{"id":1084,"date":"2020-01-22T04:46:20","date_gmt":"2020-01-22T04:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/educationaltechnology.net\/?p=1084"},"modified":"2020-01-22T04:46:20","modified_gmt":"2020-01-22T04:46:20","slug":"how-to-design-a-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educationaltechnology.net\/how-to-design-a-course\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Design A Course"},"content":{"rendered":"
This article includes tips on designing and building a course.<\/p>\n
Allow enough time to carefully plan and revise content for a new course. Careful planning will make teaching easier and more enjoyable. Talk with other teachers who have taught similar content and discuss various strategies as well as student reactions to the material, etc. In the case of team-teaching, meet with your partner to talk about course goals, philosophies of education and methodologies, the general content, class policies, and what each teacher will be responsible for.<\/p>\n
This article will help you if you are developing a face to face, an online,<\/a>\u00a0a hybrid course<\/a>\u00a0or a MOOC<\/a>.<\/p>\n A simplified concept map<\/a> for the course design process:<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n What do you want the students to learn and be able to accomplish? With your goals clearly defined, decisions to include certain content, the teaching methods to employ, and the types of assignments and exams to utilize can be more readily determined. To help with curriculum planning primarily in defining goals to maximize student learning (opposed to course content, it is called Backward Design<\/a>), check out G. Wiggins and J. McTighe\u2019s Understanding by Design (1998). Basically, according to Backward Design, instructors should\u00a0clearly define what they expect their students to have learned by the end of the course or section.<\/p>\n See also: ADDIE Model<\/a><\/p>\n During the process of determining course goals, it is important to think about student learning. Think of what you want students to learn as far as content and both their cognitive and personal development. The goals should be specific and measurable. These questions will help you in defining course goals.<\/p>\n Also, it would be helpful to gather some insights concerning the students who typically take this course (e.g., preparation level, academic interests, and passions, etc.) so you can best help students broaden their knowledge base, skill level, and understanding about the topic at hand.<\/p>\n A helpful framework that categorizes skills that you expect your students to attain through learning is Bloom\u2019s Taxonomy. As the table indicates, Bloom categorized six types of intellectual skills and ordered these from the simplest to the most complex: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. These learning processes are linked to related skills and also specific action verbs that you can use to establish course goals, apply teaching methods, design assignments\/exams, and question students. (Bloom\u2019s Taxonomy<\/a> was revised in 2001, and the updated version consists of these ordered skills: remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating.)<\/p>\n What are the major topics and what order will they be taught?<\/p>\n There are many ways for you to organize the course topics. Generally, they can be ordered based on the topic, the concept, chronologically, survey-oriented, or process-oriented. It is important to reflect on how the structure of the course impacts student learning. In doing so, these questions may help:<\/p>\n See also: What is educational technology<\/a>?<\/p>\n After the course goals and content are determined, it is time to think about the content and how you will present it. You will need to choose your teaching methods and tools based on the 1) appropriateness for the class size and 2) those that are aligned with the course goals. These suggestions should be considered:<\/p>\n See also: Flipped teaching<\/a>?<\/p>\n Organize the assignments and exams. Remember that evaluation must align with the course goals. For example, if a course goal is to sharpen problem-solving skills<\/a>, then the exam should focus on a question that uses problem-solving, not mainly recalling facts. Similarly, both homework and class activities prior to the exam should involve questions and exercises that deal with problem-solving skills. These suggestions should be considered:<\/p>\n First, determine what materials and text(s) you will use dependent on whether the course goals are met best by a published text or course reader of combined materials either published elsewhere or even consisting of unpublished material. When making a decision, think about the cost factor in obtaining the materials for your students. You might want to place on reserve some of the material for the student to read, borrow, photocopy or even download themselves.<\/p>\n If ordering textbooks, allow enough time prior to the onset of your course. Call the bookstore or publisher approximately one month before the class begins to ensure a prompt arrival time.<\/p>\n Decide how to grade the work: papers, assignments, exams, and if appropriate, class participation. Determine how you will deal with issues of student tardiness, attendance, late work, and any extensions\/rescheduling of assignments\/exams.<\/p>\n As mentioned earlier, the tendency is to try to do too much within a given class period. It is essential to allow time for active learning as well as to block out sufficient work\/study time for students to complete major assignments and to prepare for exams.<\/p>\n A typical syllabus is comprised of a course title; the time of the course; the location; any prerequisites; the required materials and texts, topics of the course; a list of major assignments and exams; your course policy on grading, attendance, late work, and academic integrity; and preferred contact information for the teacher and any instructional assistants if applicable.<\/p>\n An important point is that you should make sure that your students have easy access to the course syllabus<\/p>\n Remember that planning a course is a fluid process. The diagram shows this below. Each step is made with the other steps in mind and, likewise, each step will be refined every time you teach the course.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n See also: Kirkpatrick Model<\/a><\/p>\n In conclusion, as you prepare your courses, be mindful of teaching core concepts and also critical-thinking skills. If you plan for only content, then this can lead to a high concentration of knowledge-based skills to the detriment of building higher-level skills as outlined in Bloom\u2019s Taxonomy<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This article includes tips on designing and building a course. Allow enough time to carefully plan and revise content for a new course. Careful planning will make teaching easier and more enjoyable. Talk…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[53],"yoast_head":"\nPinpoint the course goals<\/h2>\n
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Course content<\/h2>\n
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Develop the teaching methods and tools<\/h2>\n
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Decide on the method of evaluating the learning of your students<\/h2>\n
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Selection of other materials and text(s)<\/h2>\n
Outline the course policies<\/h2>\n
Make up the course schedule<\/h2>\n
Prepare the course syllabus<\/h2>\n
Tweak the Course Design<\/h2>\n