course content design and methodology

Instructional Design Framework

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Course design is a complex endeavor. With ADDIE and other design methodologies, you can take a systematic approach to developing and improving your courses.

What is course design?

When designing any course, it is important to first understand:

the learning context and learners' needs
why you will engage learners in certain kinds of activities
what support learners will need to meet the goals of the course.

In designing and implementing a learning experience, observed or gathered feedback of the students' and instructors' experience of the course is necessary to evaluate learning and refine the course.

This whole process, from initial understanding to implementation and evaluation, might collectively be called course design .

A systematic approach to designing learning experiences

ADDIE is a foundational instructional design methodology that provides a structure for reliably creating effective learning experiences for you and your students. ADDIE stands for:

Analyze : This first step in the course design process encourages you to analyze the learning needs of the course by identifying who you anticipate the learners in your class will be, their likely prior knowledge and level of preparation, and the outcomes and goals of your class.
Design: Map out exactly what your course outcomes will be; that is, what do you expect students to be able to do and know by the time the course is over. Build your syllabus and outline your course schedule. Consider how your proposed activities and assignments will align with your course learning goals.
Develop: Create and refine your course learning activities and assignments in line with your course syllabus and schedule.
Implement: Deliver your class in whatever mix of modalities is most appropriate, paying attention to how students are receiving the course content, and responding along the way.
Evaluate: Ask students for feedback on their learning experience (even after an individual activity). Reflect on the feedback and your own experiences, and determine what changes you might like to make. Start the ADDIE process over again to iterate and revise the course and instruction.

The reality of building and improving a course tends to be incremental and iterative, so expect to move through these different phases at different times for various elements of the course. For example, you may be implementing a new small-group learning activity for one unit, while simultaneously developing a lecture presentation based on student feedback for another unit.

Rather than a single linear process akin to flowing one way down a waterfall, you'll likely go through multiple simultaneous ADDIE cycles throughout the entire course and across different iterations of the course.

Female writing in notebook at a desk, view from above

Course Design Methodology

As you design a new course or adapt an existing one, our instructional design team can assist you through this process. Below are resources we have gathered to guide you through the course design process.

Planning your Course

Design with the end goal in mind – Determining your course’s learning objectives and goals will help shape your course’s design. The course design, and content within the course become a means for students to achieve those goals and objectives.

Essentially, you will want to ask and answer the following questions:

What lectures, readings, and other supplemental content can you select and produce to help students achieve those goals?
What activities can you conduct to reinforce those concepts?
What meaningful opportunities will you provide for students to demonstrate their competency?

Course Delivery Modalities

A course’s modality plays an important role in course design. While the overall goals and objectives remain the same for any modality, the delivery method has a significant impact on course design. Review the available instructional modalities to get an understanding of the options available to you. While “Hawk 2 Hawk” represents a fairly straightforward version of in-person teaching, hybrid and online instruction include more delivery options within their respective definitions and offer a variety of methods to deliver course content.

Create a Course Blueprint to Align Components

As you are thinking about how all this information fits together, it is helpful to visualize how these elements are aligned.

Course Description
Course Learning Outcomes
Activities & Assessments

The diagram linked below illustrates an example of the alignment between these elements that assist in designing the assessments in the course. Take a look at more details about this course and the assignments: The Sociology of Cyberspace .

Creating & Selecting Course Materials

As you select and create your course materials, you will make many decisions along the way. Will you use a textbook, coursepacks, open educational resources, licensed library resources, the library’s course reserves program, or multimedia? How will these materials integrate with Canvas? What course materials do you plan to create or record?

Consider providing a range of instructional materials that are accessible in multiple formats.

Create your own videos using Panopto to create interactive lecture-capture videos for students to test their knowledge or share their thoughts.

Explore social annotation tools such as Hypothesis or Perusall to have students annotate course readings with questions and insights.

Designing Assessments of Student Learning

How Will You Assess Students? Include both formative (non-graded) and summative (graded) assessments to allow students to demonstrate and get feedback on their learning in a variety of ways. Provide clear descriptions for course assessments and provide accompanying rubrics that define expectations and progress toward learning outcomes. Consider authentic assessments (i.e., assessments that replicate what one might actually do in an academic or professional setting). For example, having an open book test more realistically reflects how one might find, assess, and apply referenced material for a specific purpose. But if you need to use more traditional quizzes, tests, and exams, make them lower stakes and spread them out throughout the course. Consider other tips on how to structure your online assessments to promote academic integrity.

Selecting Teaching Strategies

What pedagogical strategies and practices work best for your course(s)? We encourage you to browse the teaching strategies we have called attention to in our Pedagogical Strategies and Practices section. Regardless of the approach and learning space, effective pedagogical practices must be designed with the learner in mind in order to maximize engagement and ultimately, impact mastery of student outcomes.

Build Your Course

Once you’ve mapped out your course and are ready to build it in Canvas there are many resources available to help you. The Montclair State Modifiable Course Template is set up using learning modules by week to provide a structure you can customize for your courses. It can be imported from the Canvas Course Commons into your course(s). The template may be modified for multiple weeks by adding or removing modules as you see fit.

There are countless additional technologies you may consider incorporating into your course. We offer training on many collaboration, multimedia, and engagement tools such as VoiceThread, Padlet, Flipgrid, Perusall, and Google Apps.

This step can feel intimidating if you’ve never used Canvas before. Instructional designers are available to help you navigate the resources available that may enhance your course development and teaching. Technology training is also available for Canvas and many of the additional tools used within it.

Request a Consultation
Workshops and Virtual Conversations
Technical Support
Course Design and Preparation
Observation & Feedback

Teaching Resources

Designing a Course

Resource overview.

Designing a course can seem like a daunting task, so we break it down into a few easy steps to help you navigate creating a structure that's engaging and fun for your students.

Begin the process early, giving yourself as much time as you can to plan a new course. Successful courses require careful planning and continual revision. Consult with colleagues who have taught the same or similar courses to learn from their strategies and their general impressions of the students who typically take the course. If you are team-teaching, you and your teaching partner(s) should begin meeting well in advance to discuss course goals, teaching philosophies, course content, teaching methods, and course policies, as well as specific responsibilities for each instructor.

Define course goals. Determining the goals for the course will clarify what you want the students to learn and accomplish. Having these course goals in mind will then help you make decisions about which content to include, which teaching methods to use, and what kinds of assignments and exams are appropriate. For a useful introduction to curriculum planning that begins with defining goals for student learning, rather than with course content, see Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe’s Understanding by Design (1998). When you define the course goals, focus on student learning. One way to formulate these goals is to determine what students should be learning in terms of content, cognitive development, and personal development. Be as specific as you can and make sure that the goals define learning in ways that can be measured. Consider the following questions:

What do you want your students to remember from your course in 5-10 years?
How should taking your course change students?
What skills should students gain in this course?
How does this course relate to other courses in the discipline? How, then, might you define the course goals accordingly (e.g., for an introductory, fundamental, or advanced course in the discipline)?

In addition, you should learn about the students who typically take the course (their level of preparation, their majors or academic interests, etc.) in order to think about how your course will help this group of students build their knowledge and understanding of the topic.

Benjamin Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (1956) provides a helpful framework for identifying the observable and measurable skills you would like your students to learn. Bloom identified six types of cognitive processes and ordered these according to the increasing level of complexity involved: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. This page provides resources for using Bloom’s Taxonomy to help write learning goals.

Below is an example of a list of course goals, as developed for a General Chemistry course. (At Washington University, General Chemistry is a foundational course for several scientific disciplines; it attracts mainly first-year students who were in the top one percent of their high-school classes and whose academic interests represent a variety of disciplines.)

