Course Design Strategies

Consider this quote: "If you design assessments as an afterthought at the end of designing the instruction (a common but unfortunate mistake), you are likely to design the wrong content and the course activities and the assessments are likely to be far less meaningful or appropriate" (Shank, 2006).

This is exactly what courses that are not aligned look like. You are giving students puzzle pieces that don't line up. It may be that the course developer had good intentions and created measurable learning objectives; but, then chose content that they liked even though it was irrelevant to the objective. Then, they designed an assessment based on that unaligned content they chose. Since the content was irrelevant to the objective, the assessment, in turn, is not going to evaluate whether the student learned the objective.

Shank, Patti. (2006). To Plan Good Instruction, Teach to the Test. Online Course Design: 13 Strategies for Teaching in a Web-based Distance Learning Environment, 8-9. http://hilo.hawaii.edu/academics/dl/documents/13StrategiesforTeaching.pdf.

There are many benefits to an aligned course. Here are a few to get you started.

• The objective, learning activities, and assessments will reinforce one another.
• Students can clearly see what to focus on and how to demonstrate their learning during assessment.
• Aligned learning activities will allow students to learn and practice the knowledge and skills that will be required on the aligned assessment.
• “Good grades” are more likely to translate into “Good learning”.

The backward design method we recommend follows these three basic steps:

1. Write measurable, action-oriented learning objectives that address the appropriate level of Bloom's Taxonomy.
2. Choose assessment methods that indicate students’ mastery of the objectives and materials.
3. Choose instructional materials that help students work towards those objectives.

To learn more about how to ensure alignment in your course, enroll in the Focus on Planning program and join the Quality Meets Alignment course.

• They guide and organize both the instructor and the learner.
• They help the instructor to select and organize course content, develop appropriate assessments and determine relevant instructional strategies.
• They help the student to direct their learning efforts appropriately by clearly communicating expectations.
• They help the student to monitor their own progress.

There are many different ideas and theories on writing objectives or learning outcomes such as Performance Objective, ABCD, and SMART. Your field may have a specific type of objective that you will be expected to use or you may be familiar with another method that you feel is better for your course.

ABCD Objectives include:

• Audience: Describe the intended learner.
• Behavior: Describe the learner capability and ensure it is observable and measurable
• Condition: Tools or environments that may be utilized to complete the behavior
• Degree: State the standard for acceptable performance

SMART Objectives include:

• Specific: Details exactly what needs to be done. Address the five W’s (who, what, when, where and why) and use action verbs.
• Measurable: Achievement or progress can be measured.
• Attainable: The objective can be achieved and in the time period stated. Objectives should be challenging, but still achievable.
• Relevant: Objective is important or worthwhile to the learner.
• Time-bound: Time period for achievement is clearly stated

To learn more about writing objectives that are specific, measurable, and aligned with your assessments, enroll in the Focus on Planning program and join the Quality Meets Alignment course.

When you begin to plan your objectives, it is important to consider Bloom's Taxonomy. We could have a whole topic dedicated to Bloom's Taxonomy; but we will just touch on the important pieces as they relate to writing objectives. In simple terms, Bloom's Taxonomy places the different types of learning in a pyramid that begins at simply remembering information and works all the way up to creating new information.

For example, if you give students a list of dates and historical events to remember, they will be at lowest level of learning: remembering. However, if you ask them to use those dates and events to develop theories or predictions you bring them to a higher level of learning: evaluating.

You will notice in your objectives that you use phrases like, 'The students will identify...', 'The students will create...' or 'The students will develop...'. The action verbs in these phrases (identify, create, develop) directly relate to a level of learning in Bloom's Taxonomy. For example, 'identify' is located on the knowledge level, "create" and "develop" are located on the synthesis level, and "demonstrate" is located on the application level.

For even more verb examples, use this Bloom's Taxonomy Action Verb list that contains action verbs for each different level of learning within Bloom's Taxonomy. Save the document and use the list when developing your objectives.

We suggest creating objectives that use a variety of action verbs and that will have students using higher order thinking skills to make the learning much more meaningful. So if all your objectives start with "The students will identify" you are keeping your students at the lowest level of learning and you will probably want to re-evaluate your objectives.

We have already learned that there are action verbs that match each of the different levels of learning in Bloom's Taxonomy and that we use these verbs to create our objectives.

Similarly, there are types of assessments that match the different levels of learning.

The table below, developed by the Eberly Center at Carnegie Mellon, gives examples of types of assessment for each type of learning objective (also tied to Bloom's Taxonomy). Review this table to learn what type of assessment is best suited for each type of learning objective.

