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Support for Instructional Design Professionals at Penn

CETLI’s instructional design & technology team offers professional development experiences, resources, and community-building opportunities for instructional design professionals who support online and technology-enhanced learning at Penn.   

Professional Development

Instructional Design Working Group  

Our team hosts the instructional design working group (IDWG), a community of practice which provides monthly meetings for instructional design professionals from across the University. IDWG members consider best practices, discuss emergent strategies and technologies, and continuously develop the capacity to support the production of online offerings that align with the University’s standards of excellence.   

Additionally, IDWG members have access to a Slack community for continuing conversations, posting meeting notes, and sharing resources.

Professional Learning Opportunities  

CETLI offers the opportunity to participate in fully funded IDWG learning cohorts. As part of the cohort, you will attend curated workshops and collaborate on ways to apply effective instructional design and online learning practices to Penn-specific contexts.   

We also fund Penn’s Online Learning Consortium membership, providing IDWG members with exclusive content and access to discounted professional courses and workshops.   

Learn more about Communities of Practice

Mentorship for New Hires  

If you are new instructional design staff, we can connect you with experienced instructional design professionals to provide extra support — whether you are just getting started in a formal instructional design roles or would like guidance in transferring prior experiences to Penn’s culture.    

Over the course of six months, through regular meetings and emails, mentors provide resources, advice, and networking opportunities to enhance your onboarding process. 

Email CETLI

Online Course Design Resources

Course Design Tools and Approaches  

Through collaborations with program- and school-based teams, we develop and curate tools, templates, and resources to foster effective online course design and development processes, such as:   

  • Course design timelines and key milestones.  
  • Design templates for online courses and programs.  
  • Instructional equivalencies chart and implementation support.  
  • Collection of course and program quality checklists.  
  • Support for using Canvas and Coursera to meet instructional goals.  

Assistance with the Selection of Appropriate Instructional Technologies  

Additionally, our team maintains a list of approved instructional technologies used centrally and at the school and center levels at Penn, to help staff identify appropriate tools to meet instructional needs.   

If you are interested in trying innovative solutions or want to learn how to meet the unique needs for your team, we also compile and curate lists of promising technologies and suggest processes for selecting third-party tools and vendors that comply with Penn’s accessibility, security, and procurement policies.   

Meet with CETLI

One-to-One Consultations & Workshops for Instructional Designers  

Our team members are available to meet individually with faculty in your program, work in collaboration with dedicated instructional designers, or provide custom workshops on instructional design.  

In addition, we can meet with instructional designers and program teams to discuss strategies for Coursera MOOCs and non-credit offerings hosted on Open Canvas. CETLI can also provide ongoing project management and instructional design consultations during the course development process.  

Request a Consultation

For Online Program Teams

Other Resources