Align with Design Instructional Design Series

The Align with Design Instructional Design workshop series featured five hands-on sessions dedicated to intentionally aligning course assignments and learning activities with outcomes and objectives that matter to your students. Each workshop focused on practical ways to design course materials and lessons to put students at the center of the learning experience.

Creating Impactful, Relevant Learning Outcomes & Objectives

Course outcome statements and lesson objectives are crucial foundations for both faculty and students. Having clearly defined goals helps instructors to focus their teaching and helps students to prioritize what needs to be learned. This workshop will take participants through the steps of writing their own lesson objectives, ensuring that they align with the course’s focus and support learning in an intentional way.

Session Materials

• February 3, 2022 Workshop Recording

• Workshop Materials: Includes examples of well-written outcomes and objectives

Making Assignments Purposeful and Transparent

This workshop will identify the rationales behind various types of major, summative course assignments in an effort to make their purposes more transparent for students. Transparent assignments make learning processes explicit while offering opportunities to foster student metacognition, confidence, and their sense of belonging in college. In addition to determining how different assignment types align with particular course outcomes, in this workshop, we’ll review the evidence behind the Transparency Framework promoted by the Transparency in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (TILT) project and apply the Transparency Framework to assignments brought by participants.

Session Materials

• February 15, 2022 Workshop Recording

• Workshop Materials: Includes activities for making an assignment transparent and determining alignment of an assignment with course outcomes.

Emphasizing Doing and Learning with Formative Assessment

In this workshop, we will define and demonstrate several strategies for creating assignments and activities that gauge how well students are grasping course concepts and provide opportunities for quick feedback. Along with detailing the rationale for varied formative assessment methods, this workshop will feature faculty presenters sharing about their process for developing short, impactful activities to learn about their students’ progress.

Session Materials

• March 10, 2022 Workshop Recording

• Workshop Materials: Includes explanations and examples of commonly used formative assessment practices.

Whoa-oh-oh, What's Active Learning Got to Do With It?

When designing units and lessons, determining ways for students to discuss, apply, and create is a core component of making the learning stick. This workshop will identify ways to align active learning activities with course content so that students have purposeful opportunities to practice what they’re learning. Among other things, this workshop features two faculty members demonstrating how they structure and choose active learning opportunities in their courses.

Session Materials

• October 21, 2021 Workshop Recording

• Workshop Materials: Includes a guide for aligning activities with different course outcomes and lesson objectives.

Opening Pathways with Universal Design

Concluding the Align with Design series, this workshop identifies how to use a Universal Design framework to build flexibility and access into curriculum and individual lessons. We’ll discuss approaches to assignments, classroom discussions, and student engagement in an effort to design smarter rather than harder. In addition to identifying opportunities, this workshop features faculty describing how they strategize and implement Universal Design with their students.

• April 19, 2022 Workshop Recording

• Workshop Materials: Includes Universal Design for Learning Guidelines Checklist and Progression Rubric.

Preventing Cheating Through Assignment and Grade Design