5-step plan for course design

You might want to improve a course on the basis of evaluations, integrate new teaching formats, or generally update the course. We give some helpful guidelines here for each stage of the design process, whether you’re starting a new course or innovating an existing one.

On this page

1. The course in context of the curriculum
2. Formulating learning objectives
3. Content and assessment design
4. Defining the programme and activities
5. Creating the syllabus
6. Educational vision
7. Starting practical organisation
8. Advice and support

1. Find out where your course is situated in the curriculum

First find out where your course is situated in the curriculum of the study programme. This determines the level [link naar niveaus 100-600] of the course and gives you an idea of the target audience. Another consideration is whether your course is part of a coordinated learning pathway, such as academic skills. Understanding the wider context helps you create a well-planned course design and syllabus for the course.

• Look at the curriculum in the prospectus and check the learning outcomes of the study programme. Contact the programme director if you have any questions.
• Evaluate the target audience: what are the key features of the students who will take your course and how can you respond to them? Do you need to allow for students from different study programmes or with a range of knowledge levels?

2. Formulate learning objectives

Formulate clear and measurable learning objectives aligned with the learning outcomes of the study programme. Use the following elements:

1. the target audience
2. an active and measurable verb
3. the subject matter to which the learning objective relates

Examples:

• Voorbeelden: 

  The students gain knowledge of forms of interaction between ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean and Near East, in particular concerning motifs of (epic) tales, mythology, and literary texts.

  The graduate is able to use qualitative and/or quantitative (digital) techniques required for the discipline to select, edit, analyse, and/or visualize data from (digital) sources.

To help with formulating your learning objectives, the Learning Objective Generator provides a structured approach. It also explains the criteria that a good learning objective should meet. 

3. Design the content and assessment

After formulating clear and measurable learning objectives, you need to ensure that students can actually achieve them. This involves designing a learning track that will support them in attaining the objectives.

An important principle in course design is constructive alignment: your learning objectives, teaching formats and assessment are all in line, and therefore enhance one another.

Learning activities and materials

What activities will help your students achieve the learning objectives? These are the elements that make up your course or classes.

• Decide what study materials your students can use.
• How can students achieve the learning objectives on their own? How can they practise? How can they test their own knowledge?
• What learning activities will you offer? For example:
  • Do students need to apply their knowledge in practice? If so, they should have the opportunity to practise the expected skills during the lecture or class, in short exercises or as assignments.
  • Do students need to develop analytical skills? In that case, organise discussions or ask students to give each other feedback via peer review.

In this step you should also give some thought to the teaching formats, channels and tools you plan to use, but you will specify these more clearly in step 4.

Blended learning

Think about how much blended learning you plan to use. This article gives a short introduction to this topic.

To make the best possible use of your contact time, the Flipping the Classroom concept is a good option. Students prepare for the lecture in advance with knowledge clips or other study material, leaving more time during the class for in-depth learning and interaction.

Synchronous and asynchronous formats

Use Dan Levy’s article The Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Balancing Act to reflect on how to organise the balance between synchronous and asynchronous teaching material. The article asks two key questions:

• How should you split the content of your course into synchronous and asynchronous material?
• How can you leverage asynchronous learning to help you conduct better synchronous sessions (lectures and tutorials)?

Assessment and feedback

Start by designing your assessment. What formative assessment methods can you use to give students feedback and insight into their progress? What summative methods are available for assessing whether they’ve achieved the learning objectives? More information and tips on assessment are given on the ‘assessment design’ page and in other parts of the ‘assessment and grading’ section.

4. Specify the curriculum and activities

After determining the general course content, it’s important to produce a concrete overview of the curriculum. Decide what activities and tools you plan to use for achieving the learning objectives, whether you will use blended learning and which parts you will offer in synchronous (live) format and asynchronous format.

Consider the following questions:

• Brightspace and other tools: How will you use Brightspace and are there additional tools for helping students achieve the learning objectives?
• Use of existing media: Are there recorded lectures, knowledge clips or other multimedia you can use to convey the material?
• Collaboration on group assignments: How will you support collaboration between students? What communication tools or platforms can help with this?
• Peer review: Are you thinking of using peer review? Look at the options of FeedbackFruits.
• Testing knowledge: Are you going to use interim quizzes or practice options via Brightspace Quizzes, or other tools such as Wooflash?
• Creative assignments: Will you perhaps use creative assignments, such as producing videos or podcasts? What assistance will you need for this?
• Teaching formats: What teaching formats are you going to use? Find inspiration on the ‘active teaching methods’ page.
• Interaction and engagement: Are you going to use tools like Wooclap or Wooflash to encourage interaction during classes?

5. Producing the syllabus

Use all the previous steps to produce a clear and well-structured syllabus. This is an essential document for students, as it clarifies the learning objectives, scheduling of lectures and expectations. It’s therefore important to give enough attention to designing your syllabus, so that it not only contains all the necessary information but is also clearly arranged.

Together with the learning objectives and practical information (such as the schedule and assessment formats), the syllabus should also include a detailed programme of the lectures and the topics they cover. This allows you to manage students’ expectations and communicate clearly about how the course will proceed.

Examples of practical matters you can include in the syllabus are:

• The schedule of lectures and deadlines
• Assessment formats and their deadlines
• Expected preparation time per week
• Short summary of the study material

6. Starting to organise the course

After producing the syllabus, you can start to collect materials and plan the organisation of your course. More resources and guidelines for organising the practical and technical aspects are available in other parts of this website. Meanwhile, we suggest a few topics here that you might like to consider:

Education vision

For more details on Leiden University’s educational vision, see the Vision on Teaching and Learning. And if you’re interested in the faculty’s key focus areas for education, there’s more information in the Faculty Strategic Plan (FSP). 

Advice and support

If you’d like some tips or advice, or encounter any problems when preparing a course, please contact ECOLe. We can help you with practical tips and examples, or discuss whether you’d like more intensive support. Depending on your request, we can help you ourselves or refer you to one of the university’s expertise centres. This ensures that you always have access to the right guidance to successfully design your course.