Feedback is one of the most valuable tools available to instructors, designers, and students. When students invest their time and creativity in an assignment, instructor feedback provides them an opportunity to know what they excelled in, as well as what still needs improvement. Authentic feedback between an instructor and student creates a conversation that is conducive to learning and growing. Similarly, after countless hours are spent designing a curriculum and developing a course--whether online, on-site, or a hybrid of the two--feedback provides instructors a path to continue improving the course for an impactful student experience. When we bring students into the conversation by requesting their feedback on specific elements of a course, we have the opportunity to showcase more diverse backgrounds and voices, employ current applications and content, and establish an environment that makes students feel valued and heard. This article explores how to create space for feedback, what...

Why are some courses a dynamic, meaningful, and lasting experience, while others inspire lukewarm engagement and results despite the instructor’s best efforts? In his excellent new book, Super Courses: The Future of Teaching and Learning , higher-education and pedagogy expert, Ken Bain, goes beyond typical course checklists and explores how teachers foster a natural critical learning environment, where activities and collaborations are designed around questions and challenges that students are intrinsically curious about and find deep and emotional value in solving. The book is filled with stories and syllabi of real-life examples of these super courses and begins with a concise analysis of 18 characteristics that were consistently observed in Bain’s research. Here are the 18 characteristics, paraphrased for brevity, and supplemented with examples that could be used in face-to-face, hybrid, or fully online courses: Core course design and policy: The course is centered around big, inte...

Despite the best efforts of the instructor or designer of a course, instructional efforts can often fall flat due to poor planning and implementation. Courses are often designed around learning materials rather than around what skills or knowledge students should have at the end of the course. This can potentially lead to disengagement from students, content bloat, burdened student cognitive loads, and ineffectual or sub-premium learning experiences. Backward Design, formalized and outlined by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe , aims to alleviate this issue through planning and consideration designed around student learning outcomes. In this TeachT@lk, Jeremy Hopper and Haily Tyler discuss the benefits of the Backward Design framework. Where to Begin? As the name would suggest, backward design starts at the end and works backward. In this case, the end is the learning objectives or learning goals. In other words, what the students should know or be able to do by the end of the course. ...

Writing strong objectives for your course can help you : plan better assignments assess students easier communicate clearly to students Strong objectives can help students : understand what they are learning why they are learning it how to meet the requirements of the course Finally, objectives help align institution, program and courses to meet the learning needs of the community. During our webinar, we discussed the steps to writing objectives , including choosing verbs from Bloom's Taxonomy . We demonstrated a couple of  technologies to help you write them like ASU's Objective Builder. We also took time to practice evaluating and writing our own objectives. Below are some of the resources that were shared. Resources: PowerPoint Slides Video recording of Webinar Technologies   ASU's Objective Builder Easy Generator The Padagogy Wheel Other Resources: Writing Measurable Learning Objectives Course Objectives and Learning Outcomes  ABCD M...