your chair and/or supervising instructor, consider collaborating with the Instructional Design team and other WMU graduate teaching assistants to:
- Establish, for your department, a sustainable, shareable, and functional template for a course.
- Examine ways to identify and address the needs of learners by employing an empathetic approach to design.
- Collaborate on the design of courses that meet university, Department of Education, and research-based best practice standards.
- Develop intentionally flexible, adaptable, concept-centered courses that can support in-person, hybrid, synchronous or asynchronous online, and HyFlex instructional modalities.
- Create/curate accessible materials and activities that incorporate Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles.
Who Can Participate?
WMU graduate teaching assistants who are currently teaching or will teach a 7-week or 14-week course in the next year are welcome to apply, provided they are interested in designing or redesigning the course for any modality and have received permission from their chair and supervising instructor.
Program Structure
Summer II 2025 Endorsement Course
All meetings will take place on main campus, from 9 a.m. to noon, in the University Computing Center Classroom:
- Wednesday, July 2
- Wednesday, July 9
- Wednesday, July 16
- Wednesday, July 23
- Wednesday, July 30
- Wednesday, August 6
- Wednesday, August 13
Participants can expect to:
- Attend seven in-person workshopping meetings, working through the 4 phases of Functional Course Design.
- Meet throughout the semester to collaborate with instructional designers and peers to complete various steps of the course design and development process.
- Design and develop a course that addresses best practice standards for functional design.
- Use peer feedback to develop an iteration plan.
Upon successful completion of the course, participants will receive a WMU Endorsement Certificate in Functional Course Design.
Get Started
Ready to earn your Functional Course Design Endorsement Certificate? Register to secure your spot in the graduate assistant Summer II 2025 program. Seats are limited—review the steps below to reserve your place in this collaborative new program.
- Secure Faculty and/or Chair Sign-off for participation in the course.
- Review the course meeting schedule listed above to ensure it suits your schedule.
- Familiarize yourself with the expectations for Endorsement outlined above.
- Register by June 27, 2025