David Baume forQueens University Belfast Course Design for Increased Student Satisfaction

Course Design for Increased Student Satisfaction

Facilitated by David Baume PhD SFSEDA FHEA

Aims

This workshop aims to suggest a particularly productive approach to designing courses, and to give participants the opportunity to apply this approach to a current or planned course.

Intended Outcomes

By the end of the workshop, I hope that participants will have begun to:

  • Review one of their current courses with respect to the nature and quality of student work that it generates,
  • Redesign the course as a sequence or network of learning activities, and
  • Plan how they will work, alone and with colleagues, to develop their course further, adapting and using ideas from the workshop and the booklet.

Introduction

What is a course?

We might think that a course is:

  1. A set of content, to be taught to students. We might also call this a syllabus, or a curriculum.
  2. A series of lessons or classes, in which we will teach the content to the students.
  3. Either or both of the above, together with processes for assessment and giving feedback.
  4. Something else again.

I want to suggest another way of answering the question "What is a course?"Like each of the descriptions above, the way I shall describe a course is neither wrong nor right. But I shall try to persuade you that it's useful. I shall try to persuade you that it can lead to good student learning, and make good use of your time and the time of your students. So:

  1. A course is the work that students do, and the ways in which we help them to do this work, towards achieving the goals of the course.

Why do I describe a course in this way?

People learn when, among other conditions, they:

  1. Have a clear sense of the direction, purpose and goals for their learning.
  2. Value these goals, and want to achieve them.
  3. Do work that will help them to achieve these goals.
  4. Are supported in working towards these goals.
  5. Receive feedback so that they know they are making progress towards these goals.

Planning a course

Starting from this description of a course as the work that students do towards goals, and the ways in which we support them, a four-stage model is shown for planning a course. This model also leads to a clear and useful description of the course, clear both to those who will run the course and those who will study the course. To show how the model works, it is applied here to the current workshop:

Stage / Questions to answer to design the course / Comments on answering this question to plan a course / Applying this stage to the current workshop
Goals / What is the course intended to achieve?
What should students be able to do by the end of the course? / Answering these questions; in a clear, attractive, honest, engaging way; is a vital first step in planning any course. Once the overall aims and learning outcomes of the course are clear, the course is easier to plan, teach, study, and succeed on. / The aims and intended outcomes of this workshop are described on the previous page.
Assessment / How will we and students know if students have achieved these goals? / There are at least two reasons toconsider assessment this early in the course design process:
- If you can't see how to assess achievement of the learning outcome, there may be a problem with the learning outcome; and
- A valid final assessment task gives a clear direction for the course. / This workshop uses self and peer assessment. You and your colleagues can judge how well you have planned your new or revised course. Assessment, in the form of feedback, may also be provided by the facilitator.
Learning Activities / What learning activities will students do to help them achieve these goals? / A useful model of learning suggests that we learn by doing small, simple tasks; receiving feedback; exploring some new ideas and approaches; then using these to undertake larger and more complex tasks. And so on throughout the course. / The learning activities for this workshop are, unsurprisingly,to apply each of these four stages to course you are working on.
Support / How will you support and resource students to achieve, and to know that they have achieved, these goals? / Support may include:
- Designing learning activities for students to undertake inside and outside class
- Helping students to manage, plan and review their learning and their approaches to study
- Explaining new concepts and methods
- Ensuring students get feedback on their work, from you and other students
- Helping students to locate, judge and use appropriate learning resources / Support on this workshop will come from your fellow participants and from the facilitator. Forms of support will include:
- Introductions to each stage of the course design process;
- Consultations as you work through each stage; and
- The chance to review and share with colleagues and the facilitator the work that you have done.

Sources

Baume, D. (2009). Course Design for Increased Student Satisfaction. Leeds, Leeds Metropolitan University.

Baume, D. (2009). Writing and Using Good Learning Outcomes. Leeds, Leeds Metropolitan University.

Created on 05/04/2011 16: Page 1 of 2