Whether you’re designing a course to consolidate prior knowledge in your team or are looking to introduce entirely new material to help your employees upskill, it’s essential to approach your course design process with conscious consideration.
While most businesses understand the importance of continued learning and development, designing a course that suits your team’s different learning styles and increases performance outcomes is a specialised field. Creating active learning experiences that increase student engagement and build on prior knowledge is a skill developed over time.
Course design is an art form — it includes creating compelling learning materials and enriching learning environments that inspire students to expand their knowledge and cultivate new skills.
This intricate process requires conscious strategising to create a course that nurtures and empowers students. While the strategy behind the design generally remains hidden behind the learning, it involves purposeful decisions regarding what, when, where, and how the students learn. This may seem daunting initially, but preparing course materials and delineating delivery modes will ensure nobody’s time is wasted and student learning is optimised.
Deliberate course design ensures your students engage in meaningful learning experiences and gain transferable skills they can leverage in their day-to-role in the workplace.
In this article, we’ll define types of course design, best practices for course design and development, and mistakes to avoid when designing for a hybrid learning environment. We’ll also discuss how you can embrace diversity in your students, encourage active engagement, and maximise learning outcomes.
Types of course design
Course design, or curriculum design, involves an educator (or team of educators) planning learning activities and evaluation strategies to create meaningful and engaging learning experiences. It involves planning units of study and collating course materials and exercises that meet the needs of students with different learning styles.
As students exhibit a spectrum of differences, spanning diverse learning styles and capacities, inclusive course design proactively envisions this array of distinctions. It seeks to accommodate varying learning modalities and proficiencies without compromising academic rigour.
Three widely recognised course design models can be used in course development — subject-centred, learner-centred, and problem-centred.
Subject-centred
Subject-centred course design focuses on the key facts, figures and skills associated with the field of study in question. Learning activities, assignments and assessments are focused around these central ideas and are designed to give students a broad overview of the subject.
Subject-centred course design often forms the basis of introductory-level undergraduate courses, with the aim of giving students a foundational understanding on which to build as they continue their higher education journey. Subject-centred courses sometimes come under scrutiny for their focus on memorising information rather than the real-world application of skills.
Learner–centred
Learner-centred curriculum design focuses on the specific needs of the students for whom the course is designed. Instructors using this design method will generally survey their students before developing their course material to understand students’ existing knowledge of the subject matter, preferred learning methods and expectations of the learning process. This information then shapes the course design process to ensure the best possible outcomes.
Learner-centred design considers students’ career aspirations and interests and encourages students to define and develop learning outcomes actively. A learner-centred approach can enhance training by promoting active learning and upskilling.
Problem-centred
Problem-centred curriculum models focus on developing soft skills such as collaboration, communication and critical thinking. Syllabi typically encourage students to examine and solve real-world problems as they're designed to prepare students to transfer the learnings to their careers. While students are still introduced to key ideas and concepts in their field of study, the delivery of this material focuses on real-world relevance and application. This model is favoured in final-year university subjects and corporate learning and development courses.
How to design a course
Syllabus and course design writing require conscious consideration and revision. Course designers should collaborate with fellow instructors to discuss the course’s objectives, guiding pedagogical principles, covered subject matter, instructional approaches, established guidelines, and distinct obligations allocated to each instructor.
The following process will help to guide your course design process.
1. Set the course goals
No matter the subject matter or level of student expertise, setting course goals is the perfect place to start when designing a course. If you don’t know what you want your students to gain from their learnings, you’re essentially driving blind. Defining course goals allows you to make practical decisions about what content to include, which learning methods are appropriate and how you’ll assess students throughout the educational journey.
You can begin defining the goals for your course by asking yourself the following questions:
- What skills do you want the students to gain?
- In 5 years, what do you want your students to remember from the course?
- What level is the course aimed at? Is it an introduction to the topic, or do your students have an existing level of knowledge you can build on?
At this stage of the process, a valuable resource to employ is Bloom’s Taxonomy. With its roots in 1950s educational psychology, this recently reënvisioned framework details six levels that can be used to structure your course's learning outcomes, lessons, and assessments.
While detailing Bloom’s educational ideologies is far beyond the scope of this article, here are some key takeaways for you to consider:
- Before you can understand a concept, you must remember it.
