IDENTIFYING COURSE

CONTENT

ROXAN A. CONSOLACION
MSU-IIT, CED
 IDENTIFYING COURSE CONTENT

▪ 3.3 Identifying course content

▪ 3.4 Defining learning objectives
▪ 3.5 Defining the course sequence
 Identifying Course Content

1. COURSE GOAL

provides an initial definition of the content and a focus for the

course design

2. CONTENT ANALYSIS

identifies accurate and relevant content

appropriate instructional methods and media

to transfer the information to learners.

prerequisite for developing specific learning

objectives and the curriculum outline.
CONTENT IDENTIFICATION AND ANALYSIS METHODS

Task analysis
job tasks that learners should learn or improve
the knowledge and skills that need to be
developed or reinforced.
also called “perform courses”

Topic analysis
identify and classify the course content.
“inform courses”
 1. TASK ANALYSIS

Identifying Course Content Through Task Analysis

Allows Designers To:

1. create a learning course that is job centered;

2. focus attention on skills; and
3. create case-based scenarios that build on
realistic job contexts.
 Task Analysis Consists Of Four Main Steps:

Step 1: Identifying tasks

Identify and describe the tasks that learners should learn or
improve to achieve the course goal.

Step 2: Classifying tasks

Classify tasks as either:
> procedural (i.e. tasks that are performed by executing an ordered sequence
of steps ,
such as “Create a table in Microsoft Word”);
> principle-based (i.e. tasks requiring judgments and decisions to be applied
in different situations and under conditions that change every time,
such as “Organizing a conference”).
Step 4: Identifying required knowledge and skills
Identify the knowledge and skills needed to best perform those
steps or apply those guidelines.

Example Of A Task Analysis

Let’s use an example of an e-learning course aimed at

improving food security analysis and promoting its use in
decision-making.

The course audience is composed of mid-level

managers, technical staff and field personnel who are
involved in collecting, managing, analysing and reporting
food security information.
Step 1: Identifying tasks
▪ Therefore, in this case, the following job tasks need to be performed:
▪ 1 - Select the most appropriate method to assess food security in a
given context.
▪ 2 - Select indicators for different food security dimensions.
▪ 3 - Analyse assessment results using standardized analysis methods.
▪ 4 - Design and produce effective reports for decision-makers, providing
them with recommendations based on analysis results.

Step 2: Classifying tasks

Step 3: Breaking up the tasks
 2. TOPIC ANALYSIS

 The topic analysis aims to:

- identify course content, and

- classify content elements.
Example Identifying course content
1. Climate change and its effects; and
2. Impacts of climate change on food security

1. Climate change and its effects

> Climate variability
> Climate related disasters
> Impacts on agriculture

2. Impacts of climate change on food

security
⮚ Effects on rural livelihoods
⮚ Specific impact on different locations and
conditions
⮚ Examples, such as the impact of water scarcity in
Mauritania, the impact of extreme weather events
in Bangladesh, etc.
▪ Classifying content elements
Classifying content elements helps to further
recognize connections among them thus contributing to the
refinement of the draft course outline.
▪ DEFINING LEARNING OBJECTIVES

What is a learning objective?

A learning objective is a statement
describing a competency or
performance capability to be acquired
by the learner. Objectives should be
specified for the course as well as for
each single activity.
Why objectives?
are a foundation for any blended learning
design process

– Focus the instructional task

– Both instructors and students know where they are
going
– Guide assessment
– Learning objectives provide road map for a
course and help align content, assessments and
activities to round out the learning experience.
 Writing Measurable
Objectives
From this information, we can develop the
following learning objectives:
⮚ Construct a logical and persuasive message.
⮚ Explain the concept of relevance.
⮚ Explain the concept of feasibility.
⮚ Describe the elements of a message (current
situation, problem, questions, response
needed).
⮚ Distinguish consistent from inconsistent data.
⮚ Explain the concept of brevity
▪ Learning objectives combine two main elements:

1. the expected level of performance (through an action

verb, such as “describe” or “explain”); and

2. the learning content (i.e. the type of knowledge or

skills that must be learned, such as “the main objectives of
a food security information system”)
 The ABCD Method

 Writing objectives
 In the ABCD method of writing learning objectives, each
objective contains these four elements:
A Audience (who the learners are)
B Behavior (what they do)
C Condition (what they use to do it)
D Degree (how well they do it)
Example
– Teaching Goal
The successful student will be able to differentiate between a
primary source and a secondary source.