Types of Learning Objective	Examples of Types of Assessment	How to Measure
Remember Students will be able to: recall recognize	Objective Test items that require students to recall or recognize information: Fill-in the Blank Multiple Choice items with question stems such as, “what is a…”, or “which of the following is the definition of) Labeling diagrams Reciting (orally, musically, or in writing)	Accuracy – correct vs number of errors Item Analysis (at the class level, are there items that had higher error rates? Did some items result in the same errors?)
Understand Students will be able to: interpret exemplify classify summarize infer compare explain	Papers, oral/written exam questions, problems, class discussions, concept maps, homework assignments that require (oral or written): Summarizing readings, films, speeches, etc. Comparing and/or contrasting two or more theories, events, processes, etc. Classifying or categorizing cases, elements, events, etc., using established criteria Paraphrasing documents or speeches Finding or identifying examples or illustrations of a concept, principle	Scoring or performance rubrics that identify critical components of the work and discriminates between differing levels of proficiency in addressing the components
Apply Students will be able to: execute implement	Activities that require students to use procedures to solve or complete familiar or unfamiliar tasks; may also require students to determine which procedure(s) are most appropriate for a given task.  Activities include: Problem sets, performances, labs, Prototyping, Simulations	Accuracy scores, Check lists, Rubrics, Primary Trait Analysis
Analyze Students will be able to: differentiate organize attribute	Activities that require students to discriminate or select relevant from irrelevant parts, determine how elements function together, or determine bias, values or underlying intent in presented materials. These might include: Case studies, Critiques, Labs, Papers, Projects, Debates, Concept Maps,	Rubrics, scored by instructor, juries, external clients, employers, internship supervisor, etc. Primary Trait Analysis
Evaluate Students will be able to: check critique	A range of activities that require students to test, monitor, judge or critique readings, performances, or products against established criteria or standards.  These activities might include: Journals, Diaries, Critiques, Problem Sets, Product Reviews, Case Studies.	Rubrics, scored by instructor, juries, external clients, employers, internship supervisor, etc. Primary Trait Analysis
Create Students will be able to: generate plan produce	Research projects, musical compositions, performances, essays, business plans, website designs, prototyping, set designs	Rubrics, scored by instructor, juries, external clients, employers, internship supervisor, etc. Primary Trait Analysis

Did you notice?

After you reviewed the table, go back and count how many types of learning objectives are tested with multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blank questions.

How many did you see? Did I hear you say just one? That is correct! These types of questions are most beneficial when assessing if students can remember factual information. And yet they are the go-to assessment strategy a majority of the time. If you only use standardized tests in your course, how are you going to find out if students can apply and analyze the knowledge you have given them? As you study the table, you will see that in order to bring students up to using higher order thinking skills, you will need to vary your assessment techniques.

Eberly Center of Carnegie Mellon. Align Assessment with Objectives. Retrieved from https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/design/assessments.html.

A typical rubric consists of three elements:

1. Criteria. Criteria are the items in the assessment that you are grading. If the assessment is a persuasive essay, the criteria might be the claim, reasons in support of the claim, organization, tone, and word choice.
2. Levels of Performance. The criteria are judged on levels of performance. You might assign labels to the levels of performance or you may just leave them as numbered levels. For example:
   1. Needs Work, Good, Excellent
   2. Beginning, Developing, Accomplished, Advanced
   3. Inadequate, Developing, Proficient, Skilled, Exceptional
   4. Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, Level 4

   Each level of performance will have a range or specific point value. For example:
   Inadequate (0 points); Developing (1 point); Proficient (2 points); Skilled (3 points); Exceptional (4 points)
   Needs Work (0-1 point); Good (2-3 points); Excellent (4-5 points)

3. Descriptor. The descriptor tells what it takes to obtain a level of performance for each criteria. Descriptors are how rubrics are able to set clear expectations for students.

If so, they are more likely to actively engage in the activity.

It is helpful to students if you build on the prior knowledge as they develop connections between the old and new material and this enhances their learning

Students must have an opportunity to practice what they will be assessed on.

Good learners will self-assess and ask themselves questions like: How am I doing? Am I making mistakes? If so, what are they and how can I avoid them in the future?

Being active while learning is better than being inactive. Students perform and learn more efficiently through active learning.

Think back to the most memorable lesson you have had as a student or the most memorable lesson you have given as an instructor.

What made it memorable? What were you doing during the lesson?

Did you answer that the lesson was memorable because you were actively doing something? I would guess that most of you did.

Active learning is defined as “students [that are] engaged in more activities than just listening. They are involved in dialog, debate, writing, and problem solving, as well as higher-order thinking, e.g., analysis, synthesis, evaluation” (Bonwell & Eison,1991). Activities can serve as memory cues. Engaging learning activities can help to improve memory cues, allowing students to recall information even faster and easier.

We learn more when we are active (discussing or teaching someone else) than when we are passive (hearing a lecture). During “learning time” we want the student to be doing and explaining what they have learned instead of only the instructor doing and explaining. If we do not give students the time to explain what they have learned during their learning activities, they do not receive valuable feedback from the instructor and only have a chance to explain themselves on an exam; which is a little too late to help them with their misunderstandings.