Course Design Guide
This flow chart is intended as a general guide to the course design process, with resources to assist you along the way. It emphasizes course design that incorporates clear learning goals, a variety of assessments and learning activities, and frequent feedback to students. Course design is not a strictly linear process: you will note that steps 5, 8, and 11 send you back to revisit earlier decisions. You should feel free to adapt this process as needed for your specific teaching situation.
STEP / ACTIVITY / RESOURCES1 / What are the goals of this course?
· What types of learning are important:
content knowledge / skills / values
· Identify as Essential / Preferred / “Would be nice if there’s time”
· Immediate (What they’ll use in upcoming courses)
· Long-term (What you’d like them to retain in 5 years)
Two questions often asked are:
· “What do I want students to know at the end of the course?”
· “What do I want students to be able to do with what they know?” / Teaching Goals Inventory (Angelo & Cross, 1993)
http://fm.iowa.uiowa.edu/fmi/xsl/tgi/data_entry.xsl?-db=tgi_data&-lay=Layout01&-view
Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education (Chickering & Gamson, 1987)
http://home.capecod.net/~tpanitz/seven.html
Implementing the Seven Principles: Technology as Lever
http://www.tltgroup.org/programs/seven.html
Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives
http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/cogsys/bloom.html
Course Design for Significant Learning (Fink, 2002)
http://www.ou.edu/pii/significant/index.htm
2 / How will I know if the goals have been met?
i.e., How will I assess the students’ learning?
· Exams & quizzes (what kind?)
· Papers
· Projects
· Problem sets
· Portfolio
· Rubrics (see step 6) / Nine Principles of Good Practice for Assessing Student Learning
http://www.fctel.uncc.edu/pedagogy/assessment/9Principles.html
Quizzes, tests, exams
http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/quizzes.html
Writing good multiple-choice questions
http://tep.uoregon.edu/resources/assessment/multiplechoicequestions/mc4critthink.html
Classroom Assessment Techniques
http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/assess-1.htm
http://www.ntlf.com/html/lib/bib/assess.htm
50 Examples: http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/assess-2.htm
CATs Designed for Technology
http://frank.mtsu.edu/~itconf/proceed99/Martin.htm
3 / What do I know about the students’ probable prior learning? / Building on Prior Knowledge
http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/learning/lr100.htm
Listening to Students: Assessing Prior Knowledge
http://assist.educ.msu.edu/ASSIST/modules/2/pdf/PartOneEx5.pdf
4 / What are the external, non-controllable factors constraining course design?
· Class size
· Availability of materials
· Room configuration (if known)
5Î / Do I need to revise any of my goals or assessment ideas to accommodate the factors I listed in steps 3 and 4?
6 / Based on the revised version of 1 & 2, create a general rubric (a table of criteria, with levels of mastery) for assessing learning in the course. / Guide to using rubrics
http://www.calstate.edu/acadaff/sloa/links/using_rubrics.shtml
Assessment Rubrics
http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/intech/rubrics.htm
Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/assess.html
RubiStar
http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php
7 / What learning activities will best prepare students to do well on the assessments? / Active Learning: Overview
http://cte.umdnj.edu/active_learning/active_general.cfm
Active learning: short description plus some suggestions
http://www.cat.ilstu.edu/additional/tips/newActive.php’
Potential Active Learning Activities
http://newctl.byu.edu/?page_id=657
TRACE Active Learning Activities
http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infotrac/tips/activelearningactivities.pdf
See also resources listed for #1
· Reading
· Writing
· Research
· Discussion
· Lecture
· Problem-solving / · Case studies
· Projects
· Presentations
· Building web sites
· Group activities
· Role-play
8Î / Go back and check steps 1, 2, and 7 to make sure they all support one another.
9 / What opportunities will there be for giving students feedback? / Getting Student Feedback
http://cte.udel.edu/TAbook/feedback.html
Leveraging Student Feedback to Improve Teaching in Web-based Courses
http://www.thejournal.com/articles/14146
Providing Students with Effective Feedback
http://www.academicleadership.org/leader_action_tips/Providing_Students_with_Effective_Feedback.shtml
Giving Effective Feedback
http://www.ohioafp.org/pdfs/members/educator_resources/GivingEffectiveFeedback.pdf
10 / Create a flow chart of course topics, keyed to major course goals and learning activities.
11Î / How can I fit all this into the academic calendar?
If necessary, go back to steps 1, 2, 7 to revise based on time constraints.
12 / What learning materials/learning objects do I need to . . . ?
· order
· create
· put on reserve / Merlot (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching)
http://www.merlot.org/merlot/index.htm
MITOpenCourseware
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm
World Lecture Hall
http://web.austin.utexas.edu/wlh/
13 / Write a syllabus document that communicates to students:
· Learning goals
· Assessments & evaluation criteria
· Learning activities
· What will be expected of them / Writing a Syllabus
http://ic.ucsc.edu/CTE/teaching/tips-syllabus.html
Making Your First Class Meeting Truly First Class!
http://www.calstate.edu/itl/fdc/documents/First_Day_Guide.pdf
According to Merrill (2000), learning objects include any digital resource that can be reused to support learning. McGreal & Roberts (2001) broaden the definition, defining a learning object as “any entity, digital or non-digital, which can be used, reused or referenced during technology-supported learning.”