General Chemistry: Course Goals

Teach chemistry topics that must be covered to help students prepare for other courses and for standardized exams.
Teach study skills that students need to succeed in university-level science courses; these skills are distinct from those required to succeed in high-school science courses. For example, teach students how to study effectively in a group.
Teach students problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. Demonstrate how chemistry is used in other fields and in everyday situations.
Teach students the beauty of chemistry.

Determine course content. Select the major topics and determine the order in which you will teach them.

Select the main topics to be covered. To obtain an initial list of course topics, look in current textbooks or the current literature (for a special-topics course). Determine whether there is a consensus concerning the necessary topics by obtaining previous course syllabi and discussing potential topics with colleagues. Refine your list by considering your course goals and the characteristics of your students. At the same time, use the desired content to refine the course goals.
Pare down and refine your initial list of topics. Instructors often plan initially to teach more material than they can cover in the allotted time.
Determine the structure of the course; arrange the topics in a logical order. Developing a rationale that guides the structure of the course can help you explain the material more clearly to the students. In other words, you can discuss how and why you have organized the material in a particular way, helping them to see, for example, how one topic builds on, illustrates, or offers a different perspective on another. Articulating the rationale behind the course structure also increases and maintains the students’ interest in the course content. Determining the course structure can help you decide which texts are most appropriate.

You can choose to organize the topics in a variety of ways, whether chronological, topical, conceptual, survey-oriented, or process-oriented. Think about how the structure of the course will contribute to student learning. Ask questions such as the following:

Can I organize the topics according to a theme or storyline?
Do I need to teach certain skills initially and then discuss applications?
Do I want to introduce a particular theory before illustrating it with specific examples or problems?

Develop teaching methods and tools. Once you have determined the course goals and content, think about how you will present the content. Select and develop teaching methods and tools that are 1) appropriate for the size of the class and 2) consistent with the course goals. Consider the following questions and suggestions:

What is your teaching style? How will you apply or adapt your style to suit the course goals, the size of the class, and the types of students who are likely to enroll?
Which types of teaching methods will best fulfill your course goals?
When deciding whether or not you will use technology in your teaching, identify specific goals that technology will help you reach. Plan carefully to determine how you will integrate technology with more traditional teaching tools, such as the chalkboard.
Whenever possible, use a variety of approaches, taking into account that students use a diverse range of learning preferences.
Plan to use teaching methods that will require and measure active student learning.

Determine how you will evaluate student learning: Plan assignments and exams. The evaluation must go hand-in-hand with course goals. For example, if one course goal is to improve problem-solving skills, the exam should not contain only questions that ask students to recall facts; it should contain questions that ask students to solve specific and well-chosen problems. By the same token, homework and class activities leading up to the exam must include some questions that require problem-solving skills. Consider the following questions:

Do assignments reflect and help achieve course goals? For example, are the papers required for the course an appropriate genre and length? How much time will you give students to complete these papers?
Do exams and quizzes reflect course goals? Do they measure the extent to which students are achieving the learning objectives you have set out for the course?
Will the students have an opportunity to acquire and practice the skills that are required for exams and major assignments?

Select text(s) and other materials. If you are using texts, decide whether the course goals will be best met by using a published text or a course reader that compiles material published elsewhere (and unpublished material, if applicable). Take into account the cost of all materials. Consider placing some of the material on reserve at the library so that students can borrow, photocopy, or download the material themselves. Order texts early and call the bookstore about a month before the course starts to ask if the texts have arrived.

If you are compiling a course reader, consider copyright issues (see the University’s guidelines on copyright and fair use ). If you need to obtain permission to reprint or otherwise use published material, allow at least 3 months to complete the process. Keep in mind that some publishers now offer faculty the option of creating custom readers, for which the publisher has already obtained the necessary permissions. You can also use commercial copyright clearance services.

Before the semester begins, order text(s) and other materials, including films, videos, or software; contact guest speakers; and arrange field trips. If you plan to use instructional technology or multimedia equipment, ensure that you will have the necessary equipment, software, and training. Reserve a classroom that has all the necessary components. Classroom reservations are handled by the Office of the University Registrar (OUR), formerly the Office of Student Records. Typically, requests to register classrooms for a course are forwarded to OUR by departmental administrative assistants. To learn about the process in your department, ask the department chair or administrative assistant. Contact The Teaching Center at 935-6810 to schedule training on how to use the classroom multimedia or to arrange for additional, licensed software to be installed on the classroom PC. If you would like to reserve a classroom to practice using the multimedia before the semester starts, or when classes are not in session, please contact Jeanine Gibson in the Office of Student Records by email , or by phone at 935-4145.

Define course policies. Determine how you will grade all required work, including all assignments, papers, exams, and, if applicable, class participation. Decide ahead of time how you will deal with such issues as tardiness, attendance problems, work turned in late, and requests for extensions or the rescheduling of exams. Learn the Policy on Academic Integrity and develop strategies for preventing and responding to plagiarism and cheating. Include all course policies on the syllabus and plan to review them with students on the first day of class.

Develop the course schedule. The tendency is nearly always to try to accomplish too much during each class period. Allow time for active learning to occur during class and for students to complete major assignments and prepare for exams. When preparing the schedule, consult the relevant academic calendars, and keep in mind major religious holidays and significant campus events (for example, Homecoming and Thurtene Carnival).

Write the course syllabus. At a minimum, the syllabus should contain the following: course title, time, and location; prerequisites; required texts and other materials; course topics; major assignments and exams; course policies on grading, academic integrity, attendance, and late work; and contact information for instructor and assistants to instruction (if applicable).

Refine the Course Design. Course planning is a continual process, as illustrated by the diagram below. Each of the steps is necessarily undertaken with the others in mind, and each will necessarily undergo revision each time you teach a particular course.

As you plan and revise courses, remember the importance of teaching core concepts and critical-thinking skills. Focusing only on content can quickly lead you to over-emphasize knowledge-based skills and to ignore the teaching of the higher-level thinking skills in Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Have suggestions?

If you have suggestions of resources we might add to these pages, please contact us:

[email protected] (314) 935-6810 Mon - Fri, 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

How To Design A Course

This article includes tips on designing and building a course.

Allow enough time to carefully plan and revise content for a new course. Careful planning will make teaching easier and more enjoyable. Talk with other teachers who have taught similar content and discuss various strategies as well as student reactions to the material, etc. In the case of team-teaching, meet with your partner to talk about course goals, philosophies of education and methodologies, the general content, class policies, and what each teacher will be responsible for.

This article will help you if you are developing a face to face, an online, a hybrid course or a MOOC .

A simplified concept map for the course design process:

Pinpoint the course goals

What do you want the students to learn and be able to accomplish? With your goals clearly defined, decisions to include certain content, the teaching methods to employ, and the types of assignments and exams to utilize can be more readily determined. To help with curriculum planning primarily in defining goals to maximize student learning (opposed to course content, it is called Backward Design ), check out G. Wiggins and J. McTighe’s Understanding by Design (1998). Basically, according to Backward Design, instructors should clearly define what they expect their students to have learned by the end of the course or section.

Course content

What are the major topics and what order will they be taught?

Choose main topics. Preview current textbooks and updated literature for a unique course topic. Find out if there is consensus for the necessary topics by reviewing former course syllabi and through ongoing dialog with colleagues. Adjust your list to reflect course goals and student characteristics. Simultaneously, use the content you have selected to fine-tune the course goals.
Reduce the list of topics accordingly. Most teachers plan more material to teach than they can actually cover within a designated time frame.
Organize the class structure and the topics to be taught with a clear rationale so the material is most understandable to your students. For example, you can talk to your students and explain the rationale behind how you structured the class, so they can better see how the topics build upon each other and/or how they show or bring differing perspectives. Through this discussion, your students most likely will increase and sustain interest in the content of the course. In addition, through structuring your course, you can better determine which texts would be most appropriate.

