What is Backwards Design?

As a design strategy applied to numerous fields, Backwards Design essentially means to begin planning by focusing on the end goals. If successful, what will the end product be? When applied to creating a course, Backwards Design focuses on beginning by articulating what students will have gained (skills or new ways of thinking) upon successfully completing a course. Then, the faculty member considers how they can assess whether or not students have achieved those objectives. After deciding on ways to measure whether or not students have met course objectives, faculty determine what topics, activities, and methods of instruction will be most helpful to prepare students to succeed on those assessments. 

Two of the leading scholars on Backwards Design, Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe, describe how this approach to course design starts:  “We don’t start with content; we start with what students are expected to be able to do with content. What would real use of the content look like? What should students ultimately be able to say and do with the content if they ‘get it?”” (7).

What is “backwards” about this approach to course design is that many faculty often begin planning a course by first choosing the topics or skills to cover. They then decide what assignments to include to assess students’ knowledge or ability on those topics. Backwards Design reverses those steps. 

For an example of a traditional, and less focused, approach to course design, let's consider teaching a brand new literature course in Science Fiction. We might first choose the major texts (books, films, and video games) and  Science Fiction concepts to study in the course. Once we have the course reading list and topic list, we would plan the necessary lectures and activities. Lastly, we would decide on the course assignments to include. A problem with that approach is that it can cause faculty to lose focus of the bigger picture, the question of “What do I really want someone to get out of this course?” 

A Backwards Design approach to designing that same Science Fiction course would involve approaching the below questions in this particular order 

1. What skills or knowledge do I want students to leave this course with?:  

2. How can I tell whether or not students have gained those skills or knowledge? 

3. What activities, lessons, and texts should I include to prepare students to demonstrate those skills or knowledge? 

What Are the Benefits of Backwards Design? 

The benefit of Backwards Design is that it provides faculty with a intentional process for planning their online course that focused on learning. By starting with the end in mind, a faculty member can prioritize what is important to include in the course to get students to those objectives rather than simply trying to cram everything possible into the course. We can ask, “Is this helpful for meeting a clear objective?” The focus on learning objectives first, before activities, helps to fulfill advice of scholars of online learning that "design focus should be on the learning aspect of the course, and not the teaching" (O'Keefe et al. 15).  

An Example of Backwards Design 

The video below provides an overview of Backwards Design and describes designing a Filmmaking 101 course, as an example. 

What is Scaffolding?

Scaffolding, as a teaching approach, can mean many different things. This page defines scaffolding as breaking down major projects and assignments into component parts, or stages, and providing support structures for students to succeed at the individual tasks. When scaffolding assignments and projects, resources like templates, project proposals, and focused exercises are used to aid students in completing the major component parts of an assignment, with the goal that students are then able to complete such projects without such support in the future (once the scaffolding is removed).

The counter to scaffolding would be to present major concepts and competencies in a lesson and then to expect students to go off and return with a completed project, with minimal feedback along the way and no support structures to aid students in completing the individual components and with few opportunities low-stakes practice.  

An example of scaffolding that is often used when students are working on research projects is to require students, before they submit the final project, to submit or present a topic proposal and other component parts, such as research summaries and multiple drafts. The instructor would provide feedback on some or all of those components before grading the Final Draft. 

In some courses, as the course progresses and students develop competence in the course objectives, the individual support pieces are removed so that students gain experience in making independent decisions regarding what tools to use and how to accomplish assignments. 

What are the Benefits of Scaffolding? 

The benefits of scaffolding include

• Students receive frequent feedback from the instructor and from their peers on more low-stakes assignments before the final draft of major projects

• Scaffolding is based on research in learning theory that emphasizes students developing competence in individual tasks that are later contextualized in a larger application (Ambrose et al. 102). 

• Separating projects into stages models for students how approach time and project management skills

For online courses, especially, scaffolding provides helpful structure for students and avoids outdated models of “correspondence courses” in which a student was mailed course materials and then independently completed work to be mailed back. 

Examples of Scaffolding

The brief essay linked to below describes several approaches for using scaffolding in online learning and focuses on a central example of ways to scaffold learning in an online Intro to Natural Sciences course. 

"Scaffolding Online Student Success"

Steps to Using Scaffolding to Plan an Online Course 

The essay linked below includes a list of helpful directions to help faculty begin scaffolding assignments and lessons. Examples of steps to take include 

• "Write a brief description of each major assignment/assessment which should include the necessary skills you intend to evaluate using the assignment/assessment.

• Ponder what prerequisite skills are necessary for students to have in order to be successful on this assignment/assessment and list them." and several more. 

"Scaffolding Student Learning:  Tips for Getting Started" 

Template for Planning an Online Learning with Scaffolding 

The template below adapts the steps suggested in the "Scaffolding Student Learning" essay into questions that can be answered to help faculty consider scaffolding or an assignment. 

Scaffolding Assignment Template 

Ambrose, Susan A. et al. How Learning Works:  7 Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching, Jossey-Bass, 2010. 

Fink, L. Dee. A Self-Directed Guide to Designing Courses for Significant Learning, Jossey-Bass, 2003.

O’Keefe, L, et al. Delivering High-Quality Instruction Online in Response to COVID-19:  Faculty Playbook, 2020. Every Learner Everywhere, http://www.everylearnereverywhere.org/resources

Wiggins, Grant, and Jay McTighe. The Understanding by Design Guide to Creating High-Quality Units, ASCD, 2011. 

Infographic Outlining the Steps for Backwards Design of a Course

"Scaffolding Your Way to a More Engaged Class" 2016 Essay