Aligning your Course SLOs

Integrating and Aligning Course Components

Anticipated Module Outcomes

Upon the successful conclusion of Module 5, you will have:

  1. integrated your learning goals, assessments, and learning activities.
  2. created a plan for your course.

Modules 1 through 4 provided information and worksheet activities to create the key components for your course. Unless these components (learning outcomes, assessments, and learning activities) are aligned or work together, it would be difficult to provide students with effective teaching and learning experiences. The learning activities must relate directly to the learning outcomes, and the assessments must measure what students are learning.

To integrate or align these components, instructors must carefully review all previous decisions made before this Module 5. According to Fink (2003) some questions to consider under each phase include:

Situational Factors:
  • How well are the situational factors reflected in decisions about learning outcomes, feedback and assessment, and learning activities?
  • What potential conflicts can be envisaged that may cause problems?
  • Are there any disconnects between the instructor’s values and beliefs, student characteristics, the specific or general context of the course, or the nature of the subject as it relates to the course plan?
Learning Outcomes and Feedback and Assessment:
  • How well do your assessment procedures address all learning outcomes?
  • Does the planned feedback give students information about their progress on all of the learning outcomes?
  • Do the learning outcomes include helping students learn how to assess their own performance?
Learning Outcomes and Teaching/Learning Activities:
  • Do the learning activities support all of the learning goals?
  • Are some activities unrelated to any major learning outcome?
Teaching/Learning Activities and Feedback and Assessment:
  • How well does the proposed feedback loop help students understand the criteria and standards used to access their performance?
  • How well do the practice learning activities and the associated feedback opportunities prepare students for the eventual assessment activities?

From: http://ctlt.illinoisstate.edu/pedagogy/modules/design/module5.shtml