"Instructional Design Essentials" Week 2 (Part 2)

*Note: Though published, this post is still a work in progress!* 

BLOG POSTS (Due September 28): Second post: What kinds of teaching methods and content could best help your learners get to the goals and outcomes you set out to achieve? Continue reading Fink, pages 16-25. Start brainstorming how you could link activities and resources to your goals and assessments by answering the questions on pages 21-22, as well as using the worksheet on page 23. You don't have to have all the answers, this is just to get you started on thinking about the next phase in the design process. The Carnegie Melon reading should also be helpful in your brainstorming.

Fink, pp.21-22

Step 5.  Integration  

In this INITIAL DESIGN PHASE (Steps 1-4), you have created strong primary components for the design of your course. In order to complete this initial phase, you need to check how well these four components are aligned. 

  

1.  Situational Factors

·         Assuming you have done a careful, thorough job of reviewing the situational factors, how well are these factors reflected in the decisions you made about learning goals, feedback and assessment, learning activities?

·         What potential conflicts can you identify that may cause problems?
Time is going to be a major concern for any of my First Year Seminar instruction sessions. 

·         Are there any disconnects between your beliefs and values, the student characteristics, the specific or general context, or the nature of the subject in relation to the way you propose to run the course?  

2.  Learning Goals and Feedback & Assessment         

·         How well do your assessment procedures address the full range of learning goals?    

·         Is the feedback giving students information about all the learning goals?    

·         Do the learning goals include helping the students learn how to assess their own performance?  

3.  Learning Goals and Teaching/Learning Activities

·         Do the learning activities effectively support all your learning goals?    

·         Are there extraneous activities that do not serve any major learning goal?  

4.  Teaching/Learning Activities and Feedback & Assessment    

·         How well does the feedback loop work to prepare students for understanding the criteria and standards that will be used to assess their performance?    

·         How well do the practice learning activities and the associated feedback opportunities prepare students for the eventual assessment activities?  

A good tool for checking on integration, especially on Steps #2-4 above, is to use Worksheet 1 below. First, fill in a list of your learning goals for the course.  If possible, have one for each kind of significant learning in the taxonomy.  Second, for each major learning goal, identify how you would know whether students have achieved that kind of learning, i.e., what kind of feedback and assessment can you use? Third, again, for each major learning goal, identify what students will have to do to achieve that kind of learning.  You will often find that the assessment and the learning activity are the same or very similar. But working through this exercise can be very valuable by ensuring that you in fact have specific kinds of assessment and learning activities for each of your learning goals and that you don’t just give “lip service” to them. After you finish your final check (below), then you can start the process of assembling these several activities into a coherent whole (Phase II, starting on p. 28). 

Worksheet 1: Worksheet for Designing a Course
Learning Goals for Course:

1. 

·         Ways of Assessing This Kind of Learning:  

·         Actual Teaching-Learning Activities:

·         Helpful Resources (e.g., people, things):

2. 

·         Ways of Assessing This Kind of Learning:  

·         Actual Teaching-Learning Activities:

·         Helpful Resources (e.g., people, things):

3. 

·         Ways of Assessing This Kind of Learning:  

·         Actual Teaching-Learning Activities:

·         Helpful Resources (e.g., people, things):

4.

·         Ways of Assessing This Kind of Learning:  

·         Actual Teaching-Learning Activities:

·         Helpful Resources (e.g., people, things):

5.

·         Ways of Assessing This Kind of Learning:  

·         Actual Teaching-Learning Activities:

·         Helpful Resources (e.g., people, things):

6.

·         Ways of Assessing This Kind of Learning:  

·         Actual Teaching-Learning Activities:

·         Helpful Resources (e.g., people, things):