Designing and Teaching a Course
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Beginning at the end: What is backward design?
Backward design is a method of curriculum creation that asks us to begin by identifying our learning goals and outcomes and then building out our assessments and instructional activities in a way that ensures those learning goals and outcomes are met.
To effectively utilize backward design, please consider the steps below:
Identify your course’s learning goals and outcomes
Identifying your course’s learning goals and outcomes is foundational to the process of backward design.
To identify your learning goals and outcomes, think critically about what it is you want your students to know, understand, and be able to do by the end of the course.
Check out CTE's Course-Level Outcomes Guide for detailed information on best practices for identifying learning goals and outcomes.
Determine acceptable evidence of learning
Once you’ve identified your course learning goals and outcomes, you should begin thinking about how you will assess whether students have achieved them.
Backwards Design is guided by the concept that student understanding increases over time through processing, reassessing, and connecting information. Your goal is to create various means of assessment (discussions, tests and quizzes, projects, and assessments in which students reflect on and analyze their own learning) to measure this increasing level of understanding.
Check out CTE's Assessing Student Learning page for all the best tips on how to determine whether your students are achieving your course goals.
We also encourage you to watch this great Two-Minute-Mentor video on Iterative Assignments for more ideas on how to scaffold student development throughout the semester.
Develop learning experiences, instructional materials, and teaching strategies
Once you’ve identified how you intend to assess your students’ learning, you should begin considering which engaging teaching methodologies and activities will be most effective in helping students reach your course goals.
Check out CTE’s on Active Learning, Reading, Writing, & Discussion, Tests & Writing Assignments, and Making Material Clear pages for a deeper dive into creating effective learning experiences for your students.
For a further breakdown of the course design process, watch Crystal Lumpkins, of the KU School of Journalism, and former CTE Director Dan Bernstein discuss effective course design as part of our Two-Minute Mentor video series.
To hear two tenured faculty discuss their experiences using Backward Design early in their teaching careers, listen to this podcast discussion between Meagan Patterson and Doug Ward.