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Student-Centric Course Design: Maximizing Learning Outcomes

Explore a new approach for designing courses to enhance student engagement and understanding. Learn how to prioritize learning objectives, create meaningful assessments, and develop engaging activities. Discover the benefits of learner-centered teaching strategies and the impact on student motivation and cognitive engagement.

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Student-Centric Course Design: Maximizing Learning Outcomes

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  1. MODULE 7 Putting All Together and Designing the Course

  2. Learning Objectives • How modules’ ideas connect? • How to get started on your course redesign?

  3. The sequence of steps for course design is DIFERENT from the course natural flow! Natural Course Flow Content Activities Assessment Goals Course Design Flow Goals Assessment Content Activities Do NOT design your course in the same sequence you will teach it!

  4. Why course design should follow a different sequence of steps? To make sure course activities and assessments will develop the desired outcomes! By having the Course Objectives in mind since the beginning of the course design, professors will be able to create aligned assessments and activities

  5. Course Design Overview 1. Start with the end in mind! The Backward Design Define Learning Objectives Create Assessments Create Learning Activities 2. Think from Student’s Perspective!

  6. 1. Start with the end in mind! What are the main ideas you want students to learn? Action Verb + Direct Object Boil them down until getting observable behaviors Learning Objectives BIG IDEA What students should be able to do by the end of the course? They are the course FOCUS!

  7. But how about other educational standards? PRIORITIZE! Worth to be familiar with Superficial knowledge Important to know and do Big Ideas Core Concepts If the rest of the content are not considered BIG IDEAS, they will be classified as “worth to know” What to do with them? Work only on the lower levels of Bloom Taxonomy! (Knowledge, Comprehension and Application)

  8. 2. Think from Students’ Perspective! Assessments and Learning Activities should be interesting to STUDENTS! Meaningful Engaging Provide continuous feedback Authentic Tasks / LCT Strategies Assessment should target Learning Objectives! Students should demonstrate they are able to perform the objectives Assessment criteria should be clear to students! Use Rubrics

  9. Learning activities should be centered on students! The purpose of a lesson is to develop students to a higher level of understanding! Desired knowledge and skills Current knowledge and skills Lesson Plan In order to succeed, professors need to engage students in the learning process! Use Strategies!

  10. The LCT Model Provides a more purposefulframework for teachers, curriculum specialists, and administrators to strategically design courses and use learner-centered teaching approaches to develop students’ higher-order thinking, career skills, and personal awareness and empowerment

  11. Focus on student thinking or sense making Thinking is highly contextualized Specific subject…diversity of understandings students’ develop when learning domain-specific concepts Specific setting…how individuals interpret various context variables (norms of discourse) Focus on Learning Approaches Approaches are based on learning tasks (content) and learning environment (context):

  12. Why LCT? LCT provides different teaching strategies to accommodate for different student needs! Why professors need to use a mix of different strategies? People Learn in different ways! Students may get bored! Different strategies develop different skills Communication Critical Thinking Analytical skills Civic Responsibility

  13. LCT Strategies Verbal: Story-telling, humor, teach in chunks... Real-time feedback: in-class writing, review games, clickers, debriefing…. Service Learning Place-Based Learning Visual: videos, objects…. Lab-Based Learning Work-Based Learning Kinesthetic: perform a task, role-playing, build models … Social: In-class discussion, debate, small project, concept mapping … Case Study Simulations Problem-Based Learning Project-Based Learning

  14. Considerations of LCT Approaches

  15. Research • A collective case study was conducted • Students’ motivation and learning experiences regarding three learner-centered teaching approaches in life, environmental, and agricultural sciences • Active Learning (N = 3) • Inquiry Learning (N = 4) • Service Learning (N = 4) • Collectively, college students (N = 357) in 11 undergraduate courses completed the Assessment of Learner-Centered Practices (ALCP) questionnaire

  16. What do students say about learner-centered teaching approaches?

  17. Student Learning Experiences by Approach (N = 357)

  18. Student Motivation by Approach (N = 357)

  19. Cognitive Engagement by Approach (N = 357)

  20. Student’s Testimonials “I learn best when I can find personal significance in the material I am studying. In other words, I need to view information not just as a bunch of facts, but also as whole concepts. This class, for the most part, highly stimulated my learning style. For me, class discussions were helpful because it helped me synthesize information and gave relevance to the topics.” “I have truly enjoyed this class, and the way it was designed as a learner-centered experience. I feel that it was the first time I was treated as a competent and intelligent person who could be trusted with her learning experience.” Student Perceptions of Learner-Centered Teaching, DeDeWohlfarth

  21. How to choose among LCT strategies? It will depend on the desired outcomes! BIG IDEA From Big Ideas to Lesson Plans! Learning Goals Objectives Nature of the Content Learning Experiences Content Plan LESSON PLANS Assessment Activities

  22. How to choose among LCT strategies? What students should do to learn this concept or skill? What students should know and be able to do at the end of the class? It may require Active Learning, Inquiry Learning or Contextual Learning activities! Objectives & Learning Goals Nature of the Content Learning experiences LESSON PLAN How would you summarize this concept in one sentence? What specific activity professor could create that will provide students the right learning experience? What resources should be used?

  23. Possible Course Structures

  24. More Possible Course Structures

  25. How to get started on the course redesign? 1 Choose the course • Based upon: • Your own preferences or students’ recommendations • Department’s need • Requirements from a Grant … 2 Apply Backward Design and LCT to define syllabus 3 Write Lesson Plans

  26. Learning Objectives • How modules’ ideas connect? • How to get started on your course redesign?

  27. References • Backward Design and LCT: • Same references as previous modules • Student Testimonials: • Student Perceptions of Learner-Centered Teaching, DeDeWohlfarth, PsyD, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology • Spalding University

  28. “Education is not filling a bucket but lighting a fire.” -William Butler Thank You!

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