Think before you build.
Have you ever received student feedback for your course saying that you assign "busy work"? In my class, I let my students know that there is always a method to my madness - every item that I assign to them has a purpose.
NEVER assign anything that does not deliberately move students along their learning path toward the end objective(s) of your course! It is helpful to write lesson objectives for each learning objective. Lesson objectives can be particularly important when teaching in an accelerated format as most online courses are. They will help you to be sure you are staying on task and tight to the learning objectives and course competencies while not assigning additional "busy work" that can be overwhelming in short format courses.
NEVER assign anything that does not deliberately move students along their learning path toward the end objective(s) of your course! It is helpful to write lesson objectives for each learning objective. Lesson objectives can be particularly important when teaching in an accelerated format as most online courses are. They will help you to be sure you are staying on task and tight to the learning objectives and course competencies while not assigning additional "busy work" that can be overwhelming in short format courses.
Think back to the Cult of Pedagogy's Backward Design: The Basics - in particular, the steps of creating a lesson under the Backward Design model:
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For everything that you ask students to do, have you thought through these three steps? Does each task allow you to gauge the students' progress toward the end objective(s)?
Consider Bloom's when aligning your assessments.
Having clearly defined assessments will make life easier for your students in completing their tasks, and for you in determining how successful they have been. Using specific and appropriate verbiage is invaluable, not only in defining measurable objectives, but also in creating assessments that align with those objectives!
This chart, while not a comprehensive list, includes examples of action verbs you can use when designing learning objectives. The action verbs in this chart increase in complexity, difficulty, and rigor as you go from left-to-right and top-to-bottom.
Learning objectives should utilize Bloom's Taxonomy action verbs for the appropriate level of learning expected to take place for each competency. You may write more than one learning objective for each competency.
Learn more about the history of Bloom's Taxonomy and how it has been adapted for 21st Century digital learners in this brief video from Common Sense Education: |
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Does the assessment align with what you want to measure?
Would you assign a research paper merely to determine if students had learned basic vocabulary? Would you assign a multiple choice question to discern a deeper understanding of concept application?
The instructional strategies and assessments you employ should adequately address the objectives you wrote, as well as the level of learning as addressed by Bloom's Taxonomy. See the table below for examples of the types of assessments you could use depending on the level of learning that you are attempting to measure.
The instructional strategies and assessments you employ should adequately address the objectives you wrote, as well as the level of learning as addressed by Bloom's Taxonomy. See the table below for examples of the types of assessments you could use depending on the level of learning that you are attempting to measure.
TYPE OF LEARNING OBJECTIVE
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USE ACTIVITIES SUCH AS...
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THAT REQUIRE STUDENTS TO...
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Recall
Recognize Identify |
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Interpret
Exemplify Classify Summarize Infer Compare Explain |
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Apply
Execute Implement |
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Analyze
Differentiate Organize Attribute |
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Evaluate
Check Critique Assess |
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Create
Generate Plan Produce Design |
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