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1 media/noun_Pencil_3505653_thumb.png 2020-08-28T11:20:39-07:00 Emily Stenberg d6a6bb12fd4bf8d4cfa2693e85dd60fabe37afe5 37690 4 Pencil by iejank from the Noun Project plain 2020-08-30T15:28:07-07:00 Pencil by iejank from the Noun Project Emily Stenberg d6a6bb12fd4bf8d4cfa2693e85dd60fabe37afe5This page is referenced by:
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Creating Adaptable Assessments, Assignments, and Activities
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Now more than ever we need to be adaptable in our course design. To achieve this, we can think about the ways in which we approach assessment, assignments, and activities, incorporating as much flexibility as possible. As you read through this content, keep your purpose and learning outcomes in the forefront of your mind.
How can you use your purpose and outcomes to design assessments, assignments, and activities for your course?
Incorporating UDL into your online teaching can help you move toward a more engaged, equitable, and accessible classroom. It is not a panacea for challenges that arise in online learning; however, it does offer a framework for reducing barriers and maximizing learning for all learners.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL)Reflect on the Qualities of an Adaptive Course and Course Components.
- What seems actionable?
- What are you already doing?
- What do you want to learn more about?
- How can you create a more level playing field for your students?
- What are the concepts students routinely misunderstand?
Engagement: optimize relevance and authenticity, discuss learning goals, offer opportunities for reflection Representation: clarify what students need to know, provide background information, offer alternatives for presentation of this information Action & Expression: vary methods for responding to assignment; support student goals and project management, allow students to use multiple tools for constructing their work Purpose - What is the purpose of this activity?
- What are students expected to demonstrate?
- How does this connect to their personal life?
Task - What is the first step to take on an assignment?
- What are the remaining tasks?
- How can students get themselves unstuck?
- How can students complete tasks to get the most out of them?
Criteria for success - What does “good” work look like in your class? For this assignment?
- How will you communicate this to students?
Activity and Assignment Examples
Further Reading
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Backward Design
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A Brief Introduction to Backward Design
There are many course design processes to use to create a course. This Schema takes you through one of those processes: Backwards Design. This is a process of intentionally designing your course using the WHY we discovered in the first part of this Schema as a focal point.You can start with what you want your students to know and do AND your WHY. Then, work your way through assessments, assignments, and activities that will get to your desired destination.
"But if I don't get all the way there by the time the semester starts, if I've really thought through the learning outcomes, and I’ve really thought [through] their assessment [...], I'm going to have the big milestones done and then I'll be able to just keep up a couple weeks ahead, maybe a day ahead." -- Bonni Stachowiak, Inside HigherEd 05/13/2020
First, start by aligning your WHYs with what you want the students to understand, or your overarching big picture learning goals. These are your Enduring Understandings and Essential Questions.
Write down your educational purpose and your course goals. This is available as a worksheet in the How workbook.
Your Educational Purpose Your Course Goals Further Reading
- Understanding by Design by Wiggins and McTighe (WashU catalog)
- A Self-Directed Guide to Designing Course for Significant Learning by Dee Fink (PDF)
- Small Teaching Online by Darby Flower (WashU catalog)
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Creating Learning Outcomes
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Learning outcomes should be aligned to, or reflect, the Enduring Understandings and Essential Questions. Learning outcomes will be written in a way that operationalizes the understandings in order for the outcomes to be assessable during the course.
Dee Fink proposes six dimensions of learning in his Taxonomy of Significant Learning (p. 11).
Learning outcomes can be constructed to reflect these dimensions as you build a more socially conscious course.
To create your social impact outcomes, reflect on the dimensions of learning and the questions above. You can have a learning outcome that addresses all dimensions, or just a few. Then, use the following formula to create an outcome that relates to the dimensions you want to highlight in your course.
Students will be able to + Action VERB + knowledge, skill, or behavior you want students to learn. Students will be able to + Students will be able to + Students will be able to + Further Reading
- Going beyond Bloom’s for learning outcomes and objectives. BYU Center for Teaching and Learning.
- See Bloom’s Taxonomy for levels of learning and associated verbs.
- Jeremy Branzetti, Michael A. Gisondi, Laura R. Hopson & Linda Regan (2019). Aiming Beyond Competent: The Application of the Taxonomy of Significant Learning to Medical Education. Teaching and Learning in Medicine, 31:4, 466-478, DOI: 10.1080/10401334.2018.1561368