Instructional designers partner to discover, evaluate, and select courseware to promote equitable outcomes at their university.

CourseGateway Story

The need we saw


Today’s higher education system produces gaps in outcomes for racially minoritized students and students from low-income backgrounds. For many, the college journey ends prematurely, which is a loss for the students, their families, and their communities.


When implemented well, digital learning demonstrates the power to close equity gaps in gateway courses and throughout the curriculum. Two crucial components of this process are building awareness and adopting high-quality, equitably designed courseware that improves student outcomes.

 

CourseGateway is a resource that instructors can use to discover, evaluate, and select courseware products, allowing colleges and universities to implement courseware products based on emerging research and evidence of what works best for today’s students.

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Addressing the need today

CourseGateway is a trusted source of independently reviewed courseware product information. Each member of our Product Advisory Board was selected for their depth of experience in evaluating and implementing courseware and other digital learning resources across a diverse set of institutional settings.

 

Better products. Better decisions. Better outcomes.

MEET OUR BOARD MEMBERS

The path forward

Our work is just beginning and we’re excited about our future offerings. The CourseGateway website will be updated frequently with enhancements planned across several dimensions. Here’s what we’re envisioning:

Breadth of product reviews

Our primary focus is courseware that applies to gateway courses. However, we recognize that various types of instructional products are used broadly and can be important drivers of students’ learning. As CourseGateway evolves, we will include additional product categories in the platform. Related review frameworks will be developed to support the expanding product catalog.

Frequency of product reviews

Products are constantly evolving. That's why we have established a process through which products can be resubmitted by suppliers to CourseGateway for re-review after a material update or refresh. Our aim is to publish new and updated product reviews frequently to ensure institutional users have the most recent information during key adoption cycles.

Depth of product reviews

We recognize that adding course-specific content reviews will offer users even richer information to aid their decision-making. To support future updates, we are exploring ways to include reviews that illuminate the topics, sequences, and learning objectives within course-specific instances of featured products and related content.

Guidance for Implementation

Results in the classroom are not solely attributable to the selection of a high-quality product that fits a given context. Effective implementation is key (and difficult). That's why CourseGateway is exploring how to best curate research, resources, services, and crowdsourced input to ensure users get the most out of courseware products.

Faculty and student perspectives

The more voices that contribute to CourseGateway, the better. That's why we are evaluating robust mechanisms for capturing faculty and student feedback on products and their implementation. The fusion of perspectives–from seasoned digital learning practitioners who are experienced with products, to faculty who are teaching gateway courses with featured courseware, to students who are using those products–will create a rich set of data and insights supporting decision makers, institutional users, and suppliers.

CourseGateway Design Principles

These foundational design principles will be maintained as CourseGateway evolves in the months and years to come:

User-Friendly

Built to meet the needs of faculty, instructional designers, and administrators

Relevant

Continuously updated to respond to evolving market dynamics and product availability

Inclusive

Created to achieve better student outcomes for Black, Latino/Latina, Indigenous students, and students from low-income backgrounds

Trusted

Structured to serve as a reliable arbiter of product quality measures and frameworks

Transparent

Designed to establish trust and credibility across the postsecondary ecosystem

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CourseGateway is an initiative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

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