Instruction by Design | Instruction & Design

Instruction by Design Resources

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Creating Student Learning Objectives

All educational course planning should begin with learning objectives. Backward by Design is a lesson planning framework that begins with the end by establishing the learning objectives first and then aligning assessments and activities.

If you are new to Backward Design or would just like to refresh your skills, visit our Backward by Design Canvas Course

Additional resources for creating student learning objectives:

The Course Structure
Content Organization
Course Contents

The Course Structure

Whether your course is online or in person, you will want to provide your students with a course structure that is consistent, easy to navigate, and accessible to all students. Utilize your Canvas course to create a student-friendly learning environment. Consider the following when designing your Canvas course:

Create a home or landing page

When students enter your course, they should see the following:

course name and number, instructor name
course introduction
clear instructions on how to get started in the course
navigation links to commonly accessed areas in the course

Home page examples

Create a “Start Here” module

Start Here modules provide students all the necessary information to navigate the course including the syllabus, schedule, purpose, navigation, course and university resources, communication guidelines, and much more. The “Start Here” module should be accessible from the home page to provide students quick and easy access to course information. See the “Start Here” module example template for a complete list of recommended items.

“Start Here” module example

Create modules

The use of modules to organize course content supports ease of navigation for students. This form of “chunking” organizes content modules by wither weeks, units, or chapters so all relevant content is housed together in sequential order.

Module example

Content Organization

Course Contents

A final consideration when designing your instruction is the delivery of the contents. Will you include technology, are your materials accessible to all students, do your activities engage your learners? Delivery of content should be intentional, so your students are able to access materials and understand the connection between the contents and the learning objectives.

Engaging Students

Whether teaching in-person or online, student engagement should be present in your classroom. Learners need to have multiple opportunities in a variety of ways to engage with the content, the instructor, and their peers. Over the last several decades, best practices have emerged on active learning strategies to help students engage in their learning, instead of passively acquiring information. The resources listed below will help get you started with ensuring your students are engaging and not fading.

Technology

While technology is a necessary tenet of 21^st century learning, it needs to be used with purpose. There is a plethora of technology tools available for use in education, but they may not be the best for your activity or assessment. Technology should help students engage and learn the material while meeting the learning objectives. Avoid using technology for the sake of using technology,

Accessibility

Creating accessible content is not just good design, it is necessary for ADA compliance. Educators must make a “good faith effort” to ensure their course contents are accessible for all learners. The Ally tool in Canvas and the Canvas accessibility checker can assist you with making your course contents accessible.

Check back to the Instruction by Design resource page often as we will continue to update resources.