Planning your unit

What is the purpose for planning?

Helping students to know something that is not known before, it constitutes a process of change.
Structuring the material so that it brings about a process of change.
Organising a body of knowledge into manageable components/incremental steps.
Motivating students
Observing through assessment if students developed the skills and understandings

To do this you need to align course objectives/outcomes, course content, teaching and learning methods and assessment while taking full account of student characteristics.

Designing clear objectives leads to the selection of appropriate knowledge and content and allows you to stimulate thought and interest and pass on enthusiasm for the unit. It also allows you to select student assessment tasks which allow students to demonstrate their learning.

Steps to consider in unit design

Although these steps have been described as discrete elements, a unit designer will move back and forth between the steps to modify and fine tune parts of the design.

Step 1: Rationale

Why is there a need to produce this unit? What will the benefits be from the perspective of

The student
The employer
The community

What many students want to know especially in first year

Why am I doing this topic/ this course?
What am I trying to learn/do?
Am I learning/doing it well?

Step 2: Identify the needs of learners

This allows you to match the content to

Needs and interests of all students
The intellectual and maturity level of students
Diverse life experiences of students - mature age students/First year students/overseas students.

Identifying learner needs
Needs	How you can find out	Purpose for finding out
Knowledge on entry	Self report Short revision test Results of previous course	Modify outcomes Provide additional learning activities Decide on types of presentations Pace of presentation.
Personal characteristics: e.g. academic self concept, unit’s worth to the student	Self report Interview Observation Beginning of course questionnaire	Relate course to student’s experience, interests and aspirations as a way to make it meaningful.
Demographics:eg. academic status, work status, class/work schedule.	Self report Oral introduction	Modify teaching and learning methods/ activities/ assessment- be more flexible with assessment dates to assist students who work full time.

Which Faculty Graduate Attributes will your unit promote?

Possession of an in depth knowledge and understanding of the conceptual and theoretical bases of their disciplines
Well trained in the methods and techniques related to their disciplines
Possession of critical thinking, analytical and problem solving skills and information literacy
Value intellectual rigour and lifelong learning

Step 3: How to write course aims and outcomes

Designing the aims of a unit

‘Aims are best thought of as general statements of educational intent, as seen from the student’s point of view’ (Ramsden, 1992: 130)

Aims are not the syllabus, nor are they a list of topics to be ‘covered’ (Biggs, 1999)

Examples of aims

‘develop their ability to pose purposeful questions about the past and answer them imaginatively’ (History)

‘develop the capacity to think creatively and independently about new design problems and make a realistic estimate of their own potential for solving them’ (Engineering)

What are outcomes/objectives?

Outcomes express what the students will be able to do or demonstrate after working through content material and tasks

An outcome is much more specific; it not only refers to content topics but contains a criterion for the level of learning required, and that the assessment tasks can address
(Biggs, 1999: 42)

Outcomes are expressed by commencing with

Learners/students will be able to …

And are stated in language which is familiar to the student.

In the learning outcome specify the

content and the level of understanding you expect
observable student performance that could serve as indicators of learning.

You need to think about the type and complexity of the learning outcomes. Here are examples of two taxonomies which you might like to refer to. Look at the hirachical nature of the taxonomies and which level of skills you would like your students to develop.

John Biggs’ SOLO Taxonomy

SOLO, which stands for Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome, provides a systematic way of describing the structural complexity of students’ responses, ie how a learner's performance grows in complexity when mastering many tasks. The categories are not content specific. They are assumed to apply to o any kind of unit matter. A general sequence in the growth of the structural complexity of may concepts and skills is postulated, and that sequence may be used to guide the formulation of specific targets or the assessment of specific outcomes.

