Constructive alignment of teaching and the 10 steps of course design

The starting point for course design is constructive alignment. It is sometimes also called constructive alignment of teaching. Teaching objectives, the implementation of teaching – content, material and teaching methods – as well as assessment are mutually aligned and jointly support high-quality, deep learning. The key is that teaching and assessment methods support the attainment of targeted learning outcomes. 

The implementation method of teaching must guide students to modify, process, analyse and construct knowledge instead of merely repeating it while enabling mutual interaction between students. Students only learn when they work actively, for example, in completing assignments, reading course literature, participating actively in lectures or completing their exams.

You should use learning environments and methods in the implementation of teaching in a way that ensures that the targeted learning outcomes are attained. There may be contact and remote teaching sessions in the teaching of a single course. The key is to consider which work method is suitable for any given course, learning assignment or section while also serving the attainment of targeted learning outcomes. In teaching, digital and non-digital environments merge, and in fact we speak of blended learning (more information is available in Instruction for teaching Zoom-instructions, in Finnish only). The term hybrid learning also refers to blended learning. You can find information on the definition of forms of teaching as contact, distance, blended and online teaching on the page Methods of completing studies.

Learn more about constructive alignment in university pedagogy studies, see Education and qualifications.

Read more about constructive alignment:

• Lindblom-Ylänne, S. & Nevgi, A. (eds.) (2009).Yliopisto-opettajan käsikirja (in Finnish)
• Enhancing teaching through constructive alignment, John Biggs, Department of Educational Psychology, Measurement, and Educational Technology, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia (pdf)

Checklist for course design:

1. Acquaint yourself with the course curriculum and the teaching programme as well as prior course implementations.
2. Check what information has been published for students on the course page and supplement or create a Moodle area if needed.
3. Clarify for yourself the targeted learning outcomes which students must attain by completing the course.
4. Select and when needed, produce content and material which support the attainment of the targeted learning outcomes.
5. Design learning tasks to support the attainment of the targeted learning outcomes.
6. Clarify the course structure and schedule the course, including the assignments.
7. Plan your availability and presence during the course.
8. Plan how you are going to collect course feedback from students.
9. Calculate that the course workload is appropriate.
10. Ensure that your course plan adheres to constructive alignment and supports deep learning.

Please note that the design process does not always proceed in this order but is often conducted in an overlapping and intertwining manner.

1. Acquaint yourself with the course curriculum and the teaching programme as well as prior course implementations

In the early stages of planning, draw up a general overview of the course as a whole, including its assessment practices.

The curriculum defines, among other things, the targeted learning outcomes,  scope, completion methods, literature, prior learning requirements, evaluation methods and grading scale of each course, and whether the course is compulsory. Comply in your teaching with the items defined in the curriculum and academic year–specific teaching programme. Check this information as well as the time and location of the course on the course page. You can find your course page through your Your Flamma Teacher page (requires login). 

Acquaint yourself with student feedback received from previous courses, if any, and the experiences of the teachers of previous courses, and utilise them in your planning. If needed, contact the previous teacher of the course. 

Familiarise yourself also with other courses in the degree programme, particularly those that students typically complete before and after the course you teach. See the curricula:

• Bachelor’s and master’s programmes, see Curriculum and equivalences between curriculums (Instructions for Students)
• Doctoral programmes, see Scope and structure of doctoral degrees (Instructions for Students)

Further information:

• Course pages – user instructions
• The University’s student feedback system

2. Check what information has been published for students on the course page and supplement or create a Moodle area if needed

The information related to the curriculum and the teaching programme are automatically exported to the course page from the student information system Sisu. Supplement the course page with information students need when making a decision about enrolling in the course. 

The course page can be used for creating an area in the Moodle online learning environment where you can start to concretely build the online learning environment for the course. If students do not return learning assignments and the course has no interaction online, you may not need Moodle and the course page will suffice. It is recommended that course assignments and instructions are shared with students in the Moodle area, since it will allow them to find course assignments and assessments, messages, instructions, etc., in one place. It also makes life easier for the student when everything needed is collected in one location.

When teaching at the Open University, agree on matters related to Moodle and course pages with an education specialist at the Open University.

You can find your course page through your Flamma Teacher page (requires login).

Further information:

• Course pages – user instructions
• Online learning environment Moodle

3. Clarify for yourself the targeted learning outcomes which students must attain by completing the course

If necessary clarify the targeted learning outcomes defined in the curriculum: define what the essential knowledge and skill requirements are that students must possess at the end of the course and master to move forward in their studies. 

