Understanding by Design (UbD)

Understanding By Design Overview

The Understanding by Design (UbD), also known as backwards design model, is a framework for curriculum design that focuses on learning outcomes and learning for understanding. Essential to UbD is the idea of backward design. The UbD model starts with the end goal in mind instead of starting with content, delivery, or activities.

• • Learning designers first identify the understandings, knowledge, and essential skills students should demonstrate by the end of the learning experience, which are referred to as "enduring understandings."

  • Learning designers develop assessments and/or performance tasks that authentically determine whether students have shown proficiency with the enduring understandings.

  • Learning designers then plan and create instructional activities and materials. The backward planning process helps the learning designer verify that curriculum and instruction are aligned with objectives.

According to Wiggins & McTighe (2011), there are seven tenets (or principles) that guide the UbD framework:

• 1. Learning is enhanced when teachers think purposefully about curricular planning. 

  2. Focus curriculum and teaching on the development and deepening of student understanding and transfer of learning.

  3. Understanding is revealed when students autonomously make sense of and transfer their learning through authentic performance. Six facets of understanding are indicators of understanding: the capacity to explain, interpret, apply, shift perspective, empathize, and self-assess.

  4. Effective curriculum is planned backward from long-term, desired results through a three-stage design process (Desired Results, Evidence, and Learning Plan). This avoids the common tendency to treat the textbook as the curriculum rather than a resource. It also avoids activity-oriented teaching in which no clear priorities and purposes are obvious.

  5. Teachers are coaches of understanding, not purveyors of content knowledge, skill, or activity. They ensure earning happens and not just deliver information (not assuming that what was taught was learned); they check for successful meaning-making and transfer by the learner.

  6. Regularly reviewing units and curriculum against design standards enhances curricular quality and effectiveness.

  7. Reflects a continual improvement approach to student achievement and teacher craft by informing necessary adjustments in curriculum and instruction.

Implications for Corporate Training

UbD can be applied to develop training programs that directly cater to company objectives or training needs.  The backward design nature of UbD helps learning designers first determine the goals and objectives of a learning experience and then design relevant learning activities, simulations, courses, etc that tie directly to the goals and objectives. Equally as important, learning designers create  assessments that measure knowledge acquisition in the form of application of skills, often in real-world scenarios. The primary purpose is to ensure that employees can apply what they've learned to enhance their job performance.

Opinions on the Strengths of the UbD Model

• • Emphasis on Learning Outcomes using Backward Design: the learning designer makes sure that instructional goals are well-defined, aligned with standards, and focused on fostering deep understanding. This is done by thinking about what the end result should be. I have engaged in backwards design many times in my career and it is essential to planning. It is akin to planning a vacation- first you must know the destination before determining how to get there or where you might stay or what you might eat. The destination when planning for a learning experience must also be first. UbD is different from ADDIE and Dick and Carey because of it's strong emphasis on first knowing the end result.

  • Focus on Understanding: UbD prioritizes understanding rather than rote memorization or surface-level learning. "Covering" material is not acceptable! The learning designer must design experiences that promote higher-order thinking skills and meaningful comprehension. This is something I have worked on for my entire career in education (20+ years!). When an activity is not catering to higher levels of cognition or comprehension, I find ways to adjust the activity to do so. 

Opinions on the Limitations of the UbD Model

• • Complexity: This model is complex and time-consuming to work from. While the robust templates are comprehensive, in my opinion, not all aspects of them are helpful. I personally don't prefer this model in its entirety but rather would prefer  a hybrid of this model with something like ADDIE but with the UbD backward design component. Although the UbD model is complex, it doesn't address the analysis phase as in depth as ADDIE or Dick and Carey. 

  • Assessment Challenges: Designing authentic assessments can be challenging. Creating assessments that accurately measure deep understanding and transfer of knowledge requires careful thought and expertise. This is an area where I have a good deal of experience so I personally don't find this model to be a challenge in this regard, but newer learning designers might