| Big Idea What is the big idea that the learner will walk away with at the end of the lesson that is critical for learners at this stage of their learning path? | Learning Outcome(s) What specific things will the learner know or be able to do by the end of the lesson? | Evidence of Learning What does learning look like for this objective? (e.g., accurate performance of a task, correct use of terminology) | Assessments What will learners do to provide evidence of their learning? (e.g., a presentation, a test, a project) | Learning Activities What learning activities will allow learners to acquire and practice the skills necessary to demonstrate their learning and complete the assessment successfully? |
| Solve real-world problems and questions that people have by designing code to solve any problem that arises. | Learn how to write code with proper syntax (grammar) in C++ to run small programs that solve a simple task and/or problem. | Be able to tackle small tasks by properly designing a piece of code to solve the problem given. | When given a small problem, the learner is able to use pseudo-code to solve it. The learner is then able to change the pseudo-code into code using proper syntax to create an application that will solve the problem. (i.e. a income tax calculator which takes an input and gives an output)In the form of a short answer question. | Read text that explains terminology Watch videos that explain how different pieces of code does different things Watch videos to put the pieces of code together to do one big thing Put it all together. |
The following template was planned to use backwards design. It starts with what the learning outcomes are. Then it is continued by how we assess or test that the learner has enough knowledge to apply what they know into solving the problem in the form of a test or project. Then this follows with the activities needed to teach the learners about the outcomes in the form of watching videos or reading text or engaging in labs.
What authentic problem would you use to design a lesson using Merrill’s principles? What media or multimedia (interactive or not) would you create to support it?
I would design a lesson on an introduction to coding lesson using Merrill’s principles. Why? I believe a lot of the free coding courses online have demonstrated that they use the backwards design to help learners learn a completely new language (coding) by making it super easy to absorb the information. For media, I would create videos to teach the concepts and to demonstrate how to write code in a proper way by relating grammar with syntax. This helps learners use their pre-existing knowledge of the English language as a foundation for learning the coding language. Then I would use screen casting to have learners follow along with the problem so they can solve it along. I would give them a problem like make a simple user-login page which takes in a username and password. Then I would choose to give a problem for them to solve by the next lesson (gives them time to recall information from the lecture).
Where do you see constructive alignment and backward design used in this course or another course you are taking/have taken? Is there anywhere where it seems to be missing?
A lot of economics courses, and coding courses seem to use constructive alignment and backward design to construct their course. EDCI 337 no doubt uses these two concepts to design the course as well. However, a lot of university level English course seem to be missing this. For example, they make the presumption that we all know how to properly write at the academic level and that we need to only keep writing to improve. Very little knowledge is taught in university to help add on to preexisting knowledge. Backwards design might have been used to help prepare for the final by having students practice by writing. But compared to other courses I believe limited constructive alignment is used.
References
Kurt, S. “Instructional Design Models and Theories,” in Educational Technology, December 9, 2015. Retrieved from https://educationaltechnology.net/instructional-design-models-and-theories/ Dr. Serhat Kurt, Instructional Design Models and Theories. Sept 28, 2022.
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