Introduction to Functional Course Design
About the 51福利社 Functional Course Design Guide
This guide has been created to support 51福利社 instructors in the design and development of courses for all modalities, helping them to create learning experiences that meet instructional goals and outcomes, encourage interaction between the learner and instructor, and allow for learner-self directedness. The guide is also explicitly designed to help instructors leverage Elearning (51福利社鈥檚 online learning management system) tools to create a navigable, accessible, and supportive learning experience.
This guide will provide resources and step-by-step guidance to support instructors in:
Conducting a learner analysis: Gather key information about learners to inform course design decisions and develop targeted learning objectives.
Aligning and outlining course components: Use a variety of templates to break down outcomes, develop key assessments, and outline objectives, activities, and assessments to scaffold learning.
Designing a syllabus and schedule: Consider best practices and templates for developing accessible documents that align with university standards.
Leveraging Elearning tools: Integrate course components into Elearning to create consistency and enhance navigation, accessibility, and interaction.
Applying a functional course review: Consider course function based on standards for navigation, alignment, interaction and accessibility.
Evaluating design effectiveness: Gather student feedback to identify strengths and areas for refinement that will enhance future course iterations.
The Course Development Process
The 51福利社x Instructional Design and Development (IDD) team collaborates with instructors and staff to imagine, design, and realize ideas that transform and enhance the learning experience. The Course Development Process, which can be applied to new courses, new modalities, or new iterations of a course, is an important example of this collaboration.
The four-phase Course Development Process outlined below provides a framework for functional course design. By working through each stage independently, or in collaboration with an instructional designer, instructors and other subject-matter experts can create learning experiences with clearly aligned outcomes, activities, and assessments. Using Elearning to guide students through those experiences, instructors can also create courses that meet learner needs and expectations for navigation, accessibility, and interaction.
Following a systematic instructional design process allows instructors to apply evidence-based, best practices in course design to promote learning, satisfaction, and success in all modalities. By incorporating Elearning in that design, instructors can also more aptly support learner self-directedness, communication, and interaction. Additionally, collaborating with an instructional designer can support instructors in thinking through a variety of strategies, approaches, and perspectives to make teaching and learning more manageable. For this reason, any instructor or staff member who is interested in collaborating on any aspect of the design and development process is encouraged to connect with the IDD team. If it is for learners at 51福利社, the IDD team is available to help.
51福利社's Stipend Eligible Course Development Agreement
Per , with the support of their department chair and approval by their dean, instructors 51福利社 Michigan University may be eligible to receive a stipend for the collaborative design and development of an online course. Depending on departmental need, however, other course modalities may also be stipend eligible.
Note: Stipend payments are managed by and paid through individual department or college business offices.
- The instructor meets with their chair and/or dean to determine eligibility for stipend according to department and/or college procedures.
- The instructor completes a .
- The department or college reviews the CDA, approves the Course Development, and notifies the Instructional Design and Development team.
- An Instructional Designer (ID) reaches out to the instructor to begin collaboration on the Course Development Process.
- At the conclusion of Phase 2 of the Course Development Process, the instructor completes the Course Design Storyboard outlining the course.
- The ID reviews the Storyboard and offers feedback to support development.
- Once storyboard feedback is reviewed by the instructor, the ID recommends payment of the first half of the stipend.
- The instructor curates and creates learning materials and activities to be included in a template course with support, as needed, from the ID.
- The instructor works, as needed, with the ID, Instructional Technology, and Accessibility teams to build out a template course in Elearning.
- At the conclusion of Phase 4 of the Course Development Process, the instructor and an ID reviewer apply the Functional Course Review Checklist to the course, adjusting the course template as needed.
- Upon the instructor鈥檚 completion of the review process, the ID recommends payment of the second half of the stipend.
Guiding Documents for Design and Development
Functional Course Design is focused on the creation of navigable, accessible, and interactive learning experiences for learners that are supported, regardless of modality, by Elearning. Broken down into ten steps, the documents described below offer support for conceptualizing, implementing, and iterating on course design.
Phase 1: Ideation
Step 1: Pre-Design Considerations
What is it?
Reflection on learner experiences, motivations, and needs, in relation to instructional goals, values, and expectations
Why is it important?
Supports instructors in the design and development of a learner-centered course tailored to learner abilities, perspectives, and goals
Beginning the course design process with this document helps instructors to consider, from the start, ways to make their course more accessible, flexible, and inclusive, leading to better outcomes for all students. Ideally, the information explored in this document is used to guide the approach to each of the steps that follow.
Step 2: Course Outcomes and Key Assessments
What is it?
Clarification of the alignment between course-level outcomes and key assessments
Why is it important?
Supports instructors in defining the overarching goals for course design and ensures assessments adequately measure them
In conjunction with Pre-Design Considerations, this document encourages instructors to use learner-centered language to clarify and connect course outcomes to course assessments and to what learner's value.
Phase 2: Design
Step 3: Module Objectives and Activities
What is it?
Deconstruction of key assessments into aligned module-level objectives and activities
Why is it important?
Supports instructors in distinguishing the knowledge, skills, and behaviors necessary to achieve key assessments while considering the sequence of course content and activities that will best scaffold learning
Building upon the previous two steps of the process, this document helps instructors to consider the ways in which knowledge, skills, and behaviors will be introduced, reinforced, and assessed. This document can be used to draft ideas for content and activities before mapping out specific weekly/unit plans in the Course Design Storyboard.
Step 4: Course Design Storyboard
What is it?
Creation of a course outline that illustrates alignment between course components: course outcomes, key assessments, module objectives, learning materials, activities, and interactions
Why is it important?
