{"id":7497,"date":"2022-08-17T20:50:43","date_gmt":"2022-08-18T00:50:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/faculty-excellence\/?page_id=7497"},"modified":"2025-01-08T11:19:16","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T16:19:16","slug":"plan-your-course","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/faculty-excellence\/ofe-teaching-principles\/clear-course-design\/plan-your-course\/","title":{"rendered":"Plan Your Course"},"content":{"rendered":"
Using backward design ensures the essentials of a strong course: student learning outcomes, a course outline, assignments, assessments, and learning activities.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Good courses are often designed from the end: by imagining what students should have learned before choosing the materials and activities that will help students achieve those learning goals. In this backward design model, as McTighe & Wiggins describe in their work Understanding by Design<\/a>, instructors define their learning goals and outcomes first, and then build out the course content, assignments, assessments, and learning activities.<\/p>\n As you begin to build your course, use these steps to define clear, measurable learning outcomes, and then structure and populate your course with appropriate activities, assignments, assessments, and content.<\/p>\n A learning outcome is a statement that specifically identifies the knowledge, skills, or attitudes learners should be able to demonstrate after completing a course or a unit of study. Learning outcomes should be measurable and observable, and clearly stated so that students and instructors understand what is expected and will be measured (Fink 2013; Wiggins & McTighe 2005). Moreover, strong learning outcomes are student-centered, specific, and realistic, appropriate to your discipline and course.<\/p>\n Student-centered learning outcomes describe what students will be able to do, using active verbs. For example, \u201cstudents will be able to apply concept X to topic Y.\u201d Bloom\u2019s taxonomy offers a useful classification of the types of work students can do to demonstrate learning:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Several free online tools available from the University of Ottawa<\/a> and the University of Central Florida<\/a> can help you write good, clear, and student-centered learning outcomes that emphasize the purpose and outcomes of the course. Many instructors find GenAI is helpful for turning your goals for the course into clearer and more concise outcomes. Fink (2013) identifies six key areas<\/a> to consider when developing learning outcomes: foundational knowledge, application, integration, human dimension, caring, and learning how to learn.<\/span><\/p>\n Here are some sample learning outcomes from various disciplines:<\/p>\n Find additional examples here<\/a>. <\/p><\/div><\/div>\n Image from: Interaction Institute for Social Change<\/a>; Artist: Angus Maguire<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Meaningful Redesign for Troublesome Moments in Teaching: Conference Archive<\/a> (2022).<\/p>\n Fashant, Z., Russell, L., Ross, S., Jacobson, J., LaPlant, K. P., Hutchinson, S., & Fink, L. D. (2020). Designing effective teaching and significant learning<\/i>. Stylus.<\/p>\n Fink, L. D. (2013). <\/span>Creating significant learning experiences : an integrated approach to designing college courses<\/span><\/i><\/a> (Revised and updated edition. Jossey-Bass<\/span><\/p>\n Wiggins, G. P., & McTighe, J. (2005). <\/span>Understanding by design<\/span><\/i> <\/a>(Expanded 2nd). Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p><\/div><\/div><\/span><\/p>\n For more information or help, please email<\/a> the Office for Faculty Excellence or make an appointment<\/a> with a consultant.<\/p>\n Last Modified: Wednesday, January 8, 2025 11:19 am<\/em><\/p> VS<\/p>\n Third-party content is not covered under the Creative Commons license and may be subject to additional intellectual property notices, information, or restrictions. You are solely responsible for obtaining permission to use third party content or determining whether your use is fair use and for responding to any claims that may arise.<\/span><\/p>\nBackward Design<\/h2>\n
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\nHow will this course develop and support students’ success in subsequent courses? (Fashant et al., 2020)<\/li>\n
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\nTeaching Resources by ÌÇÐÄvlog Office for Faculty Excellence<\/a> is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License<\/a><\/p>\n