4. Select – when needed produce – content and material which support the attainment of the targeted learning outcomes

Acquaint yourself with the course literature and material defined in the curriculum. Also take into account the needs of the target groups, which may be further defined in the curriculum and the teaching programme, when selecting material. Ensure, for example, by using the libraries’ collection search Helka that students have access to content and material online or at the library. Contact the library well in advance about possible book acquisition needs, see the Library guide for teachers: Library services (Helsinki University Library).

You can utilise in your teaching CC-licensed learning materials produced by others, which you can find, for example, in the University of Helsinki’s open digital repository Helda or the national Library of Open Educational Resources (OER). Further information: Open learning (Helsinki University Library).

When needed, search for additional material or produce it yourself, e.g.,  (online) lectures and video tutorials. Take into account copyright and accessibility.

If the course includes (online) lectures, draw up a lecture framework for the course and think about their order. In contact teaching, take advantage of the opportunity to interact. You can increase the flexibility of the course by implementing contact teaching also in the online communications system Zoom.

When planning for a single contact lesson, pace it so that the lecture and student activation alternate – when following a lecture, attention can start to wane as quickly as after about 20 minutes.

If the lecture is not interactive, you can make teaching more flexible by making a recording of the lecture, which the students can watch before contact teaching. This is called a flipped classroom. Read more in the Zoom guide for teachers: Flipped classroom (in Finnish).
 

5. Design learning tasks to support the attainment of the targeted learning outcomes

With the help of assessed assignments, students show that they have attained the targeted learning outcomes. Teachers must be able to assess student performance based on assignments. It must be clear to students what is assessed and how the overall grade is formed.

Preliminary assignments prior to contact lessons orient students to the subject matter and allow contact teaching to focus on interaction, dialogue and the joint consideration of more complex issues. The assignment may be, for example, to read an article or watch a video or take a test or consider questions about the subject (‘flipped classroom’).

It is recommended to have less extensive assignments especially at the beginning of the course that will evoke students’ earlier experiences, observations and notions pertaining to the topic. This way, both the teacher and students will gain information on the starting level and be oriented to the topic. The assignments will also support students in getting to know each other. Leave time also for getting to know each other, as it provides the foundation for successful interaction and a good course atmosphere. At the beginning of the course, it is recommended that small low-threshold discussion tasks are preferred as they do not require knowledge of the content and allow students to participate without being nervous about their command of the material. Proceed gradually in increasing interaction. 

Sub-assignments can support the completion of a final assignment or exam. It is not necessary for the teacher to assess all the assignments, since they are meant for guiding the learning of students.

Assignments can be completed in contact teaching either during online lectures or on-site, or independently by students according to a schedule provided.

Assignments may be individual or group tasks. When assigning groupwork, ensure that it is justified by the course’s targeted learning outcomes. Divide students into groups – do not let students do this by themselves.

Utilise digital tools in completing the assignments. Conducting votes and surveys is a way of practicing anonymous interaction in contact teaching. The thoughts of the whole group, various small groups and discussion participants located physically at different locations can be collected, for example, in Moodle’s discussion area or anonymously on a digital ‘whiteboard’ in Zoom, Flinga or Presemo. A final assignment may be, for example, a take-home exam in Moodle. Further information: What is a good online discussion assignment like? (Moodle manual for teachers, in Finnish).

Take into account the need for individual arrangements, if any.

Examples of learning assignments:

• Learning journal (based on, for example, lectures, the material studied and small group discussion)
  • Learning report (a summary of the key points of the learning journal)
  • Oral presentation alone or in a group – this can also be a video recording (You can upload files up to 50 Mt onto Moodle. Video and audio recordings of less than two minutes can be done in Moodle. Longer videos are made, for example, with PowerPoint or Zoom. After this, the video can be uploaded onto UniTube or, for example, YouTube or OneDrive, and the link can be shared in Moodle/course pages.)
• Blogs
• Material-based assignment independently or in groups
• Final essay, report or another piece of written work
• Course/calculation exercise assignments
• Demonstrations
• Educational games
• An exam on-site or in Examinarium or a remote take-home/open-book examination in Moodle
  • An oral exam can be carried out in a contact meeting or remotely in Zoom.
• A peer review/feedback on another student’s assignment based on assessment criteria provided by the teacher or self-assessment of one’s own assignment
• Provide students with instructions on how to give constructive feedback.
• When implemented in Moodle, you may utilise the discussion area or the Workshop activity.

Further information:

• Assessing learning and knowledge
• Opas yhteisöllisyyden edistämiseen korkeakouluissa (‘Guide to promoting inclusivity in higher education institutions’) (PDF, in Finnish) e.g., Käytännön keinoja opetustyötä tekeville (‘Practical tools for teachers’) p. 42–48

6. Clarify the course structure and schedule the course, including the assignments 

Plan how your teaching and students’ independent work will alternate during the course. 

