In June 2021, the PSU CoLab facilitated a month-long pilot of Design Forward. The program was an emergent exploration about the intentional design of teaching and learning. In particular, it centered around what a new approach to instructional design, a “critical instructional design,” might look like, particularly when it focuses less on designing courses, objectives, assignments, and assessments, and instead on equipping faculty to develop into more confident, agile, and adaptive designers of teaching and learning. While traditional ID tends to favor prescriptive design approaches, expertise held within the role of “instructional designer,” and a tight focus on online learning, Design Forward emphasizes faculty ownership and autonomy to develop flexible and custom learning experiences, meaningful partnership and collaboration with instructional designers and other academic-adjacent staff, and a holistic consideration of learning across different modalities. It will also center the human care of students, faculty, and staff in teaching and learning.

The summer 2021 pilot served as the starting place for what has now been developed into the full Design Forward curriculum. Information about the pilot is archived here for reference.