In the name of offering “nuts and bolts” information, I trynow and then to alert newish practitioners to ideas or people that may not yethave crossed their paths. Sometimes it’s about startling readers to a new wayof thinking; sometimes it’s meant to offer familiar ideas in new terms, inhopes of sparking new energy or helping practitioners better articulate whatthey’re doing. Dr. Dee Fink was the founding director of the instructionaldevelopment program at the University of Oklahoma and is currently principal inDee Fink & Associates.He has for years worked with ideas around “significant learning.” His “FivePrinciples of Good Course Design,” originally written before eLearning caughtfire, offers guiding thoughts that still hold up. I’ve made a few updates, butthis piece is mostly in its original form:
A “good course” is one which meetsthe following five criteria:
1. Challenges learners to higher-level learning
All courses require some “lower-level”learning, i.e., comprehending and remembering basic information and concepts.But many courses never get beyond this. Examples of “higher-level” learninginclude problem-solving, decision-making, critical thinking, and creativethinking.
2. Uses active forms of learning
Some learning will be “passive,”i.e., reading and listening. But higher-level learning, almost by definition,requires active learning. One learns to solve problems by solving problems; onelearns to think critically by thinking critically; etc.
3. Gives frequent and immediate feedback to students on the quality oftheir learning
Higher-level learning and activelearning require frequent and immediate feedback for learners to know whetherthey are “doing it” correctly.
4. Uses a structured sequence of different learning activities
Any course needs a variety of experiencesto support different kinds of learning goals. But these various learningactivities also need to be structured in a sequence such that earlier experienceslay the foundation for complex and higher-level learning tasks in later experiences.
5. Has a fair system for assessing learning
Even when students feel they arelearning something significant, they are unhappy if their assessments do notreflect this. Take care that quizzes and similar items are fair, are soundlyconstructed, don’t include “gotcha” questions, etc.
Backward design
Fink also offers ideas around approaching design. One commoncriticism of the ADDIE project planning approach to instructional design is that it is too linear,with evaluation “by autopsy” at the end. While it seems logical enough, literaluse of the approach can cause a disconnect between desired performance andactual result.
Fink recognized this early on: In offering advice forcreating significant learning experiences, he advises to begin design with theend in mind. He encourages designers to take an “expansive” view, going beyondbasic understanding and remembering: What do we want learners to do? (I dealtwith this all the time in my years as a designer housed in HR, whenstakeholders so often wanted an eLearning course with the only goal that thelearner “understand” a policy.) And he invites us to think not just about, “HowI will teach that?”—but rather, “How can they learn it?”
So, begin with what learners must be able to do, and thenwork backward from that—what do you want them to be able to do? How will youknow they can do that? What evidence will show you they can perform on the job?Maybe for a topic like “internet safety,” you can offer some sample screens andask learners to use a multiple-choice approach to separate safe behaviors fromsuspect behaviors. But for something like “communication skills,” you’ll likelyneed to look beyond simple read-and-respond assessment. Design these evaluationmethods first—and then work backward from there. What activities, in whatsequence, will help the learner learn? If you want the learner to engage incritical thinking, you can’t just wait until a single quiz at the end to testthat. What, in the learning experience, can encourage critical thinking? Whatwill enable that performance we’re after?
Fink’s initial work focused on helping new collegeinstructors understand the basics of course design, which they likely werenever taught. His ideas can be useful also to those newer to eLearning—in bothworkplace and academic settings. For those of us who’ve had long lives in thefield, a visit with Dee Fink’s work can help reframe and set new ways ofarticulating things we may already know.
Want more?
Fink, L. Dee. A Self-Directed Guide to Designing Courses for Significant Learning.
Fink, L. Dee. CreatingSignificant Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing CollegeCourses, 2nd edition. San Francisco, CA: Wiley, 2013.
Northern Illinois University. “Integrated Course Design to Improve Student Learning.” Faculty Development andInstructional Design Center.
Editor’s note: “FivePrinciples of Effective Course Design” appears here with the permission of DeeFink.