There are many ways for you to organize the course topics. Generally, they can be ordered based on the topic, the concept, chronologically, survey-oriented, or process-oriented. It is important to reflect on how the structure of the course impacts student learning. In doing so, these questions may help:

Can the topics be organized thematically or according to a storyline?
Do I have to teach targeted skills first and then discuss their application?
Do I prefer to introduce a specific theory and then apply it with examples or problems?

See also: What is educational technology ?

Develop the teaching methods and tools

After the course goals and content are determined, it is time to think about the content and how you will present it. You will need to choose your teaching methods and tools based on the 1) appropriateness for the class size and 2) those that are aligned with the course goals. These suggestions should be considered:

Reflect on your teaching style. How can you apply and/or adapt it to meet the course goals, class size, and characteristics of your students who plan to take your class?
What teaching methods best match with the course goals?
If you plan to use technology in your course, determine what goals will the technology help you reach. Think about how you will infuse technology with the other teaching tools you traditionally employ.
Use a variety of approaches, when possible, to better match the diverse learning preferences of your students.
Select and incorporate teaching methods that best align with the course goals.

Decide on the method of evaluating the learning of your students

Organize the assignments and exams. Remember that evaluation must align with the course goals. For example, if a course goal is to sharpen problem-solving skills , then the exam should focus on a question that uses problem-solving, not mainly recalling facts. Similarly, both homework and class activities prior to the exam should involve questions and exercises that deal with problem-solving skills. These suggestions should be considered:

Look at the assignments to see if they correspond with course goals. For example, check to see that the required papers for the course are the right genre and length. Ensure that you provide enough time for the students to complete the papers.
Review the exams and quizzes. Do they align with the course goals? Do they also accurately measure the learning objectives you have outlined for the course?
Will you allow/devise opportunities for students to gain and practice the necessary skills that are required for any of the larger assignments and exams?

Selection of other materials and text(s)

First, determine what materials and text(s) you will use dependent on whether the course goals are met best by a published text or course reader of combined materials either published elsewhere or even consisting of unpublished material. When making a decision, think about the cost factor in obtaining the materials for your students. You might want to place on reserve some of the material for the student to read, borrow, photocopy or even download themselves.

If ordering textbooks, allow enough time prior to the onset of your course. Call the bookstore or publisher approximately one month before the class begins to ensure a prompt arrival time.

Outline the course policies

Decide how to grade the work: papers, assignments, exams, and if appropriate, class participation. Determine how you will deal with issues of student tardiness, attendance, late work, and any extensions/rescheduling of assignments/exams.

Make up the course schedule

As mentioned earlier, the tendency is to try to do too much within a given class period. It is essential to allow time for active learning as well as to block out sufficient work/study time for students to complete major assignments and to prepare for exams.

Prepare the course syllabus

A typical syllabus is comprised of a course title; the time of the course; the location; any prerequisites; the required materials and texts, topics of the course; a list of major assignments and exams; your course policy on grading, attendance, late work, and academic integrity; and preferred contact information for the teacher and any instructional assistants if applicable.

An important point is that you should make sure that your students have easy access to the course syllabus

Tweak the Course Design

Remember that planning a course is a fluid process. The diagram shows this below. Each step is made with the other steps in mind and, likewise, each step will be refined every time you teach the course.

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Online Course Design Guide

The Online Course Design Guide was produced by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Office of Educational Innovation and Technology (MIT-OEIT), in collaboration with the New Media Consortium (NMC), to support instructional designers, educators, and facilitators in the development and implementation of online courses. Each section of the guide contains critical information, recommendations, examples, checklists, and resources for further exploration to create and deliver effective online learning experiences.

MIT has long been committed to developing and delivering high quality online learning experiences. In 2002, MIT launched MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW), a web-based publication of virtually all MIT course content — accessible to the world. Through OCW, educators improve courses and curricula and students find additional resources to help them succeed. A decade later in 2012, MIT partnered with Harvard University to launch edX — an offering of free, open source, online courses that can be taken by anyone from anywhere. This guide leverages the online learning expertise of MIT-OEIT.

To provide support through this guide for educators building online courses, a panel of online learning experts was convened to share research and insight. A result of their discussions was a list of assumptions about online learning vs. face-to-face learning which offers a foundation for thinking about and interpreting this guide.

Solid instructional design and facilitation is the basis of an effective course, whether online or face-to-face. As online learning is receiving an increasing amount of interest from learners, education institutions are developing more and more online courses to both replace and supplement existing courses. As such, the design of these online experiences has become paramount; in order to provide effective and high quality learning experiences, they must encompass rich media, interactive features, clearly defined objectives and outcomes, and polished content, along with fostering a robust community of engaged learners.

This guide expands upon best practices that could be used in both digital and face-to-face environments to highlight considerations specific to online learning, bearing in mind the following assumptions established by the panel:

Content development for online courses is more time-consuming because in the absence of face-to-face interaction, there is a greater need for creating rich media that stimulates virtual interaction.
Designing online learning activities involves a diverse set of technology and tools; instructors must learn how to use the technologies and integrate them in the online environment.
Topic- and question-driven discussion is more natural in a face-to-face environment, so instructors must intentionally plan for and build in similar engagement opportunities within online curriculum.
Because many online courses draw in learners from all over the world, careful consideration must be given to diverse demographics and backgrounds when developing material.
Learners do not have the benefit of sitting side-by-side with their classmates in an online course; thus, it is easier for learners to feel isolated, and a significant effort must be exerted to make them feel part of a community.

Part of the appeal of online courses is the flexibility; learners are able to engage in the material from wherever they are, generally during the times that are most convenient for them. Online courses have also become an attractive option for students who hold full-time jobs or have families, as well as for professionals who want to acquire new skills for the workplace.

The purpose of the Online Course Design Guide is to provide education professionals with the support needed to develop and deliver an effective online course using forward-thinking practices. This guide takes a process approach to online course development, from the pre-design cycle all the way through the evaluation phase of the course, regardless of size, and is organized in concrete sections so that educators can pick and choose the areas they wish to investigate further.

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Teaching Style & Content Delivery

An important step in effective course design is the planning of your teaching methods. There are a multitude of ways to deliver learning activities and content. The method you use will depend on who your students are, how you want them to learn, where they are (if remote or in person) and what you want to teach. Depending on your students and their needs you will need to select the most appropriate delivery method. There is no one-size-fits-all design. The best approach is to use a combination of strategies that suit your teaching style and the needs of your students.

The decisions you make in how to deliver this content should only be made following a careful analysis of the teaching/learning situation, including your course goals, assessment practices and criteria, and the nature and backgrounds of the students. This means that decisions about learning should occur before decisions about delivery.

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Basic Steps of Course Development

The following information provides you with an overview of the major steps that are a part of the Course Development Process and a guide to some of the resources on this site:

This step helps set the parameters for the development of the course because it specifies what students should specifically be able to do as the result of their taking this course. It is often best to use “action verbs” to state what you want students to learn because they are based on observable actions or products. See the material on Writing Measurable Coures Objectives in the Course Design section of our Teaching Guides for more information.

This step involves a survey of alternative teaching strategies for helping students meet the goals of the course through the activities that you provide. A starting point for getting some ideas for teaching approaches can be found here in our Teaching Guides.

The section of this site on Assessment and Feedback includes information on different types of assignments you might assign students and strategies for providing good feedback.

Teaching and especially learning can take place in many different places and at different times of the day/week, and it is useful to try to vary where and when students experience learning and to build that idea into course development. Learning can occur within the classroom, in the community, in a science lab or clinical setting, in the library, in front of a computer at home or on campus, alone or in an actual or virtual group.

