Course Design

1
Course Design

• Prof. Susan McCahan
• Dept. of Mechanical Industrial Engineering
• January 14, 2005

2
References

• Charting Your Course - Pregent
• Creating Significant Learning Experiences -
  Fink
• Teaching Engineering - Wankat and Oreovicz
  (available on-line)

3
Design Method
Identify SituationalFactors
DevelopObjectives
Course Goals
Assessment and Evaluation
StructureContent
Instructional Method
4
Influence of Design on Final Cost
5
Strategy of Least Commitment

• Do not commit to a concept or configuration early
  on
• Leave the widest set of options open
• Mentally challenge your assumptions
• Example I will, obviously, be using an entirely
  lecture based format.
• How does this assumption limit the design space?

6
Situational Factors

• What need will this course fulfill within the
  program?
• Where does it fit in the curriculum?
• Who are the students who will take this course?
• What are the constraints?

7
(No Transcript)
8
Constraints

• Budget
• Time
• Background preparation of the students
• Preset content

9
Goals

• What are the goals of this course from your
  perspective?
• What are the Universitys goals for this course?

10
(No Transcript)
11
Conceptualizing the Course
12
Some Courses are Straightforward

• Thermodynamics I
• Goal teach the first 6 chapters of Moran
  Shapiro or the equivalent.
• Organization of content is standard
• Timeline
• Chapter 1 is intro, this leaves 5 chapters in 10
  weeks
• Teach about 1 chapter every two weeks
• One week each for intro., midterm exam, end of
  term review
• Total 13 weeks
• You still need to find a meta-narrative that
  works for you!

13
What are some ideas for organizing content?
14
Example for a Difficult Course

• Advanced Energy Systems
• Content
• Background Basics Wind turbines
• Advanced Comparison Methods PV Cells
• Overall Energy System Issues Fuel Cells
• Hybrid Vehicles
• No good textbook to follow
• Technique used Note Carding

15
Note Carding

• Use 3x5 cards
• On each card put
• A piece of content, initially include all ideas
• Put pre-requisites to the content bit
• Shuffle the cards, spread them out, and start
  organizing.

16
Card Examples

• There are at least 8 logical ways to order these
  4 topics

17
Techniques for Difficult Courses

• Note Carding
• Outlining
• Brainstorming
• Look at whats been done
• Others?

18
Developing Objectives

• What are the objectives for each theme?
• Objectives
• By the end of this unit the student should be
  able to
• Objectives should
• Match your goals
• Be supported by the content
• Ideally, play a role in your meta-narrative

19
(No Transcript)
20
Developing Objectives

• List objectives for different groups of students
  What should the
• 51 student be able to do?
• 70 student
• 90 student

21
Organizing Objectives
22
Prioritizing Content

• Lots of methods can be used
• One method decision matrices
• This type of comparison can help you prune your
  content, narrow course design space

Course objective or Goal 1
Course objective or Goal 2
23
Now What?

• Generate ideas
• Select methods to implement
• Many approaches to selection process
• Metrics
• Every objective must have a feasible, testable
  metric
• Both learning objectives and course design should
  be assessed
• Test ?Re-Design iteration to get final design
• Detail final design
• Delivery of course, and evaluation of outcome

24
MetricsHow will we know when weve got it right?

• What we want to test against
• Our course goals
• The learning objectives
• Develop a plan for testing
• What do we want to measure?
• What value are we shooting for?
• How will we measure it?
• Is this feasible?

25
Evaluation Methods

• Many to choose from
• Which ones best support the learning objectives?
• What are the constraints?

26
Design Method
Identify SituationalFactors
DevelopObjectives
Course Goals
Assessment and Evaluation
StructureContent
Instructional Method
27
Mapping out your Course

• Full Detailed Design
• Timeline
• Space resources
• Material preparation
• For very complex courses consider using project
  management tools

28
Conclusion

• Up-front time spent in design is well worth the
  payback
• There are proven methodologies in design
• It is a highly iterative process
• Dont try to do everything the first time out