Course Development

Good course planning is critical for creating a structured and effective course that fosters student success. In the following few pages, we will talk about learning objectives and course planning using backward design. We will also share some course development resources and tools with you. 

When designing a course, it is best to start with the end in mind. Learn how to create meaningful, measurable, and observable learning objectives that can help guide your course development. 

Once you know what students should accomplish through taking your course, the following frameworks can be used for planning the course structure and learning materials:

• Universal Design for Learning (UDL) uses the science of how people learn to enhance student engagement and help all students demonstrate their learning.
• Backward Design is the technique of starting with your desired outcomes for student learning and then explicitly designing content to help students reach those goals. 

If you plan to use Canvas for your course materials, the CFE provides instructors with resources and tools to facilitate course development and accessibility:

• Course design templates for both face-to-face and online courses.
• DesignPLUS is a suite of tools accessible within Canvas that provides enhanced design and interactive elements.
• UDOIT is a tool that helps instructors identify and address accessibility barriers in their courses. It can even help turn scanned/inaccessible PDFs into Canvas pages.
• Equatio is an equation editor for accessible math that runs on multiple platforms and within Canvas. It can take equations formatted in LaTeX and produce alternative outputs (such as MathML) that are accessible to screen readers.

Consultations with the CFE are also available if you would like one-on-one assistance with any stage of course development.