There are many tools available out there to assist in the enhancement of teaching and learning and the list grows longer each year. A challenge is in finding ways to refine the use of the ones available so they work for your class and your students, as well as to take advantage of newer ones as they come available. Fairly standard technologies include chalkboards/whiteboards, projectors, bulletin boards, slides, films and video. Add to these the thousands of resources and tools available through the internet. CTL offers frequent training and workshops on the technology available for teaching here at UNC Charlotte. Check out the Calendar of Events for more details.

Students often need to know a set of content before they can learn other types of content, or they have to master certain tasks or skills before they can move onto more complicated learning experiences. This developmental approach to teaching and learning suggests that a key task is to make certain that students encounter learning activities in a logical progression from simple to more complex. The material on writing learning objectives, particularly module/unit level objectives, included in the course design section of tthis site is one way to examine developmental processes.

A course is a continuous process (rather than a product) that leads to an enhancement of teaching and learning experiences, if time and effort is given to reflecting on and assessing the results of that process. The goal is to examine information that indicates the extent to which the teaching and learning practices led to the learning outcomes desired by the teacher (and perhaps the student) and why they “worked” or “did not work”. This last step involves consideration of a whole range of issues, including assumptions about teaching and learning, as well as issues related to the results of the decisions made at each of the previous steps. See the section on assessment and feedback for more information.

Additional Resources

Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction (Northern Illinois University) This instructional design framework shows nine steps to systematically prepare and deliver lessons and activities.

Eberly Center

Teaching excellence & educational innovation, design & teach a course, plan your course content and schedule.

The three primary components of a course are the learning objectives, assessments and instructional strategies. Once these three components are identified, at least provisionally, the next task is to organize them into a coherent, dynamic whole. This involves:

Deciding on a course structure

Selecting a teaching strategy to support learning goals
Creating a schedule

The course structure refers to the choice of topics and the organization and sequencing of course content. Remember that the choice of topics and their organization should always support the learning objectives for the course.

Woolvard and Anderson (1998) point out that although all teachers want and need their students to (1) master course content and (2) learn how to use that content in some way, a great many instructors devote their time to the first task and neglect the second. Focusing too much on coverage – i.e., including too many topics – can actually impede student learning by crowding out opportunities for students to practice applying the skills and knowledge they gain. It is important to determine a reasonable scope for your course, that includes essential content but which also provides opportunities for students to engage actively with this content so that deeper learning occurs.

To develop a reasonable set of topics, Davis (1993) recommends creating a list of all the content areas you could cover that are relevant to the subject of the course, and then “severely” paring down the topics you have listed, distinguishing what you consider absolutely essential from the rest (p. 5). Build your course around these essential topics, choosing materials (books, articles, films, speakers, etc.) that will speak to these topics and help you accomplish your learning goals.

"Coverage is the enemy." -- Herb Simon, Carnegie Mellon University Professor and winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics

Organization and sequencing

There are many – often equally effective -- ways to organize a course to accomplish a particular set of objectives. For example, a course could be arranged in any one of the following ways: chronologically, from concrete to abstract (or vice versa), from theory to application (or vice versa), around a set of questions, around a set of practical problems or case studies, according to disciplinary classifications and categories, etc. However we choose to organize the course, the goal should be to create a structure that supports the learning objectives we have identified.

In general, courses should build towards greater complexity, starting with component pieces and working towards synthesis and integration. As Fink (2003) puts it: “The goal is to sequence the topics so that they build on one another in a way that allows students to integrate each new idea, topic, or theme with the preceding ones as the course proceeds" (p. 128). Another way to think about it is that the course should tell a story and thus have a beginning (that introduces the key issues, tensions, and players), a middle (that develops and explores these issues), and an end (in which the various threads come together or relevant new questions are introduced).

Selecting a teaching strategy

Fink distinguishes overall teaching strategies from particular instructional strategies or techniques. A teaching strategy involves combining and sequencing a number of different instructional activities to help students accomplish the learning goals of the class. To determine an effective teaching strategy, think about what you want students to be able to do when they leave the course (e.g., apply certain formulas? create an interactive animation? debate the merits of particular policies? create a stage design that reflects a critical reading of an historical play?).

Having identified the broad learning objectives, work backwards, asking yourself: What particular skills and knowledge will students need in order to accomplish these objectives? Then address the following questions:

What kinds of activities will students need to engage in to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge?
How can you organize these activities to provide sufficient practice?
How can you sequence them so that skills build upon one another?

For example, if one of your course objectives is for students to be able to identify the key theoretical positions in a topic area, discuss them critically, and apply them to particular issues, the teaching strategy might combine lecture (to introduce the theories and their proponents), discussion (to critique the theories and discuss their applications), and a writing assignment (to apply them to a specific problem or topic.) If one of the course objectives is for students to compare different approaches to theatrical costume design, then a teaching strategy might combine mini-lectures to identify key issues in costume design, student observations of different theatrical productions, group discussion, and an individual written assessment.

Creating a Schedule

After determining the main topics to be covered, the organizational scheme, and an appropriate teaching strategy for accomplishing our objectives, we must create a schedule for the course. Here it is important to gauge the amount of time necessary for the activities we have in mind, both in and outside of class time, and to map this structure onto the academic calendar.

While there is no easy formula for devising the course schedule, here are some things to think about:

Consider the time constraints of your particular course: obviously, a 3-hour class that meets once a week will pose different challenges than a 50-minute class that meets three times a week.
Spread assignments out to help students manage the workload and to avoid an unrealistic grading burden for yourself.
Provide sufficient time between assignments to give students feedback and allow them opportunities to incorporate it.
Take into account religious holidays and special events on campus that may affect student work.
Think about how interruptions (weekends, holidays, etc.) will affect the flow of your course (for example, you might not want to schedule a film for one class day and a discussion of it the next, if the viewing and discussion are separated by a week.)
Leave some unscheduled time in your course in case exciting, unanticipated opportunities present themselves or certain topics or activities take longer than expected.

Some strategies that instructors use to plan their course schedule include these:

Write all the dates of class meetings on a flipchart. Then write different assessments (homework, papers, presentations, etc.) you are considering on different colored post-its. Stick the post-its on the flipchart calendar and move them around until you find a good balance and distribution, taking into account the time students need to do the work, the time you need to mark and return it, and situational constraints like holidays.
Count the number of class days and create a grid with a box for each class day. Fill in each box with the activities you tentatively have in mind for that class day, taking into account the issues outlined above. Plot your assessments and due-dates so that are supported by your instructional strategies, reinforce your learning objectives, and fit reasonably within the rhythm and time constraints of the semester.
Create a grid with three columns. Write your topics in the first column, the instructional strategies and assessments (homework, discussions, group work, etc.) you are considering in the second, and the materials or resources (readings, films, slides, equipment, etc.) you will need for these instructional strategies and assessments in the third column. See where there are too few or too many activities and add/subtract/reassess as you go.

You’ll notice that the instructors who employ these strategies revise and tweak their schedules as they plan until the schedule reflects their objectives for the course, supports the course structure and teaching strategy, sequences work logically, and distributes it realistically across the semester. Creating a good schedule can be time-consuming, but the thought and effort invested at this stage will both help you write your syllabus and prevent problems (e.g., time conflicts, student panic, grading bottle-necks) by helping the course run more smoothly and effectively.

