Principle 1. Clear Course Design: A Definition
Provide clear expectations and explicit course learning goals to foster student success.
Design courses with appropriate learning goals and measurable outcomes that are aligned with departmental and programmatic expectations to serve both students and discipline. Student expectations are best when clearly stated and easy to understand. Feedback designed to make clear students’ progress towards meeting course expectations is most useful when offered in a timely manner to help students succeed. Clear expectations and goals help provide scaffolding for student academic growth and establish trust between the instructor and student.
When instructors make learning goals and expectations explicit to students, students are better able to meet those expectations. Explicit expectations reduce opportunities for bias, ensuring that all students understand the rules for success, and encouraging student engagement in course materials. Clear learning goals create a roadmap for instructors to design course content that is relevant to the course objectives and has clear methods of assessment. Tying individual course goals and expectations to departmental and programmatic expectations further supports students’ learning and achievement throughout the curricula.
Strategies to provide clear expectations and make learning goals explicit may include the following:
- Provide clear criteria for how work will be assessed. Make the dimensions of high-quality work clear through a rubric or other statement of the important features of the assignment.
- Provide specific, actionable, and timely feedback and help students understand the purpose of that feedback. Instructor feedback can consist of:
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- brief written or audio/video-recorded comments to highlight strengths and weaknesses
annotations on a rubric; - in-text comments on a written assignment.
- Objective feedback (scores), particularly when assessments are returned so students can view and understand mistakes.
- brief written or audio/video-recorded comments to highlight strengths and weaknesses
- Extensive written feedback is most helpful when students will revise an assignment to continue to meet learning goals. Feedback does not necessarily need to come from the instructor; students may also receive feedback from each other or reflect on their own work in light of a rubric or course learning goals.
- Design course assignments to be purposeful in moving students towards meeting class goals. Student work does not always need to receive a formal grade or extensive feedback from the instructor, but assignment design and feedback given should be context-specific to help students progress in course goals.
- Design authentic assessments that connect to real-world situations, problems, or contexts and make sure that students know the broad purpose of an assignment beyond the course itself.
- Provide models of high-quality student work, especially with annotations that make its high-quality features visible, to help students understand how to meet expectations.
- Build in early, low-stakes assessments to identify students who need extra support, and offer a range of options for assisting those students. Such supports may include additional in-person, phone, or video meetings; providing informal feedback on assignments before they are due and/or providing opportunities for revision; and connecting students with each other to form small learning communities. Reach out to students who need extra attention.
Propose a New Course
A series of three documents that support writing new course proposals that will meet the University’s requirements and lead directly into practical application: creating a course.
Plan Your Course
Using backward design ensures the essentials of a strong course: learning outcomes, a course outline, assignments, assessments, and learning activities.
Write Your Syllabus
Effective syllabi communicate essential information about the course and instructor, learning objectives, required materials, and assessments, and course calendar.
Create Assignments and Assessments
Refresh and expand your repertoire of strategies for supporting student learning through varied assignments and assessments.
Choosing Course Materials
Advice for choosing course materials that support diversity and inclusion, and using course reserves and open educational resources.
Designing Your Online Course
Online modalities require a more fully developed Canvas course and more attention to organization, clarity, technological integration, and accessibility, as well as some different approaches to engaging in active learning.
Planning a Compressed Course
Compressed or accelerated courses need special attention to course design to ensure a robust course that is manageable for both students and instructor.
Plan for Grading
Develop a strategy for grading that leverages grades to maximize learning without putting yourself into an impossible workload situation.
Academic Honesty
Strategies to cope with academic dishonesty begin with the course and assignment design but do not end there: review suggested practices as you design your course.
Practical Responses to Generative AI
ChatGPT and other AI present new challenges and opportunities for teaching and learning.
Attendance
Options and considerations as you develop your attendance policy and respond to special situations.
Plan for Disruption
Making a plan for disruption saves stress later.
Student Support Resources
Use campus resources to connect students with academic and other support offered by campus partners.
Canvas Universal Guidelines
Information about what all courses must include on Canvas.
Instructor Essentials
Information about University resources and policies relating to teaching that every instructor will need to use.
For more information or help on any of these topics, please email the Office for Faculty Excellence or make an appointment with a consultant.
Last Modified: Tuesday, January 28, 2025 4:45 pm
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