– Learning Objective—A, B, C, D.
Given two actual primary sources and two actual
secondary sources on a particular topic, students
working in small groups will correctly distinguish
between the primary and secondary sources 90% of
the time.
 ▪ make choices based on the kinds of
“Bloom’s learning experiences we want students
Digital to engage in.”
▪ Selecting the most appropriate digital
Taxonom activity will depend on the activity’s
y level of difficulty
▪ to inform instructors of how to use
technology and digital tools to
facilitate student learning experiences
and outcomes.
Levels of Learning
Objectives
(Bloom’s Taxonomy)

– Bloom’s Taxonomy
- Knowledge
- Comprehension
- Application
- Analysis
- Synthesis
- Evaluation
▪ Creating –To produce new or original
work.

▪ Tools – Animating, blogging, filming,

podcasting, publishing, simulating, wiki
building, video blogging, programming,
directing
▪ Evaluating – To justify a stand or decision;
to make judgments based on criteria and
standards through checking and
critiquing.

▪ Tools – Grading, networking, rating,

testing, reflecting, reviewing, blog
commenting, posting, moderating
▪ Analyzing – To draw connections among
ideas, concepts, or determining how each
part interrelate to an overall structure or
purpose.

Tools – Mashing, mind mapping, surveying,

linking, validating
▪ Applying – To use information in new
situations such as models, diagrams, or
presentations.

Tools – Calculating, Charting, editing,

hacking, presenting, uploading, operating,
sharing with a group
▪ Understanding – To explain ideas,
concepts, or construct meaning from
written material or graphics.

▪ Tools – Advanced searching, annotating,

blog journaling, tweeting, tagging,
commenting, subscribing
▪ Remembering – To recall facts, basic
concepts, or retrieval of material.

▪ Tools – Bookmarking, copying, googling,

bullet-pointing, highlighting, group
networking, searching
Example

Goal: Understand the American criminal

justice system.
▪ Objectives:

▪ Original version: Describe and create a social media plan for

your organization.

▪ Revised version: Given two actual primary sources and two

actual secondary sources on a particular topic, students
working in small groups will create a social media vlog to
distinguish between the primary and secondary sources 90%
of the time.
 Guidelines for Writing Learning Objectives
Poorly Written Learning Objectives Are... Well Written Learning Objectives Are...
Vague Clear and Specific

Students will learn the programming language Students will use the programming language,
Python. Python, to complete a data mining analysis.
Unmeasurable Measurable
Students will know the elements form the Students will be able to identify the elements
periodic table. from the periodic table based on their symbols.

Wordy Concise
Students will be able to apply one of the many Students will be able to apply theories of social
theories of social psychology and apply those psychology to real-world situations.
theories to a number of real-world situations.

Independent of Course Objectives Tied into Course Objectives

Course Objective: Students will be able to Course Objective: Students will be able to
construct a sentence in Spanish using correct construct a sentence in Spanish using correct
grammar and punctuation. grammar and punctuation.

Learning Objective: Students will identify Learning Objective: Students will be able to
provinces in Spain on a map conjugate verbs correctly in the past tense.
▪ DEFINING THE COURSE SEQUENCE
How should the learning objectives be sequenced when
structuring a course?

- prerequisite method

- Course structure

- Personal learning paths

 References

• Assessment and instructional Alignment.

http://www.ucdenver.edu/faculty_staff/faculty/center-for-faculty-
development/Documents/Tutorials/Assessment/index.htm
• Clark, Donald, “A Quick Guide to Writing Learning Objectives,” ©
November 30, 2008
• Kruse, Kevin, “How to Write Great Learning Objectives”
• Lieb, Stephen, Planner, Arizona Department of Health Services
and part-time Instructor, South Mountain Community College
from VISION, Fall 1991
• Mager, Robert, “Preparing Objectives for Programmed Instruction,” 1962
• Mager, Robert, What Every Manager Should Know about Training, 1992
• Ohio University Faculty, “Writing Learning Objectives: Beginning with The
End in Mind”