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Woolvard, B. E., & Anderson, V. J. (1998). Effective grading: A tool for learning and assessment . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Course Design

First Online: 17 March 2022

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N. Kevin Krane 11 &
Jennifer W. Gibson 11

Part of the book series: Innovation and Change in Professional Education ((ICPE,volume 20))

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Courses are organizational units of content delivered over a period of time in a curriculum. In medical education, courses are created to meet institutional and accreditation needs and are often multidisciplinary and varied in length. This chapter will discuss the principles of overall course design, emphasizing the concept of backward design: outlining what learners should be able to do by the end of the course and then determining what they must learn in order to achieve the target levels of knowledge and performance. From this specification comes the course goals and objectives, which must be consistent with the institutional curricular goals and competencies. Learning resources and course pedagogy must be carefully chosen based on the defined outcomes and should support learner attainment of them. Finally, but equally important, is the selection of the appropriate assessment and feedback approaches to confirm that objectives have been met, and that learners have acquired the foundational knowledge and competencies to effectively and independently transfer these skills to the practice of medicine.

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Lyles, W., & Bridges, G. (2017). Furthering the conversation about diversity, equity, and inclusion in course climate, pedagogy, and content . Center for Teaching Excellent- The University of Kansas. https://cte.ku.edu/sites/cte.ku.edu/files/docs/inclusiveteaching/DiversityEquityInclusionSyllabusTool_June2017.pdf. Accessed 4 Sept 2020

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Schiekirka-Schwake, S., Anders, S., von Steinbüchel, N., Becker, J. C., & Raupach, T. (2017). Facilitators of high-quality teaching in medical school: Findings from a nation-wide survey among clinical teachers. BMC Medical Education, 17 (1), 178. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-017-1000-6

Taylor, D. C., & Hamdy, H. (2013). Adult learning theories: Implications for learning and teaching in medical education: AMEE Guide No. 83. Medical Teacher, 35 (11), e1561–e1572. https://doi.org/10.3109/0142159X.2013.828153

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Wiggins, G. P., & McTighe, J. (2005). Chapter 1. Backward design. In G. P. Wiggins & J. McTighe (Eds.), Understanding by design (Expanded 2 ed., pp. 13–34). Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

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Krane, N.K., Gibson, J.W. (2022). Course Design. In: Huggett, K.N., Quesnelle, K.M., Jeffries, W.B. (eds) An Introduction to Medical Teaching. Innovation and Change in Professional Education, vol 20. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-85524-6_16

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Instructional Guide

Course Design: A Systematic Approach

Following the steps of a widely accepted Instructional Design (ID) model can assist instructors in preparing and delivering meaningful and effective instruction. As Smith and Ragan (1999) explain, “The term instructional design refers to the systematic and reflective process of translating the principles of learning and instruction into plans for instructional materials, activities, information resources, and evaluation.” It is during this process that you should consider the audience for whom the instruction is designed, what goals drive the instruction, and which objectives students will follow to ensure they do what you want them to do.

Essentially, Instructional Design (ID) is a process that can help improve the design and development of courses and course content. Often associated with training in business and industry, ID has been widely used by educators to revise and modify existing courses and to plan and implement new instruction. The process is systematic and systemic; steps are taken in the design (planning) phase of the course that are dependent upon each other to generate a successful product (course). One of the more tried and true ID models is ADDIE (Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, Evaluate). The ADDIE model is presented in the following graphic.

Instructional Design (ID) is a process that can help improve the design and development of courses and course content.

The ADDIE model stands for Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate. It is commonly depicted as a circle to indicate that it is a cycle as opposed to a linear process.

When using the ADDIE model, the first step is to analyze and understand all aspects of the instructional problem. In other words, what are our learning objectives, what are the physical or organizational limitations of the course, what are the technical requirements or limitations, why are we teaching what we teach, who are our learners (students), and how will instruction get our students to where we want them to be at the end of the semester? Knowing your students, for instance, will help guide your course design, so it could be a good place to begin. Even if the semester is about to begin or already has begun, it’s a good idea to know your students, their characteristics, and their needs.

Knowing your students will help guide your course design and even if the semester is about to begin or already has begun, it’s good to know something about your students.

Have students take a self-assessment inventory at the beginning of the semester to better acquaint you with the skills and knowledge they bring to the course. The inventory could include questions related to the course content, i.e. “What events lead to the American Civil War?” or “How many groups are represented in the Periodic Table of Elements?” or they could be more general, i.e. “What skills do you bring to this class?”

In the design phase, consider all components of instruction from beginning to the end. When designing instruction, it often helps to work backward and think about how you will evaluate, implement, and develop materials, methods, and media that facilitate instruction. This is the creative and inventive phase in which you can collaborate with colleagues and be open to new techniques and approaches. During the design phase, write learning objectives for events and tasks required of students, determine which methods (lecture, demonstration, group work), materials (handouts, lab equipment, artifacts, flip charts) and media (computer multimedia, video, audio) will be incorporated into the course. Keep in mind that all materials, methods, and media should be carefully selected based on the learning objectives. Effective instruction should be well-planned, and nothing should be designed arbitrarily.

Keep in mind that all materials, methods, and media should be carefully selected based on the learning objectives.

Identify what students are supposed to learn in the course and write instructional objectives for each of them (see the Instructional Guide section on Learning Theory for help with this); decide what kinds of handouts and/or worksheets will be used for particular content areas; determine how many examinations and/or quizzes will be given during the semester; and identify which active learning techniques and activities could be used to achieve module- and course-level objectives.

Development

Development (or production) is the step where you actually create the “things” used in teaching: the lecture material, the website that supports the course, the handouts and assessment rubrics that instructors and students will use, the PowerPoint presentations, and the case study videos. You will have to decide whether to create instructional products yourself or to employ an expert to create them. Ask yourself whether you can get by with an existing product and if it can be modified or if you should begin from scratch. Time is of the essence at this point, and efficient instructional design relies on best practice, from planning to evaluation.

You will have to decide whether to create instructional products yourself or to employ an expert to create them.

Validate what you develop during this phase—this is sometimes called rapid prototyping (or continuous evaluation). Validation, or prototyping, helps ensure that the delivery of your designed material goes well and is aligned with goals and learning objectives. In essence, prototyping keeps things running smoothly and minimizes potential problems later in the semester.

Create an active learning activity conceptualized in the design phase—i.e. prepare the actual materials that will be used for the activity.

Implement is where the actual instruction takes place. Students rely on the expertise of their instructors to present content in a meaningful way. At the same time, students should be engaged in the learning process. All of the planning done in the design and development stages is on stage in the implementation phase. This is where the instructor’s expertise shines along with the crafted approach to teaching, whether the setting is a classroom, a lab, a field setting, or online. Implementation, then, involves facilitation of learning.

Students rely on the expertise of their instructors to present content in a meaningful way.

After going through the design and develop phases in preparing course materials, now is the time to follow the plan and teach the course. It’s a good idea to keep an ongoing record of the effective and the not-so-effective aspects of the implementation phase (this will be covered in more detail in the next phase). These notations (known as formative evaluation) will help you improve your delivery of subsequent material, either during the next class period or in the next semester.

Evaluation happens at two levels: formative , which tells us what is occurring, and summative , which tells us what has occurred. Formative evaluation takes place during the planning and instruction phases and assesses what instructors and students are doing. Summative evaluation occurs after instruction—here we can evaluate the instruction and what the students have done. Evaluation tells us whether the students have participated in learning and met the instructional objectives. With data in hand, instructors need to ask, “How can I modify my instruction to improve its next presentation?”

Evaluation happens at two levels: formative, which tells us what is occurring, and summative which tells us what has occurred.

Examples

Keep a notebook of what happened during the class period – how well an activity went, the feedback received from the students, your thoughts and feelings about the lecture or activity. Use these notes to plan new activities, lectures, and assessments.
Elicit feedback from students at the end of a class period, every two-to-three weeks, or midway through the semester. This form of feedback could be as simple as a few questions on their impression of a particular lecture or activity, questions they might have on content, or how they feel about their own progress in the class. This information provides a snapshot of the course and indicates whether any adjustments need to be made.

