Course design
Resources on preparing, designing, and implementing your courses.
Improving your course design
Designing a course is more than just preparing a syllabus. It requires thinking deliberately about what you want students take away from the course. Once you've determined this, all other course activities should support the achievement of these objectives. Our four-part guide offers a way to learn about course design including the development of learning outcomes, planning assessment, planning instruction, and course alignment. Each chapter in the Pressbooks guide is linked below and is part of the CTL's Teaching Academy, supporting professional development for Concordia faculty.
Introduction to course design
This chapter provides a short introduction to the basic elements of course design using the backwards design model and the first step to course design through course alignment.
1. Learning outcomes
Course design starts with well-defined learning outcomes that help you map out the path your students will follow from day one introductions to your final assessments.
Chapters
2. Assessment planning
This module will take you through a series of assessment design best practices to guide your assessment planning process. The module consists of five sections, a summary, and practice task.
3. Instructional planning
This module focuses on units of instruction, which are segments of a course that center around one or a related group of theories, concepts or skills. The includes the work students do such as readings, lectures, homework exercises, and class activities.
4. Course alignment
This module will take you through a series of assessment design best practices to guide your assessment planning process. The module consists of five sections, a summary, and practice task.
Helpful resources
We are here to support you in designing and evaluating your courses.