Creating Lesson Plans

Once a Course Builder Administrator has created a Course, users who have been assigned as Reviewers and Authors can create new Lesson Plans to be added to the course.

In the section of the Syllabus Editor labeled "Schedule of Topics and Readings" click Add a New Lesson Plan. You may have to scroll to the bottom of a Unit to see this. If the course you’re editing does not already have a Unit, you must create a Unit before adding a Lesson Plan.

Use the form that appears to enter a Session Number and Lesson Plan Title for your new lesson plan. These can be changed later, but you must enter something in order to proceed.

Note: The Session controls the order of lesson plans in the syllabus and, therefore, the sequence in which they appear to learners. The date and time for the corresponding Class Meeting are configured elsewhere; see this article for details.

Also, choose one of the available Lesson Plan Types:

By default, the corresponding Class Meeting in Forum will use the lesson plan type as the Class Meeting Type. Individual instructors will still have the ability to teach in a modality that is different from what’s specified on the lesson plan.

From here, there are three ways to proceed, described in more detail below. The difference between these choices concerns the amount of structure and material that your new lesson plan will begin with.

We recommend using a Template to craft your lesson plan. These templates, created by curriculum development experts, will guarantee your lesson plan embodies best practices for active learning and student engagement.

Follow the instructions below to create a lesson plan using your preferred method. Then, visit Editing a Lesson Plan to learn how to add content and configure your lesson plan.

The option creates a new lesson plan using a template.

Templates are model lesson plans containing a full complement of activities, durations, and placeholder resources such as slides. While editing lesson plans created from templates, you will be prompted to configure the most important elements of the lesson plan. Advanced controls and less-commonly-used settings are hidden by default but available at any time.

Find the Template drop-down menu at the bottom of the "Add Lesson Plan" section, select one of the templates from the list, and click the Save button.

If there is no template that matches your ideal lesson plan duration, simply choose a template that is longer than required. While editing the lesson plan, you can delete steps and activities as required, or adjust the length of each activity to shorten the lesson plan as a whole.

Once this is done, the new (empty) lesson will appear in the syllabus. Click on the Lesson Plan Title to begin filling in the details. Before doing so, you may wish to attach Learning Outcomes and Required Readings (these can also be added later).

See Editing and Publishing a Lesson Plan for instructions to configure your lesson plan.

This option makes a copy of an existing lesson plan, along with all of its content, materials, polls, etc.

To do this, check the "Clone from existing lesson plan" box in the top right of the Add Lesson Plan form.

Once that box is checked, specify which lesson plan you want to copy by choosing the appropriate term, course, and plan in the series of drop-down menus.

Once those selections are made, click the Save button.

This option creates an empty lesson plan.

Find the Template drop-down menu at the bottom of the "Add Lesson Plan" section, select "No Template (Start With A Blank LP)," and click the Save button.

To begin editing your lesson plan, click on the Lesson Plan Title. Then, visit Editing a Publishing a Lesson Plan to learn how to configure your lesson plan.