Designing teaching
A teacher's didactic task begins some time before the semester starts (ideally when the previous semester ends), with teaching preparation. This planning phase -- used to develop a new course or revise an existing one -- is a permanent, continual process of didactic concept development and/or redesign which is important to ensuring pedagogical quality. During teaching preparation, objectives are formulated or revised, and teaching materials and activities are developed. From the didactic perspective it is essential to work from the student's point of view ("What will I be able to do when the course finishes?") and, as in project management, plan backwards from the desired end scenario (Backward Course Design).
Backward Course Design (BCD)
BCD means "beginning with the end in mind": first designing and formulating the learning objectives which characterise the level of knowledge and the skills to be achieved by the end of the course from the student perspective.
More about Backward Course Design
Constructive alignment
After the objectives of the course have been clearly formulated and assigned to their respective levels in a taxonomy, the scenario for checking whether these course objectives have been reached can be planned.
More on constructive alignment
Orientation aid
Visualising the classification of learning objectives, aligned well with assessments and activities
Handout: DownloadFormulation of competence-based learning objectives (PDF, 101 KB)
Handout: DownloadConstructive Alignment (PDF, 151 KB) (in German and English)
University of Zurich Center for University Teaching and Learning "dossier" on external pageformulating learning objectives (in German)
Develop an interactive sequence for your course which gets all of your students involved: DownloadManual for creating interactive sequences (PDF, 151 KB)
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