Backward Design for Active learning Strategies

Backward Design for Active learning Strategies

STEP 1

STEP 2

STEP 3

Identify the learning objective

Identify the assessment

Design the activity

STEP 1

Identify learning outcomes

The learning objective should articulate the behavior learners will practice, which can be a skill, like writing computer code, or knowledge, like describing the basic steps of cell division. The objective can be for a class, module, or unit. The example uses a learning objective from a single class in a first-year writing course.

STEP 2

Determine evidence

Select the assessment that will demonstrate your learning objective. The active learning activity should require students to practice for the assessment, which is an annotated bibliography.

STEP 3

Plan instruction

The third step of the process, planning an activity, requires designing an activity that asks learners to practice for an assessment. The activity should require students to cognitively and behaviorally engage with the content, each other, and/or the instructor. You can target all three categories of interactions or just one or two; it depends on the learning objective you’re practicing.

Source evaluation activity: Give learners three different sources (articles, books, journal articles) and have them apply the CRAAP evaluation to each source. Answer all questions associated with each letter of the acronym to determine whether the sources are appropriate for the example research question. Divide into three groups and each group prepare to speak about one of the three sources. Present to the class.

Activity from the example:

Cognitively engage with the content (apply the CRAAP acronym to each source, writing down answers to questions) to develop an evaluation of each source, which is creating new content.

Source evaluation activity: Give learners three different sources (articles, books, journal articles) and have them apply the CRAAP evaluation to each source. Answer all questions associated with each letter of the acronym to determine whether the sources are appropriate for the example research question. Divide into three groups and each group prepare to speak about one of the three sources. Present to the class.

Activity from the example:

Engage with the instructor, each other, and the content again during the presentation about each source.

Source evaluation activity: Give learners three different sources (articles, books, journal articles) and have them apply the CRAAP evaluation to each source. Answer all questions associated with each letter of the acronym to determine whether the sources are appropriate for the example research question. Divide into three groups and each group prepare to speak about one of the three sources. Present to the class.

Activity from the example:

Engage with each other in a small group situation to further refine the new content, which is a presentation on whether the group’s source is appropriate for the research questions.