Prestructural
- Use of irrelevant information or no meaningful response
- The task is not attacked appropriately; the student hasn't really understood the point and uses too simple a way of going about it
Unistructural
- Answer focuses on one relevant aspect only
Multistructural
- Answer focuses on several relevant features but they are not coordinated together
- One (unistructural), then several (multistructural), aspects of the task are picked up and used, but are treated independently and additively. Assessment of this level is primarily quantitative.
Relational
- The several parts are integrated into a coherent whole; details are linked to conclusions; meaning is understood
- These aspects then become integrated into a coherent whole (relational); this level is what is normally meant by an adequate understanding of the topic. Assessment of this level becomes qualitative if it is to pick up its nature.
Extended abstract
- Answer generalises the structure beyond the information given; higher order principles are used to bring in a new and broader set of issues.
- The previous integrated whole may be conceptualised at a higher level of abstraction and generalised to a new topic or area (extended abstract); this too requires qualitative assessment.’

SOLO might be used to classify generically the quality, as represented by the sophistication of the assumed underlying logic, of students' responses to assessment items (warning if students have been ‘told’ a sophisticated answer in their classes then there need be very little thinking at all underlying its reproduction in an examination!). (Ramsden, 1992)

Benjamin Bloom’s Learning Taxonomy

Bloom proposed that there are six levels of thinking in the cognitive domain that move in a hierarchal order of complexity. These are knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation.

Knowledge
- memorisation of facts, theories and principles
- recall, list, name, state, define, identify, match, memorise, order, recognize, duplicate, label, arrange, relate, repeat, reproduce, state
Comprehension
- show basic understanding
- discuss, paraphrase, compute, extrapolate, describe, explain, distinguish, translate, classify, restate, review, report, express, identify, indicate, locate
Application
- apply knowledge (ideas or theories or principles) to new situations
- solve, demonstrate, apply, interpret, choose, classify, use, calculate, apply, choose, illustrate, dramatise, employ, practice, operate, relate, schedule, sketch, administer
- application to situations where there is a correct answer
Analysis
- decompose a topic into its constituent parts, show relationships between the more basic ideas
- separate, recognize, test, differentiate, compare, contrast, criticise, discriminate, examine, question, solve, analyse, appraise, calculate, categorise, distinguish, experiment
- solutions where there is not necessarily a specific correct answer
Synthesis
- put parts of knowledge together, discover relationships among different parts, create new patterns
- design, order, develop, create, summarise, combine, compose, construct, formulate, plan, prepare, propose, arrange, assemble, manage, organise
Evaluation
- make judgements regarding extent to which something satisfies chosen criteria
- evaluate, justify, critique, appraise, argue, judge, predict, assess, defend, value, compare, estimate, support

Benefits of writing outcomes

Facilitates the student’s orientation to the unit
Communicates expectations to the student
Guides the choice of teaching/learning/assessment strategies for the course
By approaching course design through an Outcomes Based approach you are shifting the focus away from the knowledge base of the teacher to the knowledge needs of the students. Thus creating a more learner centred experience

Examples of outcomes

Through accessing information from five modules (Context of Care and the Health System, Organisational Dynamics, Professional Development, Evidence/Quality and Professional Accountability) and through written activities, discussions, other readings, on-line interaction and team work, students will be able to:

describe, discuss and analyse the structure and influences of the health system, demonstrate an interdisciplinary awareness
describe and explore the contribution of other professions to health and human service delivery
engage in team work with students from other health and human service professions
describe and analyse the rights and expectations of service consumers and apply the key issues of ethical decision making.

Assessment

Align your outcomes with your assessment tools. See step 8 Design Assessment tasks and assessment criteria. The assessment tasks will provide feedback about how well the outcomes have been met by the students. At this stage you should have a good understanding of the types of assessment tasks which you will use to measure the knowledge, skills and understandings which you expect the students to acquire during the course. You can then fine tune the assessment tasks further in step 8.

