Making a Difference: Effective Course Design

What makes the biggest difference in student learning and successful classes? It is effective course design, according to internationally acclaimed author L.D. Fink (Creating Significant Learning Experiences, 2003).

What exactly, is “course design,” and what makes it “effective”? It is the intentional planning of a course to help students achieve significant learning. It begins with a teacher creating essential learning goals (or expected learning outcomes) around which the course is built; it is designing assignments or assessments that can demonstrate students’ achievement of those goals; and then it is planning engaged learning activities that help students attain learning that lasts. Fink calls course design “the most significant [factor]” in improving teaching and learning in higher education.

The Center for Teaching and Learning provides a variety of on-line guides for effective course design, many of them based on Fink’s model(s).