Course planning

Those who successfully plan for an online course will consider the foundational knowledge and enduring understandings that learners should gain from the course, and then use that as the basis for choosing instructional materials, activities, assignments, and assessments.

Therefore, good course planning starts by asking: what are the essential questions, foundational knowledge, or key skills that students need to know?

What is the most important thing that you want your students to learn or be able to do after taking your course? Imagine getting on an elevator five years from now and encountering a former student. What should that student recall as the one big idea from the course?

One way to approach this is to treat course topics with depth rather than breadth. Students will be left with key takeaways and durable knowledge that will help them support future learning.

Backward design is the approach that puts those essential questions into action and guides the selection of course content.

Backward design involves three distinct stages:

1. Identify the desired result of the instruction
2. Determine acceptable evidence
3. Plan experiences and instruction (i.e., learning strategies, resources, and activities)

In the first stage, instructors will identify the learning goals, outcomes, competencies, and/or skills that learners should retain after taking the online course. As we covered earlier, they will also narrow down the big ideas and essential questions of the course.

In the second stage, instructors will determine how students should demonstrate their knowledge and abilities. This includes choosing assignments and assessments in alignment with the objectives identified in the first stage, as well as self-reflection tasks that have learners consider their own progress.

In the third and final stage, instructors will plan the learning resources and activities that will best help students reach the stated objectives of the course. Ideally, varied learning materials will be incorporated that can be tailored to the different needs, abilities, and interests of learners.

After instructors have determined the essential questions and gone through the backward design process, the organization and navigation of the online course need to be planned.

Good course organization and navigation require a thoughtful layout and logical framework. While there is no one “right” way to organize a course, it is important for instructors to be deliberate in their choices and to carry them through the entire course structure. This is critical for student learning. A clear organization helps guide students through the course and allows them to focus on the instructional content, rather than making them try to figure out where they should go and what they should do.

Effective ways to organize a course:

• Break up long segments of content and establish a module-, unit-, or week-based framework for the various instructional topics and components. This is what’s known as “chunking.”
• Have each new topic build on the one that came before it. This way, the material becomes increasingly complex and challenging as the course goes on.
• Integrate each new idea, topic, or theme with the preceding ones.
• Incorporate repetitive elements and activities, such as discussions, as you would in a face-to-face course.
• Include summary statements after each chunk of content, transition statements connecting adjacent chunks, and introductory statements for each subsequent chunk.
• Provide a structure for learning so that students know what is expected of them and where they should go to complete assigned activities. A clearly-defined weekly or regular rhythm (like the example provided on this page) can help online learners manage their time, understand expectations, and successfully complete tasks.