Take some time to evaluate how you’ve designed the learning experiences in your courses. Reflect on whether (or not) the assignments/assessments for the course are clearly linked to the learning outcomes of the course.

While completing this exercise, you may discover that either you have an assignment that is no longer relevant or you are missing something that might even be a more meaningful gauge of student learning.

1. Write a brief description of each major assignment/assessment. The description must include the learning outcomes you intend to evaluate using the assignment/assessment.
2. List the skills and knowledge the students need to have and know in order to be successful in the assignment/assessment. If there is anything on the list that the students will not learn about in the course, is it included in a prerequisite course?
3. Is successfully completing the assignment/assessment a reasonable expectation for the students? Will the students learn – and have the chance to practice – what they need to know to be successful on the assessments?
4. Look at the scope of the course to determine if there are any mini assignments or learning experiences that can be purposefully introduced throughout the schedule of classes to provide opportunities for students to learn and practice the necessary knowledge and skills, so they can succeed at the major assignments.
5. Include a rationale for the assignment in its description, and clearly explain its relevance to the learning outcomes of the course.
6. Create a visual curriculum map or outline showing how each major assignment/assessment is linked to the teaching and learning activities as well as to the outcomes of the course.

Resources

• Caruano, V. (2012). Scaffolding Student Learning: Tips for Getting Started. Retrieved September 28, 2016, from http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/instructional-design/scaffolding-student-learning-tips-for-getting-started/

• Hogan, K., & Pressley, M. (Eds.). (1997). Scaffolding student learning: Instructional approaches and issues. Louiseville, Quebec: Brookline Books.

• Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes (J. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S. Scribner, & E. Souberman, Eds. & Trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

To follow up on any of these ideas, please contact me at fglazer@nyit.edu. This Weekly Teaching Note was adapted from a contribution to the Teaching and Learning Writing Consortium hosted at Western Kentucky University and organized by Seneca College and New York Institute of Technology.

Contributor:
Valerie Lopes, Ph.D.
Director, Teaching & Learning
Seneca College
Toronto, Ontario
senecacollege.ca/teaching