Best Practices in Course Design (BPCD)

Question 1

Diagnostic Assessments

1. What is the purpose of these assessments?
2. How do instructors and students use the results of these assessments?
3. What are some examples?
4. What is the “build” recommendation?

Answer 1

1. Help the professor or the student understand the student’s knowledge or skill level on a topic.
2. Instructors: use results to adjust teaching plan and scaffold or provide pushes as necessary.
   Students: helps activate prior knowledge & anticipate studying/practice
3. Can be instructor implemented or student self-assessments. Includes pre-tests and post-tests, surveys, practice exams
4. Recommended Learnosity* for ease of grading and analytics. Quizzes or highly structured practice opportunities toward the beginning of a learning sequence.

Question 2

Priming Assessments:

1. What is the purpose of these assessments?
2. When are they usually implemented?
3. What are some examples?
4. What are some recommended “build’ characteristics of these assessments?

Answer 2

1. Prime students to learn a specific topic
2. Usually precede a lecture or learning activity
3. Example problem or scenario that students are asked to solve, even though they may not have all the tools they need to be successful
4. Definite answers –> Learnosity Question Sets. Many valid answers –> discussion or roundtables

Question 3

Recall Assessments:

1. What is the purpose of these assessments?
2. What are some examples?
3. What are some recommended “build’ characteristics of these assessments?
4. When should they be included?

Answer 3

1. Purpose: help students recall information. Quiz students on their memory of material lectures.
2. Knowledge checks or as speed bump questions
3. Autograded, built using Learnosity question sets
4. Should be included in async after new material introduced that students need to remember [ex) definitions of common terms, new framework, etc.]

Question 4

Practice Assessments:

1. What is the purpose of these assessments?
2. What are some recommended “build’ characteristics of these assessments?
3. What are some examples?

Answer 4

1. Give students opportunity to perform skills they are learning
2. Vary greatly by discipline
3. Examples: problem sets (quant disciplines), applied exercises, clinical placement/offline

Question 5

Analysis Assessments:

1. What is the purpose of these assessments?
2. What are they commonly connected with?
3. What do you know about the answers to these assessments?
4. What are some recommended “build’ characteristics of these assessments?

Answer 5

1. Purpose: ask student to analyze sitch or problem. Require critical thinking
2. Commonly connected to case study, reading, or other external resource?
3. Answers = complex. May be more than one correct approach/answer
4. Build characteristics vary greatly
   Quantitative –> Learnosity question set
   Qualitative –> discussion, roundtable, Course Player sequence
   Quant + Qual –> combo question set + discussion

ex) Students asked to review financial balance sheet/data and evaluate financial health of company

Question 6

Priming: What is it? How do we do it?

Answer 6

• Activate students’ prior knowledge
• How to: drawing connections to past material, excite them to learn by inspiring curiosity or challenge that the content will help them to solve, or build interest and motivation by highlighting professional relevance
  Ex) diagnostic quizzes to assess baseline knowledge, reflective prompt to connect to existing motivation, case-focused reading that introduces context or sparks a mystery

Question 7

Sharing Assessments

1. What is the purpose of these assessments?
2. What are the “build” recommendations?

Answer 7

1. Students share experiences and feelings. Purpose to start a dialogue between students and help them make connections between their coursework and their life experiences.
2. Should be built as discussions to help start dialogue

Question 8

Post-processing

Answer 8

• Invite students to connect course content to their own experiences, aspirations, or emotions
• Have student reflect on what they learned and consolidate their understanding
• Metacognitive activities –> help learners become more self-regulated and building lifelong learning skills
  ex) reflective prompt following a practice activity, self-evaluation after students prepare for an exam, discussion of how concepts intersect with current or future practice, concept map outlining new and old knowledge

Question 9

Reflection Assessments

1. What is the purpose of these assessments?
2. What are some build recommendations?

Answer 9

1. Gives students chance to process experiences

2. Can be private (journaling or question set) or public (live sesh discussion)

Question 10

Staging: What is it? Why do we do it? Examples? Tips?

Answer 10

• State the alignment between a course’s learning objectives, assessments, and delivery strategies
• Why: reduces students’ cognitive load
• Why allows students to understand how & why the activities they are doing helps them learn –> promotes self-regulated learning
• Examples: Text page outlining success criteria at the beginning of a unit