Engage students in a project or culminating activity in which they must apply what they have learned. If the results are less than what you had expected, determine the cause (could the delivery method be inappropriate for the content or are students not reading the material?) and proceed from there (have students been given adequate time to practice the material or does the material need to be presented in a different way?).

An instructional design process like ADDIE can be used to create effective instruction which will be meaningful for instructors and students alike. Following the basic processes and procedures that constitute instructional design, faculty can become more efficient in development of their courses and approaches to facilitating their students’ learning.

Smith, P. L., & Ragan, T. J. (1999). Instructional design (2 nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Selected Resources

Mager, R. F. (1997). Making instruction work: A step-by-step guide to designing and developing instruction that works (2 nd ed). Atlanta, GA: CEP Press.

Mager, R. F. (1997). Preparing instructional objectives: A critical tool in the development of effective instruction (3 rd ed). Atlanta, GA: CEP Press.

Molenda, M. (2003). In search of the elusive ADDIE model. Performance Improvement . Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michael_Molenda/publication/251405713_In_search_of_the_elusive_ADDIE_model/links/5b5f098ba6fdccf0b200e5b2/In-search-of-the-elusive-ADDIE-model.pdf

Suggested citation

Northern Illinois University Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning. (2020). Course design: A systematic approach. In Instructional guide for university faculty and teaching assistants. Retrieved from https://www.niu.edu/citl/resources/guides/instructional-guidee

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A Quick Guide to Four Instructional Design Models

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If you’re new to eLearning , then understanding and following instructional design best practices from the beginning is crucial to your success. The eLearning niche is vast, and you will find numerous theories, models, and resources that have worked for different experts.

Leave them for later.

Begin with the basic, most widely used models that eLearning designers acknowledge and use to structure and plan their training:

ADDIE Model
Merrill’s Principles of Instruction
Gagne’s Nine Events of Instructions
Bloom’s Taxonomy

Note: This overview doesn't intend to evaluate the models. Each framework has its own advantages and disadvantages, and the choice of which to use will depend on which model works best for you, your company, and your learners.

Also before start learning about these models, here are some very practical and clear points to show your boss and help your team understand the 'why' of good instructional design and give it the respect it deserves.

How Do I Get My Company to Take Instructional Design Seriously?

Why use an instructional design model.

An instructional design model is used to define the activities that will guide the development of eLearning projects. It allows you to communicate the purpose and reason behind a strategy. A framework gives you the birds-eye view of all the major components that have to be included in the course.

Since ADDIE was one of the first Design Models, there is much debate and discussion about its effectiveness and appropriateness for meeting the current needs of learners. However, the truth is that most designers still use ADDIE as a process for creating eLearning courses.

"ADDIE is not dead and we are not leaving it ," said Jared Garret, Instructional Designer at Amazon.

Step #1 Analysis — Why is the training needed? The instructional designers (IDs) answer this question after exhaustively collecting information and profiling target learners, and understanding the needs and expectations of the organization. Analysis drives design and the development process.
Step #2 Design —In this phase, IDs select the instructional strategy to follow, write objectives, choose appropriate media and delivery methods.
Step #3 Development — IDs utilize agreed expectations from the Design phase to develop the course materials.
Step #4 Implementation — The course is released/rolled-out, delivered, to the learners, and its impact is monitored.
Step # 5 Evaluation — Is the course providing the expected results? IDs collaborate with the client and evaluate the impact of the course based on learner feedback, surveys, and even analytics.

Once the evaluation is complete, the results are converted into actionable improvements. The whole ADDIE process is repeated.

Recommended:

The ADDIE Model of Instructional Design (VIDEO)
Don’t Pick Sides, Create an ADDIE-Agile Mashup

2. Merrill’s Principles of Instruction (MPI)

Bent on ingraining maximum knowledge from each course, MPI is remembered as the first principles of instruction. Proposed by David Merril in 2002, this framework holistically integrates five principles of learning, namely:

Task-centered principle
Activation principle
Demonstration principle
Application principle
Integration principle

The principles promote learning in the following manner:

Learning starts with real-world problems. Students should be able to relate to problems and tasks they can handle.
A course must activate existing knowledge base of the learner; hence aiding them connect previous knowledge with the new one.
A course must demonstrate the knowledge (both visually and through story telling) so that it leverages different regions of the brain, hence retaining it longer.
Allow them to apply new information on their own. Let them practice and learn from their mistakes. Let them see how your new material works in concrete situations
The course must offer possibilities for integrating the knowledge into the learner’s world through discussion, reflection, and/or presentation of new knowledge.

3. Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction

Robert Gagne proposed a framework comprising of a series of events based on the behaviorist approach to learning. These events follow a systematic instructional design process, creating a flexible model where events can be adapted to cater to different learning situations.

It is, in fact, one of the most used instructional design models as it provides a sound structure for developing effective eLearning.

The nine steps are:

Gain attention of the students —with stimuli that catch and engage their brain (novel ideas or thought-provoking question, etc.)
Inform students of the objectives — Establish the expected outcomes and criteria for measuring achievement.
Stimulate recall of prior learning —Leverage existing knowledge before introducing new knowledge and build on it.
Present the content — Deliver the content in easily consumable chunks.
Provide learner guidance — Guide them with examples, case studies, and other instructional support to supplement the content.
Elicit performance — Engage them with different activities that recall, utilize, and evaluate knowledge.
Provide feedback — Reinforce knowledge with immediate feedback (informative, remedial, corrective, etc.)
Assess performance —Test their knowledge with established (and transparent) criteria.
Enhance retention and transfer to the job — Use content retention strategies (concept maps, rephrasing, summarizing, job aids, etc.)

Here are some tips, and Do’s and Don’ts for each step of the Gagne’s 9 Events of Learning .

4. Bloom’s Taxonomy

Who knew verbs would prove so essential to eLearning design?

In 1956, Benjamin Bloom created a classification system of measurable verbs to describe and organize the different levels of cognitive learning. In 2001, the six dimensions were modified by Anderson and Krathwohl and are known as the "Revised Taxonomy."

The graphic above shows the original (left) and revised (right) Taxonomy. As you can see, there's a new category at the top (Creating), three categories were renamed, and the categories are expressed as verbs instead than nouns.

The taxonomy pushes the learners past the lower steps of learning (of knowledge and remembering) and into the domain of deeper understanding, reflection, and application of knowledge to develop a learner’s individual process of solving problems. It is a great way for establishing learning objectives that engage learners with the content and ingraining new knowledge and concepts.

Read: REVISED Bloom’s Taxonomy Action Verbs

Additional read:

The Golden Principles of High-Quality Instructional Design

Karla Gutierrez

Topics: instructional design

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How do we shape the Course Overview?

Strong Foundations, Keystones and Cornerstones should be established early in the design process through careful consideration of course content, including subject knowledge, theory and skills alongside contextualised generic elements such as academic skills and research methods.

In this section we look at the expectations for how course content is identified, structured, and presented.

It is important that the course team develop a clear shared vision of their intended course that they can use to guide their developmental and design decisions, and to communicate their intentions to stakeholders. This may need to be expressed slightly differently (with particular emphasises) for different audiences but all such portrayals should be true to the shared vision.

For a course team beginning a course design process, it is likely that this overall vision will evolve as the team consider various aspects of course development, whilst teams seeking to review and enhance existing course designs may already have existing visions in place, although quite often these are tacit and teams would benefit from activity to draw out a vision they can agree on.

How is the course unique or distinctive?

How do we ensure the content is at the right level.

