What You Might Not Have Considered When Filling Out Your Course Map

The course map is more than just a perfunctory worksheet that you fill out in an hour--it’s a visual representation of the backward design strategy, which is a proven principle to create a student-centered and learning outcome-driven course. Although the course map template appears straightforward, filling it out is an iterative process that can take weeks to complete.

Beyond perfecting your learning outcomes, materials, and assignments, here are some common hang-ups many instructors face when filling out their course maps, and how to address them.

Assigning the Right Amount of Work

You may waver on how much work to assign to your students. You don’t want to overburden students, but you also don’t want students bored and unengaged from a lack of learning activities.

The University of Arizona policy requires at least 45 hours of work by each student for each unit of credit. Students should be spending a total of 135 hours on a 3-unit course (45 hours x 3 units) engaging in the course and related course work. This engagement includes all types of course-based work, including watching lectures, reading course books or other materials, studying, conducting research, writing papers, taking tests, and working on group or individual assignments.

The following chart demonstrates how courses scheduled for varying lengths of time can achieve this time requirement. Specifically, it outlines the amount of time per week students should spend on all course activities, materials, and assignments to reach the required hours for a three (3) credit hour course.

(*minimum number of hours required)

There are two ways to go about determining how long your readings, activities, and assignments will take your students to complete. One way is to make an educated guess (yes, really). If you put yourself in your students’ shoes, ask yourself how long it would take to finish the material or assignment. Is the reading filled with lots of jargon they’ve never heard before? Are there complex concepts that they will likely need to read over and over again before it sticks? Does the assignment require a lot of outside research? By using the educated guess approach, you could quickly learn that the 3-page reading that would take you 5 minutes to finish will easily take your students at least 20 minutes because the information is new and dense.

A slightly more scientific way to calculate time spent on course items is to use the Rice University's Center for Teaching Excellence calculator. You make inputs on the reading, writing, or other assignments, and the calculator estimates how long it could take your students to complete the item.

Pacing Students Through the Course

When you are building your syllabus and course schedule, it's important to consider how due dates can help students stay on track and achieve success. By using a few simple strategies, students will be able to focus on their work and learning, instead of just trying to keep up.

Let students "set their watches" by your due dates and times, meaning that you should strive to be consistent about the pace of your course. If you were teaching a face-to-face course, your students would know that they should always plan on being there on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, at 12:50 pm, without exception. Class isn't sometimes at noon, sometimes at 3:30 pm, and sometimes at 8 am. Help your online learners by creating a similar experience.

The consistencies shown below help students budget their time and find hours that they are able to work to complete their assignments and tasks:

• An effective strategy is to make all assignments due by a specific clock time (and time zone), perhaps by 11:59 pm, on different specified days of the week. For example, Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday of each week), instead of having some due at 5 pm, some at noon, and others at 11 pm.
• Another common online practice to always start and end a week or a module on the same day at the same time. For instance, each week/module begins and content is released on Mondays at 8 am and ends (all assignments due) on Sundays at 11:59 pm.

Breaking Down Larger Assignments

Another way to help students set and keep their pace in the course--and not try to complete an entire term project the day before it is due-- is to break down your large assignments into a series of smaller assignments or progress checks. These smaller pieces can help students keep momentum throughout the semester and can also help to ensure that they are on the right track with their work. In other words, this approach allows you to ensure that they are understanding the terms of the project you have assigned them, so there are no surprises at the end of the semester.

Here are some other news articles discussing how to effectively implement this strategy:

• Moving Away From High-Stakes Exams
• Assessment Best Practices

Creating Consistency and Predictability

Your course should be logically organized and easy to navigate. Information should be organized using consistent naming conventions, design, assignment expectations, etc. Consistency allows students to routinely access what they need and anticipate where to find materials.

Additionally, consider activities that students must complete on the same day and time every week during the course. For instance, you could have a weekly discussion that students must initially post to on Wednesdays, and require peer responses on Sundays. These “placeholder” activities establish a routine that is easy for students to follow.

In the same vein, attempt to keep instructions similar for similar assignments. For example, if the typical requirements for a discussion post are to provide a 500-word initial reply to the question, and then two, 150-word peer responses, then keep those instructions consistent for each discussion. When students are clear on the task at hand, they are able to process the discussion prompt, integrate their answer with what they’ve learned, and articulate their answer, instead of spending time trying to figure out the “rules” of the assignment.