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Design a Course for ELAC

This page provides resources for designing courses for Eastern's Liberal Arts Core (ELAC).

Course Planning Tool

Course planning is a multi-stage iterative process that requires faculty to:

  • construct a vision,  
  • identify competencies that students can expect to develop during the course,  
  • write measurable learning outcomes, 
  • integrate high-impact practices, 
  • plan the course in a way that effectively communicates to students how they will achieve the learning outcomes,  
  • evaluate the course plan for alignment with those outcomes, and 
  • create a syllabus that communicates this plan to students.    

The ELAC Course Planning Tool provides a step-by-step resource for building the courses faculty want to teach and communicating goals effectively to students. This tool may be found in the Designing Courses for ELAC Folder. For the best results, please open the course planning tool in the desktop version of Word.

High Impact Practices

ELAC requires that you implement at least two High Impact Practices into your ELAC seminar course or one High Impact Practice into your ELAC disciplinary perspectives course. High Impact Practices are shown to increase student efficacy and learning. These practices aim at helping students to apply what they are learning in academic and real-world contexts. Information on High Impact Practices may be found here: High-Impact Practices | AAC&U (aacu.org). Your discipline may have identified additional high impact practices (must be supported by scholarship on teaching and learning).

Syllabus Template

The ELAC Syllabus Template is aligned with the Course Planning Tool. Sections you complete in the planning tool may be copied into the corresponding section of the syllabus template. The syllabus template includes the sections required on all syllabi submitted to LAPC and many of Eastern's policy statements. The template may be found in the Designing Courses for ELAC Folder. For the best results, please open the syllabus template in the desktop version of Word.

Additional Resources

For additional resources and samples please navigate to this ELAC Resources for Faculty SharePoint Folder.

The Course Planning Tool and Syllabus Template were developed by Courtney Broscious. For more information, contact: brosciousc@easternct.edu