Lessons Learned: Designing for Complexity and Ambiguity in Total Course Development from Conception to Delivery

In this lessons learned paper, the author reflects on their experience participating in a summer course design program that led to the total development and delivery of a new course for an undergraduate multidisciplinary engineering program. The author participated in a six-day intensive course design program offered through the teaching and learning Center at their home institution. Through this program, the author engaged with course development theories and instructional design practices with the support of the Center's instructional developers. This paper offers lessons learned from an integrated course developer and instructor perspective that may benefit faculty developers to think about new approaches to course development and ways of supporting instructors. One of the main objectives of this new course was to offer an experience that would provide a foundation for further study in interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary engineering with a focus on engaging multiple perspectives through activities of problem framing. The major pedagogical element of the course utilized a flipped-classroom based model and a series of collaborative learning sessions to engage in problem framing. These sessions formed the core pedagogical basis to facilitate authentic learning in the course. Lessons learned are structured around three major course design considerations to show how course development components translated to instruction through: 1) journey mapping for course content and student growth, 2) integrating content, active learning pedagogy, and assessment and 3) scaffolding learning moments for inclusive teaching. This paper concludes with a discussion on how faculty developers may expand ways of approaching course development in open-ended contexts.