Evaluate and decide which part of the course should be implemented as contact teaching and where remote teaching or online assignments make sense. Keep in mind what has been decided about the implementation in the curriculum and the teaching programme.

Ensure that the start to the course is clear so that students know how to proceed in the course and how it will be assessed. Write the schedule of compulsory assignments on the course page as information for students considering enrolling so that they book time in the schedule to study. 

If the course includes assignments that need to be returned or there is a need for interaction between contact teaching sessions, build a clear Moodle area for the course.

7. Plan your availability and presence during the course

Inform students about the times when you can be reached, for example, in connection with lectures, your office hours and/or when you read Moodle’s discussion areas and respond to messages.  When you add the times on Flamma’s Teacher pages, students can see them in your personal profile on Flamma. See more detailed instructions in Vastaanotto- ja soittoaikojen lisääminen (‘Adding reception and call times’) (the Content production guide, in Finnish, requires login).

Make sure that it is easy for students to ask questions about any unclear issues. You may, for example, utilise digital communication tools such as Moodle’s discussion area for questions and discussion among students.

8. Plan how you are going to collect course feedback from students

During the course, monitor how students experience your course. If your course has a Moodle area, you may utilise the completion tracking tool. Feedback can also be collected during the course and not just at the end. This allows you to better tackle issues that are difficult for students already during the course. 

Anonymous interim feedback can be asked through digital tools such as Presemo, Flinga, Moodle’s feedback activity, an e-lomake form or a vote implemented in Zoom. You can also conduct a feedback discussion face-to-face, in chat or through group discussions. See Other tools for teaching.

Feedback from all courses is collected in the course feedback system Norppa. The feedback form opens for giving feedback a week before the end date of the course, but the teacher may change the form’s opening and closing dates. Norppa features University-level questions, but you may also add your own questions to the survey. See Teachers’ guide to course feedback system Norppa.

Utilise the feedback collected during the implementation of subsequent courses and when drawing up the curriculum for the next period.

Further information:

• Collecting and processing feedback
• The University’s student feedback system

9. Calculate that the course workload is appropriate

Assess the workload of the course from the students’ perspective, see Students’ workload and study credits.

Also ensure that the course workload corresponds to your work plan. For example, you make the workload more concrete by counting how many pages of text requiring assessment you will receive from the course (e.g., the number of students x the number of essays x the number of pages per essay).

10. Ensure that your course plan adheres to constructive alignment and supports deep learning 

Ensure that the objectives of teaching, the implementation (the content and material as well as implementation and teaching methods) and the assessment of learning are aligned. The implementation of teaching – content, material, implementation method and teaching methods – must support the attainment of the course objectives.

Sometimes there is a need to implement the course entirely as remote teaching or an online course. An alternative completion method alongside contact teaching can also be implemented. The advantage of an online course is that teaching and studying can be done anywhere with a functioning internet connection and a computer. 

The steps in designing an online course are the same as with any other form of teaching. The starting point is the targeted learning outcomes: the course content, assignments and assessment must all support students in attaining their goals. These guidelines highlight a few special features of online teaching, which should be taken into account in addition to the above ten steps when designing online courses.

Invest in the design stage

Online courses require more input from the teacher at the design stage than contact teaching courses. A well-designed online course is often more than half done. At its best a clear, well-designed and well-instructed online course proceeds smoothly during the course on its own. On the other hand, at its worst, students keep asking for additional instructions and the teacher’s inbox is about to burst. Technical settings may also present problems. Therefore, it is recommended that you reserve more time for planning and technical implementation than you would do for contact teaching.

A online course that has been designed and implemented well is easy to replicate when it is implemented again. On the other hand, after the first implementation, the course may be developed further based on the feedback and experiences received.

If already at the design stage of the course you know that the course will be implemented more than once, it is worthwhile to pay special attention to good quality, for example, in the teaching videos and accessibility. Read more about the accessibility of teaching.

Check the workload for yourself and the students

Teachers designing their first online course often easily design the online course teaching so that it becomes more laborious to the students than a corresponding contact teaching course would be.  Therefore, you should utilise the study credit calculator and ensure that the course workload is not too great for the students.

Assess you own workload in concrete terms. For example, if the course has many small assignments for the teacher to assess, the workload can easily grow larger than planned. Consequently, it is recommended that automatic feedback is utilised in online courses and MOOCs (massive open online courses). You must reserve time to draw up these automatic assignments and feedback when assignments are drawn up for the online learning environment.

Interaction in online courses

Interaction in online courses differs from contact teaching. It often takes place in writing, for example, in online discussion areas. It is also possible to create audio and video files in Moodle, which some people feel are more personal and encouraging than text.