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The Best Content Design Courses to Jump-Start Your Career in 2024

Content design is a rapidly expanding field, and for good reason. Good websites and apps need smart, effective content, and companies everywhere are becoming more aware of how much they need content designers (often called UX writers).

Aspiring content designers can benefit from a high-quality content design course. Whether you’re just curious about content design or are looking to make a career transition, there’s a content design course for you.

Types of content design course

In choosing a content design course, it’s important to know what you’re looking for, because there are a lot of different options at a variety of price points and levels of commitment.

Short content design courses

If you’re completely new to the field and want to get an overview of the basics, a short, free course is a good place to begin. After taking it, you may find that content design really excites you and want to continue to some of the more in-depth courses. And if it’s not for you, you will have found that out without spending much time and money.

If you want to go deeper, but still have a limited amount of time, a short self-guided content design course or a one- or two-day workshop is likely the best choice. These courses generally cost a few hundred dollars, and offer a lot of information. If you prefer working alone or have a complicated schedule, a self-guided class might be the right fit.

Live workshops

If you can spare a day or two and prefer the motivation of real-time instruction, go for a live workshop . These can also be great for folks who are not interested in becoming a full-time content designer but could benefit from the skills and knowledge in their current jobs.

Bootcamp-style content design courses

For those who want to go deeper, learning and practicing the skills they need to land a job in the field, then a longer, bootcamp-style content design course is the best choice. These classes require much more commitment, but you often get personalized instruction, homework assignments, and projects that you can put in your portfolio, as well as a much deeper dive into the world of content design.

So, in no particular order, here are seven of the best content design courses out there right now. If you’d like to skip to one particular course, simply use the clickable menu. We’ll cover:

UX Writing Academy with UX Writing Hub
Microcopy and UX Writing: The Complete Course
Foundations of UX Writing by the University of Washington
UX Writing with the Australian Writers Centre
Think Like an Editor (Content Strategy and UX Writing)
UX Writing at Berghs School of Communication
Content Design training with Content Design London

Our top seven content design courses to take

In this article, we’ll look at examples from all three categories of content design course to help you find the best fit for your needs.

1. UX Writing Academy with UX Writing Hub

Cost: USD $2,850

Length: 6 months (plus optional industry project)

Format: Online, with live sessions

The UX Writing Academy begins with a six-week bootcamp that teaches students the ins and outs of content design. Online course modules are supplemented by weekly live online sessions with instructors to allow students the opportunity to ask questions and participate in stimulating discussions. All sessions are recorded for any students who can’t attend.

After the boot camp portion, students begin work on their final project, going through all the steps of the content-first design process: preliminary research, creating the project using design tools, and conducting more research for further iterations. This project offers students a great portfolio piece, as well as a chance to practice the process of content design.

Personal attention is what really sets the UX Writing Academy apart. Each student has a mentor, a seasoned pro in the field, who offers feedback on homework and projects, and is available for in-person meetings throughout the course. The students also connect with each other through weekly meetings and an active Slack channel.

Finally, the UX Writing Academy offers real world professional experience for students who choose to participate. Students work on industry projects for real companies, gaining invaluable experience and portfolio pieces.

The UX Writing Hub has long been one of the best places on the web to learn about UX Writing. With the UX Writing Academy, new content designers can take a deep dive into the field with an intensive yet manageable course. Looking for a quick introduction? The UX Writing Hub also offers a free introductory class .

2. Microcopy and UX Writing: The Complete Course—Created by Kinneret Yifrah (available through Udemy )

Cost: USD $199

Length: 2 hours

Format: Self-guided video

If you’ve begun dipping your toes into the content design waters, you’ve likely heard of Kinneret Yifrah, a major thought leader in the field and author of the book “ Microcopy: The Complete Guide “ . Yifrah wrote and designed a two-hour UX writing course, presented by UX writer and content strategist Merav Levkowitz.

The course lists its requirements as “A love for writing, tech, and humans,” and emphasizes practical tools rather than abstract ideas. That gives you a good idea of what you’ll learn: real-world tips focused around user experience—which is, of course, human experience. The two-hour video course is packed with 11 chapters covering everything from brand voice to 404 messages (that chapter has sections entitled “Why 404 messages are overrated” and “Why 404 messages matter,” so you can tell you’re getting the honest opinions of its creators.)

Students will have lifetime access to the materials, which include the videos as well as additional downloadable resources. The course includes assignments and students who complete it will receive a certificate of completion.

3. Foundations of UX Writing by the University of Washington

Cost: USD $999

Length: 9 weeks

Format: Live online, evening classes

As part of a certificate in writing, the University of Washington offers a UX writing course. (You can take the class without enrolling in the certificate program.) Designed for copywriters, product managers, designers, and other professionals who work or aspire to work in the UX field, the nine-week course covers all the basics of UX Writing.

The focus of the course is on creating human-centered content, and students will learn about voice and tone, how to create inclusive and accessible content, and more. They will also learn how to measure the performance of the content they create. Students will come out of the course with several pieces for their portfolios, which is valuable for those wishing to transition into a UX Writing career.

The course is offered online in real-time sessions that meet in the evenings. This allows students to get to know the instructor and one another through live sessions. Students who successfully complete the course will earn a badge that they can display on their LinkedIn profile and elsewhere online.

4. UX Writing with the Australian Writers Centre

Cost : USD $345

Length : 2 consecutive morning workshops

Format: Live online

The Australian Writers Centre (AWC) offers courses in everything from fiction to business writing, and that includes UX Writing. Periodically, the AWC offers a two-morning workshop presenting the fundamentals of the field.

Taught by Carli Ratcliff, a UX writer and digital content specialist who led Qantas’s UX writing team and now works as a consultant. The course is a great option for those who want a live experience, but aren’t able to spend the time or money on a longer course.

While the course is in introduction, designed for writing professionals or tech professionals who want to learn about UX writing, it packs a lot of critical information into the two sessions. Students will learn about voice and tone, SEO strategies, button copy, user flows, and more. The course is focused on current best practices in UX writing.

5. Think Like an Editor (Content Strategy and UX Writing) with Anne Ditmeyer (offered through Open Classroom)

Length: 10 hours

This course is self-guided, so you won’t receive personal instruction or feedback (or the motivating power of deadline pressure), but 10 hours of free instruction is nothing to sneeze at. If you’re new to UX writing and wondering if the field is for you, this is a great opportunity to learn a lot without spending any money.

You’ll learn about user-centered content, content-first design, microcopy, style guides, voice and tone, and much more. The platform is easy to navigate, and the lessons are thorough yet digestible. Quizzes at the end of each chapter allow you to test your knowledge, and you will receive a certificate of completion at the end of the course.

6. UX Writing at Berghs School of Communication

Cost: 35,625 SEK (USD $3,924)

Length: 12 weeks

Format: Online, live sessions

If you’re already an experienced copywriter, designer, or other professional who would like to expand their skill set to include UX writing, this 12-week in-depth course from the Berghs School of Communication may be for you.

Although the cost is higher than some of the other offerings on this list, the program goes deep into the field. Students will learn the principles of UX writing, as well as important professional issues like working on a team and giving feedback. The course culminates in a portfolio project.

Students should expect to spend 10 hours a week on coursework and will attend weekly live sessions. The course is directed by Jane Ruffino, a UX writer and content strategist based in Stockholm, Sweden.

7. Content Design training with Content Design London

Cost: Varies depending on training, Foundations in Content Design is £695 + VAT

Length: 2 days (some 1 day workshops available)

Content Design London, a well-established consultancy, frequently offers trainings. These are typically two-day workshops hosted over Zoom. Their Foundation in content design training is based on founder Sarah Winter’s book (“ Content Design ”), and guides students through the process of creating a single piece of content over the two-day course. Classes are capped at 16 people, so students work closely with a small group and are able to receive plenty of individual attention.

