Preparing for Assignment Design

---

Above is a graphic from Understanding by Design that we find useful for staying focused on what matters while designing a course.  In the next module, you will be designing assignments and activities. The best way to do that is by focusing on what students can do to demonstrate that they have learned the material deeply. This depth is what Wiggins and McTighe call "Enduring Understanding," which they define as the important, transferable concepts and processes that you want students to grasp. Once you have designed assignments that get at these core concepts, you can work outwards to include what is "important to know and do" and "concepts they should be familiar with". In CDLI's Course Design Program, we pair people from different disciplines to answer the questions below. However, you can do this with another person or on your own.

Q1: Enduring Understanding

What are the most important things students will need to take away from this class? In other words, five or ten years down the road, what critical skills, patterns of thought, or approaches to problem solving do you hope your students will remember if they remember nothing else?

Q2: Application & Transfer

In the future, how might your students use what they have learned in your course? Describe various specific situations of students applying what they learned.

Q3: Possible Impediments

Now, imagine that some students had not grasped fundamental concepts or understood how to correctly apply them. How would that play out in the future? Are there any ideas that surfaced from the Focus on Your Students page to suggest why students might struggle or how you might help them?

 

Write Some "Do Statements" In the next module, you will be designing assignments and activities. Consider some of the scenarios you have described in your answers to the questions above. Are there similar scenarios or problems you could set up that would require students to transfer and apply the concepts they are learning?  Describe specific things you need the students be doing during those scenarios by writing 2 or 3 “do statements.” (Below  are a few examples to get you started.) I need students to: Determine the best questions to ask when confronted with ____________. Recognize the difference between__________, ____________, and__________, and know when to use each one appropriately for a given situation. Analyze ______________ for bias. Figure out how to communicate complex ____________ to multiple audiences with varying levels of expertise. Identify the benefits and costs of____________________. Chronicle how their assumptions about _____________ shift in response to exploring __________ in depth. Track how decisions about _____________ affect ______________. Organize information from multiple perspectives and present it fairly.