Interaction is not limited only to interaction between a teacher and a student. It may also occur between the students (e.g., groupwork and discussion assignments) or between the students and material (e.g., assignments with automatic feedback and learning material).

Face-to-face interaction is important for new students from the point of view of connecting with the academic community. For these students, contact teaching is often the preferred solution. On the other hand, face-to-face interaction can also be implemented over the video communication service Zoom.

The teacher’s presence in online courses 

The presence of a teacher in online courses can be realised, for example,

• As a photo and presentation in the profile of the online learning environment
• As messages, such as welcome messages (may also be video messages) as well as encouraging and supervising messages 
• As feedback, such as personal and shared/group feedback on, for example, exams as well as during online lectures 
• During online lectures which may be recordings or in real time or both, i.e., the teacher may record the lectures for students who are unable to attend or who wish to revise lecture content.

You do not have to be available on online courses 24/7. Inform the students about when you will be following discussions in the online course and when you will be giving feedback and assessing assignments. When needed you may also schedule messages for the online discussion area.

You may also hold an online reception or be available on, for example, the phone or in Zoom at certain times (you may link these to your reception hours on Flamma). Note, however, that this may decrease the temporal flexibility of the course and students may find it difficult to contact you at a certain specific moment, so an online discussion offers a more flexible solution.

Utilise the video communication program Zoom in the online course’s interactive and realtime contact teaching. Zoom can be used for giving lectures and holding seminars, among other things. It has tools for student activation, small-group work and surveys during remote teaching. See the Zoom guide in Instructions for teaching (in Finnish). If you require a facility suitable for giving remote lectures or making recordings on campus, see Hybrid and remote teaching: Remote teaching and suitable facilities

Scheduling an online course

Online courses are often considered independent of scheduled times. However, the scheduling of assignments has been found to support studies. Flexibility can be realised by offering students alternative assignment return times or exam times. As a rule, interactive tasks, such as online discussions, peer reviews and groupwork, require scheduling.

Online course material

If you use material other than that defined in the curriculum, check that there is no suitable existing material available on the internet. If needed, you may produce your own material, for example, teaching videos (see Educational videos and streaming your lectures) or interactive materials using Moodle tools.

If you are planning a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course), make sure that access to material does not require a University of Helsinki credentials.

Moodle tools for implementing online courses

The University of Helsinki offers the online learning environment Moodle, which has versatile tools for implementing remote teaching. Ensure that your design for an online course is clear so that students do not get frustrated looking for material and assignments.

Further information

Quality teaching in web-based environments: Handbook for university teachers (2010) Erika Löfström, Kaisa Kanerva, Leena Tuuttila, Anu Lehtinen ja Anne Nevgi

Hybrid teaching refers to teaching where students participate in teaching simultaneously in the teaching facility and online, for example in Zoom. Hybrid teaching is not recommended, since it requires a great deal from both the technology of the teaching facilities and pedagogy.

You do not have to implement teaching as hybrid teaching, unless hybrid teaching has been specified as the method of completion of the course in the teaching programme, but if you wish you may arrange an opportunity for students to participate remotely, for example, when health reasons justify the right for individual arrangements. An alternative to arranging remote participation is to draw up an alternative assignment as an alternative method of completion for a student entitled to individual arrangements.

If you organise hybrid teaching, ensure that the teaching facility is suitable for it. Learn how to use the technical equipment in the facility. When needed, you can ask for assistance from AV support. The chances of succeeding in hybrid teaching will improve if another teacher, teaching assistant or some other person is present in the facility to follow the remote participants and assist in using the technological equipment in the facility.

The steps in designing a hybrid teaching are the same as with any other form of teaching. The starting point is that the targeted learning outcomes, the course content, assignments and assessment, must all support students in attaining their goals. Follow the links below for information on special features that should be taken into account in the planning of hybrid education in addition to the ten steps above.

Further information:

• Zoom guide in Instruction for teaching: Hybrid teaching (in Finnish only)
• Teaching facilities: Hybrid and remote teaching
• Individual arrangements
• AV equipment and presentation technology (Flamma, requires login)

Pedagogical support: The Centre for University Teaching and Learning

Digital pedagogy and educational technology:

• edutech@helsinki.fi
• moodle@helsinki.fi

Issues related to the curriculum and the teaching programme, and the planning officer of your degree programme:

• Bachelor’s and master’s programmes see Degree programme specialists providing support for teaching and teaching development (Wiki, requires login) or Flamma (requires login) kohdassa My unit > Select your unit > Service team
• Doctoral programmes, see Doctoral school and doctoral programmes
• More information to support teaching is available on the Instructions for teaching website, for example, by utilising the search function.