All course design should begin with three simple questions:
1. Who are my students?
2. What do they need?
3. What are the needs of the curriculum?
Although instructors typically have in their minds a set of goals for a class, these are often implicit or not directly driving the decisions behind course design. Developing a written set of student-centered goals, and giving them to students helps student learning immensely in two ways: 1) students are able to see a structure and overall arc of a course, and 2) they are able to check their own learning as the course progresses.
Think of course design as an iterative, cyclical process, where learning goals serve as your starting point- but are developed by beginning with the end in mind. What do you want your students to know and/or be able to do when the semester is complete? Answering this question helps to articulate your learning goals for the course. Learning goals should then guide all of the ensuing decisions you make about the various ways students will demonstrate their learning, what teaching and learning activities will best help students meet those goals, and then using the feedback and student work to guide any revisions to learning goals the next time around. Remember, no matter how you or your students may feel about a particular aspect, piece of content, or material in a course (i.e., but this is my favorite article EVER!), if it does not contribute directly to a course learning goal, it either does not belong in the course or the goals need to be re-written.
Articulating Learning Goals
Start out by reflecting upon what it is you do in your field, or why the content is interesting to you. Your course should enable your students, at an appropriate level, to do what you do in your field, not just expose them to what you know. Start by answering the question: In the context of the general course topic, what would it look like for students to synthesize, analyze? And/Or your course should expose your students to the kinds of experiences and applications that got you interested in the content and ultimately pursuing the field.
What Kinds of Goals Should I Set?
Consider these three points: It is extremely important to recognize that lower order thinking skills are necessarily embedded in higher order thinking skills. Concrete goals, stated as specific, observable actions that students should be able to perform if they have mastered the content and skills of a course guide not only teaching and learning activities, but assignment design (how students will demonstrate what they have learned) in ways that demystify "why are we being asked to do this, answer this, read this, etc." and brings clear criteria for evaluating student work to the forefront.
Two Examples -
Students will understand plate tectonics.
vs.
Students will be able to interpret unfamiliar tectonic settings based on information on volcanic activity and seismicity.
This course will survey art from early 18th century Europe.
vs.
Students will be able to evaluate a piece of art at a museum within the socio-political context of early 18th century Europe.
Higher Order Thinking vs. Lower Order Thinking
Goals involving lower order thinking skills: knowledge, comprehension -
• verbs typically used to call on lower order thinking skills - list, identify, recognize, explain, describe, paraphrase, calculate, mix, prepare
Goals involving higher order thinkings skills: analysis, synthesis, evaluation, application -
• verbs typically used to call on higher order thinking skills - derive, design, formulate, predict, interpret, evaluate, analyze, synthesize, create
It's easy to see that any learning goal that utilizes a higher order thinking skills verb necessarily includes lower order thinking skills as well (do two things with one!). In order to formulate, interpret, or create, students must first be able to identify, recognize, explain and recall.
And remember, PRACTICE is a better guarantee of learning than EXPOSURE.
What Good Learning Goals Do
For instructors -
• they guide the content of the course (if it doesn't support a learning goal, it doesn't belong)
• they guide course pedagogy (if a goal is students performing a task, active learning may be better than strict lecturing)
• they guide the choice and execution of student assignments (choosing between T/F, MC exams; essays; research papers; presentations; group projects; etc.)
For students -
• they provide both a roadmap and boundaries to guide their approach to the course content and how they engage in learning the material (for memorization, recall, analysis, synthesis, evaluation, etc.)