Designing Courses with Learners in Mind

For both new and veteran faculty, inheriting a syllabus and expected to design a course can be a difficult, time consuming journey. Following someone else's road map can be uncomfortable and sometimes feel like you are in uncharted waters. Learning Technologies introduced a Course Map last year during our Design and Delivery workshops to help faculty design their course through a critical thinking process, first, prior to diving into Canvas and copying/pasting resources over with now idea of organization or proper alignment.

One of the first items asked on the Course Map template is to identify what your course learning objectives are and to document those. Then, to document what your module-level outcomes are and ensure proper alignment. Some departments mandate the course-level objectives however, most departments allow faculty to manage their own module-level outcomes.

Link to Course Map

Course mapping, as a step in the curriculum mapping process (Jacobs, 2004), offers faculty new pathways to meet shared outcomes. The five principles of curriculum design (Fink, 2003) inform the development of learning experiences that are structured in such a way that they scaffold student thinking and progressively move them toward the desired course outcomes. A course should: (1) challenge students to higher level learning; (2) use active forms of learning; (3) give frequent and immediate feedback to students on the quality of their learning; (4) use a structured sequence of different learning activities; and (5) have a fair system for assessing and grading students. In addition, employing the principles of backward design, we can (1) provide more relevant and meaningful learning experiences; (2) ensure that the required course outcomes are met; and (3) prepare students to perform successfully on their final assessment. One starts with the end—the desired results (goals or standards)—and then “derives the curriculum from the evidence of learning (performances) called for by the standard and the teaching needed to equip students to perform” (Wiggins & McTighe, 2000).

We have provided a template for faculty to use to begin the design process of any course, new or existing. While some faculty have told us that the amount of time to complete it is redundant, we firmly believe that by completing this first, the development process is much more smooth and easier to process. We strongly encourage and recommend you to use the Course Map template the next time you begin to think about designing a course. As always, contact an instructional designer for help in integrating this into your instructional design efforts!

~Anna

Anna is the Educational Technology Coordinator for Emporia State University. She can be reached at acatters@emporia.edu or by phone 620.341.5107.


References:
Fink, L.D. (2003). Creating significant learning experiences. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Jacobs, H.H. (2004). Getting results with curriculum mapping. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Kenny, N., & Watson, G. (2014). Course alignment table. Open Learning and Educational Support, University of Guelph. Retrieved from http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Meyers, N. M., & Nulty, D. D. (2009). How to use (five) curriculum design principles to align authentic learning environments, assessment, students’ approaches to thinking and learning outcomes. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 34(5), 565-577.

Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (1998). Understanding by design. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.