- To apply a concept, you must first understand it.
- To evaluate a process, you must have analysed it.
- To create an accurate conclusion, you must have completed a thorough evaluation.
2. Select course content
Once you have defined your students’ learning goals, you can begin to select your course content. Start by looking at any previous available syllabi and textbooks on your key subject areas to determine the consensus around the most important subjects within the discipline.
Collate as many resources as you can and then refine your course content by considering your student learning objectives, learning environment and characteristics of your students. Finally, begin to structure the content in a logical and ordered way.
3. Develop the teaching method
Now that you have defined the learning objectives and content for your course, it’s time to think about how you’ll deliver the content. Your delivery methods and learning resources should be selected based on your class size and their ability to guide your students towards the course goals.
Key elements to consider at this stage are:
- Using a range of learning methods to suit different learning styles.
- Whether the teaching practices will help achieve the desired learning outcomes.
- How can you adapt your teaching style to meet your student's needs?
4. Plan the course schedule
Planning your course schedule is one of the most important- and challenging- course design and development elements.
To provide students with as much information as possible, teaching staff often fall into the trap of trying to pack too much into each class. Remember that your students’ working memory can only hold about 3-4 pieces of information at a time. Therefore, it is important to space out the schedule and map out time for active learning in your syllabus. This may include offering activities such as field trips and other opportunities for your students to practice their new skills.
Furthermore, you should consult the academic calendar and consider holidays and significant events. Ensure your material is paced to allow students enough time to prepare for and deliver exams and assignments.
5. Write the course syllabus
Writing a comprehensive course syllabus is essential in course design. At a minimum, your course syllabus should include basic information such as the course title and delivery method, resources and texts, and assessment methods.
An effective course syllabus serves several purposes, including:
- Setting the tone for the course
- Defining what, how and when the students will learn
- Clarifies what students will need to do to be successful
- Communicates student responsibilities
- Delineates course policies
6. Review the course
The final step in the syllabus and course design writing is ongoing. Whether designing an entirely new course or redeveloping long-standing resources, this part of the process is cyclical, and best practice involves continual revision.
The elements in the cycle include:
- Defining course goals
- Selecting content and teaching strategies
- Evaluating student outcomes
- Analysing and revising the course
During the review process, it’s vital to remember the teaching core concepts and critical-thinking skills. Refer back to Bloom’s taxonomy to prioritise developing higher-level thinking skills.
Course design mistakes to avoid
With the increasing move to hybrid study and work, many courses are moving to online delivery. While this makes learning more flexible and accessible, research has shown that this has been the cause of disconnect and conflict in certain areas.
Here are some common design mistakes you should plan to avoid.
Using offline delivery modes online
While lecture slides work in a classroom environment where a lecturer can bring them to life, they don’t necessarily work online. Expecting offline learning modes to translate to the cloud is one of course designers' greatest mistakes. Content delivered via online modules should be interactive, including various instructional technology, multimedia and activities to ensure students remain engaged.
Forgetting to define measurable course outcomes
In the move to online learning, a more relaxed approach has seen course outcomes fall to the back burner. However, a well-designed course must have defined and measurable results for its students. Effective student learning depends upon people being able to evaluate their growth at each stage of the course. Knowing the skills and information they should gain throughout the course empowers and motivates students to take control of their learning journey.
Missing opportunities for active participation
While online learning has opened up many study opportunities, poor design can mean technology takes over and leads to a view-only learning experience. While digital multimedia such as videos, photos, and social media content can be a great way to contextualise access material, students need to put their learnings into practice for their new knowledge to really ‘stick’.
Make sure you include opportunities for practical engagement. This may consist of creating group video meetings, interactive assessments, or including field trips to ensure your students remain active participants in their learning.
Co-design courses with UTS
At Plus UTS, we understand that engaged learners are better learners. Plus UTS builds blended learning experiences designed to deliver outcomes, whether face-to-face, online or a mix of both.
Our courses are versatile, catering to various industries through industry-agnostic content or tailored experiences with sector-specific case studies and relevant assessments. Furthermore, we’re equipped to collaborate closely with your subject matter experts to craft custom learning solutions from the ground up.
By partnering with Plus UTS, you’re providing forward-looking education, equipping individuals with the skills necessary for the future.
