Aligning Your Course Design: Course Design Part 2 √ §

How can aligning your course design motivate students? How can alignment show students why each assignment matters? To build on our earlier course design workshop on crafting student learning outcomes, in this discussion we explore how alignment empowers students to demonstrate outcomes through the activities they do in your class. Alignment emphasizes relevance by connecting this work to students’ own goals: relevance builds motivation. In addition to showing students how assignments help them cultivate the learning outcomes, alignment draws lines to the world outside the classroom to remind students how this specific assignment builds on skills they’ve been working on, challenges them to develop these skills further, and shows how these skills are vital for their future work in the real world they dream of joining. Overall, alignment helps you to create meaningful, relevant, and motivating learning experiences for your students.

Part of a year-long series on course design, we began by discussing student learning outcomes. In spring semester, we’ll look at measuring and analyzing course design. Feel free to join one or all of these sessions.


Photo by Jason Goodman on Unsplash.