NTLSN · Crash Course · Curriculum

Designing your course — a crash course

A good course is designed, not assembled. Four short lessons on building a subject that holds together — then a self-check.

The one thing to remember: design backwards: from what students should be able to do, to how you'll know they can, to how you'll teach it. Content comes last, not first.

4 lessons~11 min read1 self-checkGrounded in Biggs, Wiggins & McTighe, course-design practice

The lessons

Start with outcomesBackward design

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Decide what students should be able to do by the end, in observable terms. Everything else serves those outcomes.

Write 4–6 outcomes using verbs you can assess (analyse, design, evaluate).
Pitch them at the right level for the year and the program.
Check they add up to something a graduate of the program needs.

Align everythingConstructive alignment

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Alignment means teaching, activities and assessment all target the same outcomes. Misalignment is the most common — and most fixable — course fault.

Map each outcome to where it's taught, practised and assessed.
Cut content and tasks that don't serve an outcome.
Make the links visible to students — they learn what's assessed.

Grounded in

Constructive alignment (Biggs & Tang)
Understanding by Design (Wiggins & McTighe)

Sequence for learningCognitive load & scaffolding

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Order matters. Build from foundations, manage cognitive load, and scaffold complex skills.

Sequence from concrete to abstract, simple to complex.
Space and revisit key ideas rather than covering once.
Scaffold hard skills, then fade the support.

Design for activityStudents do the work of learning

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Students learn by doing, not by watching you do. Use class time for the hard parts, not just delivery.

Replace some delivery with retrieval, problems and discussion.
Use class time for what students can't do alone.
Build in low-stakes practice with feedback before it counts.

Grounded in

Active learning & flipped practice
Cognitive load & scaffolding research

◇ Bring it together — from the NTLSN commons

Browse “Curriculum” resources Programme curriculum map (I-D-A)Frameworks & policy 369 sector videos

Before you build or refresh a subject — a quick self-check

✓

My outcomes are observable and assessable.

✓

Teaching, activities and assessment all target those outcomes.

✓

I've cut content that doesn't serve an outcome.

✓

The sequence builds and scaffolds rather than dumps.

✓

Students spend class time doing, not just watching.

✓

There's low-stakes practice with feedback before high-stakes tasks.

Source & attribution. Curated from backward design (Wiggins & McTighe) and constructive alignment (Biggs & Tang), plus sector course-design good practice indexed by the NTLSN commons. Practitioner synthesis, not original research.

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