About Teaching: Designing or Revising a Course
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Identifying your Course Goals and Learning Objectives
As faculty members, we all have broad goals that we set out to accomplish in our courses. Often, these capture important domains within our fields and disciplines. Learning objectives are concrete actions of what a student should be able to do upon successful completion of the course. These can include changes in knowledge and competency areas, as well as attitudes and values.
1. Tips for Writing Learning Objectives:
- Be as specific as possible
- Be sure the outcomes are stated in terms of what the students will "know" or be able to do - this makes measuring them much easier to both understand and assess
- Work for clarity in language - remember that your audience are your students
2. Example Language for Learning Objectives:
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of basic information about ...
- Students will know the major ideas of ..., and be able to discuss their interrelationships.
- Students will be able to analyze information, and make judgments about the validity of that information.
- Students will understand the approaches and underlying values of ...
- Students will be able to communicate their knowledge about this subject orally and in writing, to a variety of audiences.
- Students will be able to apply the course information and skills to real world situations.
- Students will have a greater appreciation for and interest in ...
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All faculty should provide students with a printed syllabus during the first class meeting. A course syllabus is essentially a contract between the instructor and the student and is a vital tool for communicating expectations between students and faculty. A well-constructed syllabus provides a roadmap for the course, answers frequently asked questions, can help to lessen student anxiety, and allows the faculty member to concentrate on instruction. The enclosed checklist can assist you in determining whether your syllabus includes all of the components considered essential.
1. Basic Information
- About you (and your TA): name, title address, office/(home) phone numbers,
office hours, restrictions on calls to home, message arrangements, E-mail
address, and website if any.
- Course by #, section,
title, credit hours, meeting days and times, room, and building.
- Prerequisites (course
and/or skills)
- Required purchases:
texts and supplies.
- Space for names
and telephone numbers of at least two classmates. Ask students to fill
this in on the first day - this connects them with others in the class,
gives them someone to contact about questions, and starts to build a community
in the classroom.
2. Course Descriptions and Objectives
- Description of the course. Why do people study this area of knowledge?
- Course goals and
objectives. What factual material, characteristics, qualities, abilities,
or competencies do you expect the student to have mastered at the end
of the course?
- What is the value
of the course to the student? And how does this particular course fit
into the student's discipline or gen ed requirement?  
- Why is the course
content arranged in this order?
- How will instruction
be handled: lectures, discussions, group work, labs, etc?
3. Grading and Course Requirements
- Grading standards, weight, and criteria for each graded component
to be included in the final grade. This may include points for class participation.
- Course assignments
and projects: due dates, format suggestions/requirements, level/type of
research expected, approximate length, criteria for grading. And an explanation
of the purpose of each assignment and project.
4. General Course Policies
- Policies regarding attendance and participation. If participation is included
in the grade, how do you define and measure participation?
- Policy regarding late assignments, make-up exams, and extra credit.
- Policy regarding incompletes
- Policy on electronic devices (cell phones, pagers, etc)
5. University Requirements
6. Tentative Course Schedule
- Topics to be covered in sequence with dates.
- Dues dates for reading assignments, projects, exams, etc.
7 Student Resources on Campus (as appropriate)
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Tips for Designing Effective Assignments
Relate your assignments to your course learning goals and objectives. For each assignment, know what you expect beforehand in terms of content, structure, level of work, length. Base your evaluation criteria on these expected outcomes.
Clearly communicate these expectations to your students through detailed assignment guidelines, evaluation criteria, and grading rubrics.
Ask a colleague to review your assignment for clarity.
Create opportunities for student feedback before the final submission for major assignments. This requires that students start early, allows you to clarify expectations, and can result in better outcomes. Possible strategies include:
- reading outlines, drafts, and/or annotated bibliographies
- requiring peer reviews
- having a designated place in Blackboard CE6 (or other electronic platform) for posting questions and answers
- showing them examples from previous students on the assignment (choose successful examples and be sure to get permission to use them)
Modify your expectations if they turn out to be highly unrealistic. If an assignment proves to be too tough for the class, go over aspects of it and allow students to revise it for a new grade.
Ask students to turn in a self-assessment using the evaluation criteria and/or grading rubric.
Keep a record of what you liked about the assignment and what you would do differently the next time to improve students' learning outcomes. You can also ask students for feedback on the assignment as part of your final course evaluation.
Final Thought:
Remember that designing effective assignments is an iterative process that requires reflection and a willingness to experiment with new ideas.
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Tips for Designing Effective Exams
The types of exams you give, in terms of material included, ways of asking questions, and levels of thinking required, set the tone for the course. If you want students to analyze, synthesize, and critically assess, your exams must reflect this. If you ask questions which only require reiteration of facts, then that is the level at which the student will approach the course. Equally importantly, your approach to teaching (e.g., what you concentrate on in lecture, discussion, labs, and other classroom activities) should mirror what you expect students to know for the exams.
Relate your exams to your course learning goals and objectives. List the important concepts, principles, and skills you want students to master. Then list the various ways in which you have taught the material and fluencies you want the student achieve.
Use a variety of types of questions (e.g., multiple choice, short answer, matching, essay) that match up with the concepts, principles and skills you listed. Provide students various ways of demonstrating their knowledge and skills.
Assess for major ideas and key concepts, not details (e.g., rather than ask for exact date of an event important, ask about the event's impact, or what precipitated it).
Manage your time so that you are not writing an exam in one sitting. Try writing down one or two items that relate to each class session just afterwards. When you are ready to draft your exam, examine these items, in concert with your goals for the course.
Use homework or in-class activities to give students practice at responding to items like those you will use on the exam.
Ask your TAs or a colleague to review an exam for clarity before you finalize it.
You may want to let students bring a "memory jogger" card to class, with important facts, figures, and/or equations, etc. It means you can ask more sophisticated questions and the act of deciding what to put on the card is a great study experience for the students.
Final Thought:
Think about ways to get the students to learn what they didn't know on the exam. You might redesign or create new assignments, encourage students to come to your office hours, schedule a review session, or let students rewrite part of an exam for partial credit.
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