What are Course Outcomes?

How Do Outcomes Affect Course Design?

How do students typically learn during your in-class meetings? What are your desired outcomes for each class session? What are successful students able to measurably do after a given session?

• Do you typically provide content, explanations, or clarifications through lectures?
• Do students engage content through large or small group discussion?
• Do students learn from each other through student presentations?
• Do students spend class time practicing skills or hands-on exploration?

Once you know what student learning experiences you need to teach remotely, decide whether synchronous or asynchronous options suit your needsCourse outcomes are the 4-6 measurable goals of your course. Course outcomes are written from the student's perspective, and tell what a student should be able to accomplish if they are successful in the course.

What is Backwards Design?

To design your course based on your outcomes, you can use a method called backwards design. The design method starts with the end-goal in mind: what students should be able to accomplish at the end of a course (course outcomes). Then, from those measurable goals, you identify the assessments that would measure those outcomes. After identifying the assessments, you can identify the instruction and activities students need in order to be successful in those assessments. While this is can be used as a large-scale course design method, you can use this method to organize units and lessons as well. Simply identify the goals of the session or unit and work backwards from there. This method allows for efficient course design by cutting out any assessments, learning activities, and instruction that does not prepare students to successfully accomplish the course outcomes.