Week 2: Overview

This week we will be focusing on the main takeaways for your course. This is a critical part of the design process and one in which faculty enjoy exploring what is central to their courses and what they want to make sure their students take away no matter what. You’ll be paired with someone from a different discipline so come prepared to explain the foundational aspects of your own discipline in the context of your course.

---

Why Define Main Takeaways?

In any effective design process, step one is to identify desired results. Unfortunately, we often get so caught up in planning assignments and making sure all the material gets covered that we lose sight of the "why" of the course.

Learning outcomes are similar to product specifications; they are critical to the design process. However, just as critical to the design process is the question about the purpose of a product; why is it needed? If you don't start with the purpose, it is easy to get distracted by specifications and overlook solutions that would better support the purpose. Some might say you can't see the forest through the trees.

Getting back to the root reasons for your course is hard - nearly impossible - to do by yourself. That's why we will be working together. Once you've articulated your main takeaways - meaning the things you really hope the students will retain - it will be easier to frame all of your course design choices. Keeping focused on your main takeaways will also help you resist designing the dreaded "Course-and-a-Half" that is caused by the tendency to stuff extra content into an online format at the expense of focused activities that meaningfully guide students toward mastery of course outcomes.