My goal as the Instructional Designer (and Instructor) was to make the task of arriving at a theatrical production concept clearer to learners. As a theatre artist and director, I'm intensely familiar with how it's done, but I know it's not self-explanatory. So throughout this design process, I attempted to design a sequence of activities and assessments that increases in complexity, works its way up Bloom's Taxonomy, and progresses from Absorb to Do to Connect. I also wanted to make sure I provided opportunities for social learning, since theatre is a collaborative art.

Full disclosure: I also acted as the SME (Subject Matter Expert) in this process. I have taught different iterations of the Intro to Theatre course over the past decade, so I was working from an established and familiar semester-long curriculum. In some cases I was able to make minor tweaks to my existing plans, but I did find myself conceiving multiple brand new activities and assessments.

One major decision I made during the process was to pay more attention to the principles of Universal Design for Learning, specifically Engagement. Since previous learners had expressed displeasure and an inability to see the relevance of the course to their future careers, I reframed the summative assessment as a pitch. Quite a few PCA 125 students also major in Business or Economics, so they will probably find themselves making pitches after graduation. I also gave learners more autonomy by allowing them to choose their own sources of inspiration for their production concepts. Hopefully that will make it easier for learners to emotionally invest in the project.

The other major decision I made was to use more scaffolding in the lesson planning, and I would not have arrived at that decision if I hadn't articulated the terminal and enabling objectives in a logical sequence. The specific activities and assessments I came up with for each objective give learners more chances to practice the tasks that comprise the summative assessment. (This is where the idea for my new Connect Activity came from.) Now they can work their way up to the final project.

This project and this class have enabled me to be more methodical in the way I design instruction. I often forget that learners do not know the course material the way I do - they need to be guided through the learning process. Taking the time to create the alignment chart forced me to take my time, break things down, and put myself in the perspective of the learners.