Supports instructors in writing a plan for the course and modules that can be used to clarify content and material needs; the storyboard is also structured to support ease of transcription into the IDD Elearning Course Template
This culminating development document helps instructors to identify content, activities, and assessments that will need to be curated or created to support learning. Upon completion, the storyboard also serves as an outline for transfer into Elearning and can be used to create a course map for sharing with learners, making transparent how each part of the learning journey connects to the overarching course goals.
Step 5: Assessment, Grading, and Course Workload
What is it?
Reflection on grading practices and development of a plan around graded activities
Why is it important?
Supports instructors in considering ways grades and grading might be used to convey instructional values, encourage effort on assessment, and engage learners in development focused interactions
This document serves as a reference and self-check for thinking through grading, helping instructors to consider the value of an assessment to the overall grade of a course and how the course gradebook, scale, and approach to calculation might be used to support and motivate learner effort and development.
Phase 3: Development
Step 6: Regular and Substantive Interactions
What is it?
Development of an intentional plan for 1:1 interaction with learners throughout the semester
Why is it important?
Supports instructors in considering and making explicit how they will encourage and support learner development relative to course content and performance
This document helps instructors to think through ways they might initiate and facilitate learner engagement with course content while creating opportunities for feedback and interventions that encourage and support learner development.
Step 7: Syllabus Accessibility and Design
What is it?
Identification of university required and recommended elements for the course syllabus as well as accessibility and Universal Design for Learning practices and principles
Why is it important?
Supports instructors in ensuring all learners have access to the information they need in a format that supports their learning needs
This document offers instructors a self-review checklist for syllabus design that can help them to ensure the inclusion of university syllabus requirements and the consideration of basic accessibility and Universal Design for Learning principles.
Step 8: Activity Development and Descriptions
What is it?
Creation of a learner-centered structure for course activities
Why is it important?
Supports instructors in drafting activities for learners that highlight activity purpose, expectations, and instruction for submission or completion; the description structures are also intended to support ease of transcription into the IDD Elearning Course Template
This document offers best practice information for describing items and activities in Elearning, helping instructors to plan for the development of various components of their course.
Phase 4: Review and Iteration
Step 9: Functional Course Design Checklist
What is it?
Identification of design components essential for learner navigation, course alignment, instructor-to-student interaction, and content accessibility
Why is it important?
Supports instructors in examining their course from a learner perspective to
identify components that might benefit from further design or development
Recommended as both a starting and ending point for the course development process, this document serves as a guide and a self-assessment tool for instructors, highlighting essential best practices for learner-centered and supportive Elearning course design.
Step 10: Learner Perspectives and Iteration on Design
What is it?
Examination of learner feedback to inform continuous improvement and support iteration on course design.
Why is it important?
Supports instructors in using course data, learner feedback, and their own experience to consider what might be added or modified in the course to create a more positive teaching and learning experience.
Where the Functional Course Design Checklist serves as a self-check, this document serves as a post-course reflection for the instructor, highlighting useful information and data resources to support improvement and iteration on design.
Design Goals: The Functional Course Design Checklist
Functional design is an approach to course design that incorporates key elements which directly impact the learner鈥檚 experience and ability to successfully engage with course content. The Functional Course Design Checklist included in the Review and Iteration Phase of design aligns with 51福利社-AAUP Standards, HLC Criteria for Accreditation, and U.S. Department of Education Regulations for Postsecondary Education, as well as best practices as defined by Quality Matters and the Online Learning Consortium. It serves as both a starting and ending point for design in that it outlines the goals for functional design.
Functional Design Goals and Checklist Components
Navigation
Learner to Content
Consistent, logical navigation creates an intuitive path for learners, reducing their need to search for materials and information so they can focus on learning and application.
Alignment
Outcome to Assessment
From the introduction of a concept to reinforcement and mastery, the intentional alignment of course goals and outcomes with course content, activities, and assessments supports the scaffolding of learning.
Interaction
Instructor to Learner
Opportunities for substantive, content-specific interactions and feedback between students and instructors on a predictable and regular basis support students in engaging more authentically with the course and their own learning.
Accessibility
Learner to Content
Accessible course materials ensure that all students are offered the same opportunity to engage with learning content and activities in a way that is enjoyable and effective by removing barriers to access.
Definitions for Design
Terminology related to teaching and learning can vary across contexts and disciplines. Recognizing this, for the purposes of Functional Course Design the Course Development Process, the following, distinct, learner-centered definitions will be used.
Course-Level Outcomes (CLOs) - Course-level outcomes clarify the broad skills and knowledge learners will develop throughout the course and guide the overall design of the course. These outcomes may originate in departments, programs, or be dictated by accrediting bodies.
Key Assessments - Key assessments, often referred to as summative assessments, are used to evaluate achievement of course-level outcomes (CLOs). They measure the extent to which the learner is able to demonstrate an appropriate level of competency across stated program, department, and/or accreditation outcomes.
Module-Level Objectives (MLOs) - Module-level objectives clarify the specific knowledge, skills, behaviors, or attitudes that learners need to demonstrate their preparedness for successfully completing key assessments. These MLOs guide the information and activities that will need to be included in the course to effectively introduce, reinforce, and support the development of necessary competencies within daily, weekly, or unit-based Elearning modules.
Formative Assessments - Formative assessments explicitly align with module-level objectives and can be used to gauge learner progress toward key assessments and course outcomes, support instructors in identifying potential gaps in understanding in order to adjust instruction at a whole class or individual level and offer instructors an opportunity to offer developmental feedback and support.