Content Design London also offers a 2-day advanced workshop, as well as a one-day web writing class. In the past, they have offered in-person trainings as well, but these are on hold due to the pandemic.

Final Thoughts

These are the best courses for people looking to get into content design in 2024. But there are a lot of other useful resources to help you learn more and build your career. For example, it’s helpful for content designers to understand UX design more broadly.

Fortunately, CareerFoundry provides a free short course in UX design that will help you pick up some skills and work more effectively with designers. Speaking of design, Figma is an essential tool for content designers , and there are many online courses and tutorials to help you learn it. There is always more to learn in the UX field, and the content design courses and other resources in this article are a great place to start.

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How To Design A Course
Instructional Design Resource: ADDIE Infographic • obsidianlearning.com
The most common approach to course design is to begin with a
Content of the course and the methodology applied
Course Design And Development Methodology
10 Best Practices to Design and Develop Exceptional Training Content

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02 Module 1
The Methodology Chapter: tips on content and organisation
Curious About Neel Nafis Course?
Steps to Quality Content: Mastering the Art of Content Writing
4c2) Methodology Design Rational Design
What is Learning Experience design and why it is an asset for luxury retail training?

COMMENTS

Instructional Design Framework
ADDIE is a foundational instructional design methodology that provides a structure for reliably creating effective learning experiences for you and your students. ADDIE stands for: Analyze: This first step in the course design process encourages you to analyze the learning needs of the course by identifying who you anticipate the learners in ...
Course Design Methodology
A course's modality plays an important role in course design. While the overall goals and objectives remain the same for any modality, the delivery method has a significant impact on course design. Review the available instructional modalities to get an understanding of the options available to you. While "Hawk 2 Hawk" represents a fairly ...
Designing a Course
Having these course goals in mind will then help you make decisions about which content to include, which teaching methods to use, and what kinds of assignments and exams are appropriate. For a useful introduction to curriculum planning that begins with defining goals for student learning, rather than with course content, see Grant Wiggins and ...
How To Design A Course
Decide on the method of evaluating the learning of your students. Selection of other materials and text (s) Outline the course policies. Make up the course schedule. Prepare the course syllabus. Tweak the Course Design. Allow enough time to carefully plan and revise content for a new course.
Online Course Design Guide
The purpose of the Online Course Design Guide is to provide education professionals with the support needed to develop and deliver an effective online course using forward-thinking practices. This guide takes a process approach to online course development, from the pre-design cycle all the way through the evaluation phase of the course ...
Teaching Style & Content Delivery
Teaching Style & Content Delivery. An important step in effective course design is the planning of your teaching methods. There are a multitude of ways to deliver learning activities and content. The method you use will depend on who your students are, how you want them to learn, where they are (if remote or in person) and what you want to teach.
Course Design Process 101
Backwards Design- Step by Step. Step 1: Learning Objectives. Step 2: Developing Assessments. Step 3: Instructional Resources and Activities. * Backward Design Video Designed and created in Camtasia by Tina Fox; Written and Narrated by Jerod Quinn.
Basic Steps of Course Development
The material on writing learning objectives, particularly module/unit level objectives, included in the course design section of tthis site is one way to examine developmental processes. A course is a continuous process (rather than a product) that leads to an enhancement of teaching and learning experiences, if time and effort is given to ...
Course Content & Schedule
Design & Teach a Course Plan Your Course Content and Schedule. The three primary components of a course are the learning objectives, assessments and instructional strategies. Once these three components are identified, at least provisionally, the next task is to organize them into a coherent, dynamic whole. This involves: Deciding on a course ...
Course Design
Once the course goals and objectives are established, the course director can then determine the practical elements necessary for learning as well as the appropriate pedagogy. Pedagogy includes the course content or design, instructional methods, and assessment techniques, and should be grounded in the principles of adult learning theory.
Course Design: A Systematic Approach
Essentially, Instructional Design (ID) is a process that can help improve the design and development of courses and course content. Often associated with training in business and industry, ID has been widely used by educators to revise and modify existing courses and to plan and implement new instruction.
7 Innovative Approaches to Course Design
Supplanting the topical approach are two common alternatives: 1. Backward Design. Backward design offers the simplest way to ensure that a course has clearly specified learning objectives. Just plan backward to move forward. The guiding principle is to begin with the end in mind.
Introduction to Content Design
Description. This course is intended to help someone interested in becoming a Content Designer/UX Writer (User Experience Writer). There is no pre-requisites to taking this course, however some experience in working at an organization who utilizes the Agile methodology for project management or some familiarly with Agile will be beneficial.
A Quick Guide to Four Instructional Design Models
Step #2 Design —In this phase, IDs select the instructional strategy to follow, write objectives, choose appropriate media and delivery methods. Step #3 Development — IDs utilize agreed expectations from the Design phase to develop the course materials. Step #4 Implementation — The course is released/rolled-out, delivered, to the learners ...
The Content-Focused Methods Course: A Model for Integrating Pedagogy
Content-Focused Methods Course on Function A content-focused methods course centered on function (herein referred to as the functions course for simplicity) was designed using the three principles. We begin with a description of the course and context, followed by a discussion of the ways in which each of the principles in-fluenced course design.
Method content theory: Towards a new understanding of methods in design
The exercise was part of the course curriculum, yet participants could choose to opt-out for use of the data for research purposes. ... This extends discussions of design methods by formalising conceptualisations of a major stable element in design work i.e. method content; matching similar theoretical efforts to formalise understanding of ...
Course Overview and Rationale
How do we shape the Course Overview? Strong Foundations, Keystones and Cornerstones should be established early in the design process through careful consideration of course content, including subject knowledge, theory and skills alongside contextualised generic elements such as academic skills and research methods.
Intro to Content Design
This course covers important content design principles. It is based on the Digital Data and Technology (DDaT) framework, and includes: content design as a profession, including what content design is, what a content designer does and the skills they need. a focus on users, including accessibility, user needs, user research, journey mapping and ...
What Is a Research Design
A research design is a strategy for answering your research question using empirical data. Creating a research design means making decisions about: Your overall research objectives and approach. Whether you'll rely on primary research or secondary research. Your sampling methods or criteria for selecting subjects. Your data collection methods.
Research Methodologies Course by Queen Mary University of London
There are 4 modules in this course. This course focuses on research methodologies. In this vein, the focus will be placed on qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, sampling approaches, and primary and secondary data collection. The course begins with a discussion on qualitative research approaches, looking at focus groups ...
Communicative Syllabus Design And Methodology Language Teaching
Communicative Syllabus Design And Methodology Language … WEBFeb 20, 2024 · Six chapters are concerned with the course design of a communicative foreign language teaching: pre-course planning, the Student Needs Analysis, planning and specifying content, methodology, programming a unit, and sequencing the four macroskills (listening, speaking,
Our Top 7 Content Design Courses to Take in 2024
Students will learn about voice and tone, SEO strategies, button copy, user flows, and more. The course is focused on current best practices in UX writing. 5. Think Like an Editor (Content Strategy and UX Writing) with Anne Ditmeyer (offered through Open Classroom) Cost: Free.
PDF J380 Introduction to Research Methods Course Description and Objectives
reliability of studies and design research projects. You will be exposed to the broad range of designs used in communication research from laboratory and field experiments, surveys, content analysis, focus groups and in-depth interviewing. Specifically, at the end of this course, you should be able to: 1.
UX Design Fundamentals Course by California Institute of the Arts
There are 5 modules in this course. This hands-on course examines how content is organized and structured to create an experience for a user, and what role the designer plays in creating and shaping user experience. You will be led through a condensed process that acts as a roadmap for developing robust UI/UX design: from ideation and ...