Now that you’ve reviewed the backward design process, it is time to put the information into practice.

Identify

The first step is to identify a course to be (re)designed. In this module, we are discussing a course to be (re)designed with OER.

There are many reasons for a course to be redesigned, such as outdated course material, new/updated learning objectives, high-volume courses, burgeoning topics that need more frequent updates, institutionally mandated updates, and likely many other reasons.

If the institution is just beginning to consider OER for course developments, it may be beneficial to consider the following tiers. These tiers begin with the courses most likely to have information available already scaffolding up to those which will likely need content to be created.

• Start with general education courses at the undergraduate level, such as calculus, physics, psychology, and sociology. These courses are present in degree programs around the world; they are foundational to a well-rounded, undergraduate education, and therefore, have the most content available.
• Next, consider courses that are high-volume for your institution as these classes will affect the most students if flipped to OER.
  • Is there enough existing OER that aligns with the learning objectives.
  • Do we have the capacity to create and potentially maintain new OER?
• Finally, begin focusing on more niche, program-specific courses. These courses are less likely to have content and will likely require more specialized skills and knowledge to create.

Review

Next, review the learning objectives associated with the course. Review them to verify they are measurable and clear to the learner; they should be free from jargon that an average person would not understand. Bloom’s taxonomy can aid in the creation of more measurable learning objectives.

Learning objectives should be:

• Free from discipline-specific jargon
• Easily measurable and understandable.
• Free from assessments in the language (such as Reflect, Discuss, Write)

Another challenge to consider when building learning objectives is whether they are goals of the course, rather than objectives. Goals tend to be broader ideas that you want the student to remember long after the course has been completed, such as “Understand you are not the user” or “Understand different types of peace and violence”. These are broader but also not measurable. These concepts can be confusing to many, but hopefully the formula below will be a helpful model to start working with learning objectives.

Let’s begin by considering the formation of a learning objectives through the use of a formula. Below are a couple examples for helping you use this formula.

Verb + (ASK)

Applied Assessment #2: Bloom’s Quest

Quiz #3

Now that you’ve built your own learning objectives, it is time to critique learning objectives and review key characteristics of learning objectives. The purpose of this exercise is to identify common challenges, in a variety of ways. This quiz has seven questions, including true/false, multiple choice, and multi-select. Please try to score an 80% or better before moving on to the next section.