Designing a blended course

Learning Objectives (also referred to as Learning Outcomes) are statements that describe the learning that a student is expected to demonstrate from a single class, a course or entire program. 

To be effective, the statements should

• use verbs that describe observable and measurable actions that demonstrate the learning and can be assessed;

• specify the precise knowledge, skills and/or attitude that are targeted

• identify the conditions under which students will demonstrate their learning 

Finally, your learning outcomes should always be shared with your students.

To determine the assessment activities for a course, consider the following question:  

How will students demonstrate the skills, knowledge or attitudes required to successfully complete the course? These are directly tied to the learning outcomes from Step 1.

With your learning outcomes in mind, determine what activities might serve as evidence that students meet each of the outcomes.

The nature of the assessments will depend on the depth of knowledge or skill required. When simple facts are required, quizzes might be an efficient way of measuring learning. However, when students must use higher-order thinking skills to analyze and evaluate, real world problems and scenarios are more appropriate.

The learning activities include any course activities the students must complete in order to help them meet the course objectives and goals.

Note: A three-credit course requires a minimum of 10 hours of work per week including lectures, readings, exams and other assignments. 

It is particularly easy to pile on readings and lectures in the online environment, so when planning your course activities, determine whether a learning activity is a need to have or a nice to have. Consider creating a separate Supplementary Resources & Activities section in Moodle for the nice to have activities, and direct students to specific resources and activities as appropriate. You can use this tool to help you estimate student workload. 

This final step of the planning process is putting all the pieces together and mapping out what the course will look like.

To create the completed plan for your blended course, complete the following tasks:

1. Group all learning activities and assessments into modules or weeks and determine the sequence of each of the activities within each module.
2. Determine the delivery mode for each activity and assessment (i.e. in-class or out-of-class). If any activities are to be online, make notes about which Moodle activity you will use and what resource are required to create it online (i.e., record a lecture, enter quiz questions into Moodle, create student groups in Moodle, etc.)