Faculty Resources · Teaching Toolkit

Instructional Strategies

Practical strategies for engagement, communication, feedback, and course design.

The way we teach is just as important as the content itself. As all students learn differently and come from different levels of ability, it’s necessary to use different instructional strategies to reach as many students as we can.

Featured resources:

Teaching First‑Year Students – From Dalhousie University, a series of tips on engaging first year students and helping them succeed.

Explore instructional strategies

Choose the teaching challenge you want to work on.

Establish community & trust

Help students feel connected and ready to participate.

Set communication standards

Make communication channels and expectations clear.

Build instructor presence

Make instructor support visible in online courses.

Give effective feedback

Use feedback that helps students understand what to do next.

Support student collaboration

Create meaningful ways for students to learn with and from one another.

Set netiquette & civility expectations

Establish norms for online discussion and interaction.

Check learning from video lectures

Use low-stakes strategies to verify learning from recorded or live video.

Review online course quality

Use OSCQR to identify course design and accessibility improvements.