Three Essentials of Course Design
(Outcome, Activity and Assessment)
By Ireta Ekstrom, CMU Instructional Developer

Summer is moving along -- is it time to revamp a course? Or do you have a new course to teach?

Beginning this process can be a daunting task. You are faced with the delicate balancing act of a wealth of information and the inflexible limits of a semester. One process of organization that works for many faculty is to use the outcome, activity, assessment method. These three elements create the backbone of good course design. Having these elements organized and in place creates a unified whole for building the course.

Outcomes
Outcomes are the first elements. They are a description of what the learner is to know or do at the end of the lesson or semester. Outcomes might be to define specific terms, compare and contrast two artist's styles or increase the number of successful tennis serves. When the outcome is complete a successful student is easy to visualize. Keep this outcome firmly in mind as the next step is completed.

Assessment
Even though we think of assessment at the end of a teaching segment, before the beginning of the term is actually the best time to plan for it. You have just described the outcome(s) for your course so the next step is describing the assessment and quantifying it for the evaluation. For example, the defining terms outcome might use a glossary of appropriate definitions from an acceptable source, for the art class you might create an art styles rubric that identifies what you expect the learner to write on the test or essay which can then be used for grading and the tennis serves can be quantified by calculating the difference between the number of correct serves at the beginning of the semester and a test series at the end of the semester. Each of these outcomes can now be measured effectively.

Activity
Activities are the third element because they are the bridge between the outcome (what we want learners to know or do) and the assessment (how we will measure success).

Activities are the learning moments of the semester and must tie in directly with both the outcome and assessment. For example, you wouldn’t test a student on serving a tennis ball after sitting in a classroom watching a video would you? Of course not! Increasing successful tennis serves involves physically serving tennis balls. The same idea applies to the other two outcomes we’ve been talking about. Studying the two art styles, seeing them next to each other and writing about them allows a student to visualize and articulate the related and unrelated elements. Defining terms could happen during other class activities when learning about the topic; creating a glossary based on the class time, reading and other class work will lead the learner to the full knowledge of the terminology for the subject. Each of these is just like practicing serves; they are the activities the learner does to be able to successfully pass the assessment.

Good Course Design
These three elements form the backbone of good course design. Each element is needed, yet no one element can stand alone. There should be a continuum from the outcome definition, through the activity to the assessment. On the other hand there should be no stray activities or assessments that don't relate back to an activity or outcome. One method that successfully locates stray elements is to use a chart.

Use three columns titled outcome, activity and assessment (see figure 1) and then drop in information from your course. If you have "holes" (see the blue areas) that denote missing outcomes, activities or assessment items, fill them in or determine if they are really important in the grand scheme of the course design and the curriculum.

When the table is complete, use it as your semester guideline.

Large "chunks" can be broken into smaller ones (each with an outcome, activity and assessment) to fill out the semester's work. You and your students will know and understand the semester's goals, what success looks like and how each outcome will be evaluated.

Resources for additional reading

Dick, W., Carey, L., & Carey, J.O. (2005). The systematic design of instruction. New York, New York: Pearson.

Gagne, R.M., Wager, W.W., Golas, K.C., & Keller, J.M. (2005). Principles of instructional design. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.