Let Learning (Not a Textbook) Shape Your Course Design

Fall probably seems like a low priority when you’re in the throes of midterm; but choosing a text or resources should actually come at the end of your course design process, so it’s worth taking some time now to reflect on your goals for your fall courses. You might even find that you don’t want to order a textbook at all, but might be better served by open education resources.

Your textbook can easily lure you into a content trap. Textbooks are crammed with material; they get longer every year, updated with new discoveries, and we want to make sure our students get their money’s worth… but the frantic pace actually undermines learning (Nelson, 1999). Learning requires time and sustained attention: students need practice, feedback, and reflection. If we want them to remember and be able to use the concepts we’re teaching, then we have to prioritize. To give students substantive experience with the most important skills and ideas, we have to eliminate others. We’re not just content experts: we’re engineers, crafting a learning experience for our students. You will build a better course if, instead of starting with the text, you begin by identifying the learning goals that are meaningful to you, and critical for your students’ future success. What do you really want your students to know or be able to do when they’ve successfully completed your course? What must they be able to do well next semester, or five years from now? Material that doesn’t facilitate those goals doesn’t belong in the course, however interesting it might be.

Once you’ve figured out what students need to master, you can determine the best way for them to provide evidence of their learning. What would successful performance look like? Then you can design opportunities for them to practice that thinking. When your course is aligned and intentional, you’ll be able to gauge your students’ learning accurately, and they’ll have a good sense of how they’re doing. What materials they’ll need (i.e. what—if any—text) will be one of the final decisions you make; and there are more and more free resources available, so you can select exactly what they’ll need, rather than a generic compendium.

Backward-designing your course in this way isn’t quick or easy, but it is highly effective, and the results are gratifying. The “Self-Directed Guide to Designing Courses for Significant Learning,” by L. Dee Fink, can get you started.