Title: How to design a class. Ah, summer. That time when teachers… | by Amy J. Ko | Bits and Behavior | Medium
Headings: How to design a class
How to design a class
Seven steps to designing a class
1. Devise and sequence learning objectives
2. Ideate instruction, practice, and feedback for objectives
3. Iteratively sketch, evaluate and refine a syllabus
4. Layer on extrinsic motivation (grades)
5. Extract action items
6. Teach the course
7. Synthesize reflections into revisions
How long does this take?
What if you’re inheriting course materials?
Can’t I just do lectures, homeworks, and exams?

Content: This pedagogy adapts to students’ prior knowledge, it offers practice enumerating mechanics, it gives personalized feedback, and it repeats. It probably is also more engaging! If you can devise activities like the above for every one of your learning objectives, and that also fits within the time and space constraints of your course, you’re well on your way to having a design. 3. Iteratively sketch, evaluate and refine a syllabus
As I generate ideas for how to teach each of your learning objectives, I like to capture them in a syllabus outline. Initially, I don’t worry about dates or times or other logistics like that. Rather, I try to capture the general flow of objectives and activities for teaching those objectives, and then iteratively refine that sketch into a more robust prototype. For example, the Zelda class we’ve designing might look something like this: Enumerate the recurring game mechanics in the series. Enumerate mechanics, give feedback, watch videos, repeat.