Step 4: Plan and sequence your content, activities and resources

Step 5: select delivery methods

William Glasser‘s rule of thumb

Percentage of learning that occurs through the activity

Reading 10%
Hearing 20%
Seeing 30%
Seeing and hearing 50%
What they talk over with others 70%
What they use and do in real life 80%
What they teach someone else 95%

Step 6: Select Resources

What are the objectives of the resources?
How will the learner achieve the objectives using the materials?
How will learners physically access and interact with your materials?

Print based

Need to make the print based materials readable for the type of group you are teaching. Student need to learn from them, read them at optimum speed, find them interesting. Consider how the learner will physically interact with the materials.

Lecture notes

Students do benefit by leaving class with a set of notes, as well as learning by writing things down.

Computer based learning materials and applications

Audio visual based learning materials

Step 7: Design Assessment tasks and assessment criteria

For an excellent resource on student assessment see

http://www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/assessinglearning

Summative assessment

Students need to be fully informed of the criteria, on the assessment methods to be used and on the weightings to be given to each of the components when the course begins.

Formative assessment:

Can be organised more informally. The aim is to get the students to reveal their strengths and weaknesses. Should be free of threat and lead to positive feelings about the unit via diagnostic feedback by the lecturer.

Consider the range of assessment methods

To make assessment fair you need to provide students with:

the course outcomes at the beginning of the course (Why am I doing this course? What am I trying to do, learn?)
the assessment task linked to the outcome(s) at the beginning of the course (Am I learning/doing it well?)
the assessment criteria or the key indicators that are used to tell whether the students have achieved the learning outcomes to the required standard.

How do you determine assessment criteria?

To determine the assessment criteria you need to ask yourself:

What must the student do to show that they have achieved the learning outcome(s)?
What conditions or standards have to be met by the student as s/he carries out the assessment?

The verbs used in the description of the assessment criteria need to be measurable.

Elements which lead to good assessment tools

FAIR/EQUITABLE

Each student needs to have an equal chance to demonstrate their real achievement in the area covered in the assessment.

VALID

Is the assessment accurate in measuring the outcomes? Is it aligned to the outcomes(?)

RELIABLE

Will the same marker make the same judgement about the same performance on two different occasions?

Will different markers make the same judgement about the same performance?

PRACTICAL

Is it efficient in its preparation, grading, appropriate in length for the time available? Does it cover an appropriate range of outcomes?

Does it provide feedback on the student’s strengths and weaknesses?

Step 8: Devise assessment criteria which gives students meaningful feedback

To access the La Trobe University Assessment Guidelines please click on the following: http://www.latrobe.edu.au/policy/

and then find and click on

Credit Points, Student Workload & Assessment for Undergraduate units

Errors should be seen as learning steps by the lecturer and the student.

Formative feedback during the Unit/stage. This should provide feedback to the student about how well he is mastering the outcomes. Feedback should generally be verbal or in written form and doesn’t necessarily carry a grade.

Summative feedback at the end of the Unit/stage. Generally at the end of a Unit or stage you want to see if students have met the outcome. The assignment or exam you set will give students and the lecturer feedback of where the student is at with his/her learning.

Step 9: Evaluate the effectiveness of the unit

How can I best estimate the effectiveness of the whole unit, and use the information to improve it?

Reflect on your own teaching, course materials, assessment results
Students reflect on the course
"Critical friends" or CTLC give feedback on individual lectures
Approach the CTLC for 'Student Evaluation of the unit'

Methods of information

Evaluation site

References

Biggs, J. (1999), Teaching for Quality Learning at University, SRHE and Open University, Buckingham

Forsyth I, Jolliffe A, Stevens D, (1999), Planning a course, practical strategies for teachers, lecturers and trainers, Kogan Page Ltd, London

Fry H, Ketteridge S, Marshall S, (1999) A handbook for teaching and learning in higher education, enhancing academic practice, Kogan Page Ltd, London

Newble D and Cannon R (1998), A handbook for teachers in Universities and colleges, a guide to improving teaching methods, Kogan Page Ltd, London