Step 1: Evaluate Current Activities
During the first section, Design, you completed a few homework activities. Let’s take a look at those now.
First, your Course Learning Outcomes Alignment Table. Reflect on your answers to these questions:
- Do your course activities align with your course learning objectives?
- Do your course materials encompass all that the students need to meet the objectives?
- Do the current course activities prepare your students for the assessments?
- Do the assessments demonstrate that the students achieved the learning outcomes?
Next, review your Course Assignment Map. Think about your responses to these questions:
- Are you able to identify a course learning objective that your students are working toward in each week or module?
- Do you have the course materials (readings, videos, etc) ready, or identified, for each CLO?
- Will your students be able to practice prior to high-stakes assessment? In other words, do you have formative assessments in place, or planned?
- What do you need to add to your weeks, modules, or units to ensure your students will successfully meet all the course learning outcomes?
Discuss your responses with other workshop participants, or make notes to yourself.
This reflection is your Course Needs Assessment.
By identifying the materials, activities, and assessments you need to add to, or modify in, your course you can start planning how to structure your course so that students can have an equivalent learning experience whether they are face-to-face with your in the classroom, video-conferencing with you, or working asynchronously.
