Teaching Excellence Handbook

Before you start to prepare for teaching the course, determine what you and your department want the students to have achieved by the end of the course. List 3-4 goals that state these desired learning achievements. It is important then to think about learning outcomes that students must demonstrate in order to assure that they’ve achieved the learning goals for the course. See Student Outcomes, Expectations, & Feedback for more information on writing student learning outcomes (SLO’s).

Then step back and think about what the students are going to have to understand and be able to do to accomplish these outcomes. In order to accomplish these outcomes, what information, concepts, and principles must they comprehend? How could they work with a project that was relevant to real-world application of the content? Think about assignments and in-class exercises that students could work with that would facilitate their learning in order to achieve these outcomes.

Next. think about what evidence the students should produce to show that they’ve accomplished the outcomes? Will producing a paper or presenting to the class provide this evidence? How will you assess the evidence the students produce? Will you use tests or other assessment measures? Make sure your assessments match the learning goals you want your students to achieve. For example, if you want your students to learn to think critically about a problem in your field, then use an assessment tool that will tell you if the students are performing at this level.

Learning outcomes, assessments, and learning experiences should align for your course. For each outcome, there must be a learning experience that will assist students to achieve that outcome and an assessment that will allow you to determine if the student has accomplished the expected outcome. 

Planning for engaged learning

Engaged learning provides opportunities for student interaction with the course materials, the instructor, and other students. When students are engaged they are exploring and applying the content in ways that are meaningful to them. Classes can be designed to provide engaged learning opportunities such as small group problem solving, classroom discussion, and conducting experiments. These students have the opportunity to build upon their prior knowledge through actual application of new knowledge. Engaged learning facilitates critical thinking, oral and written communication, and teamwork.

In order to plan for engaged learning in your course you will need to think beyond delivery of content via such methods as lecture and assigned readings. Often engaged learning classes are designed for students to read and process content before coming to class where application occurs. Chapters 5 and 6 provide more information about engaged learning.

CLEAR, the Center for Learning Enhancement, Assessment and Redesign (clear.unt.edu), provides consultants, online modules, and tools to assist you in preparing for engaged learning in your course.