Backward Design

What is backward design?

Backward design is a framework for planning a lesson. Here, I'm using "lesson" to mean anything from an entire semester-long course, to a degree program, to a one-hour class session. Basically, backward design involves you (as the teacher) going through three stages, in order, of planning the lesson.

Decide on the goals/objectives/outcomes you want your learners to achieve through completing the lesson. (For now, we will use the terms goals, objectives, and outcomes interchangeably.)
Then, figure out what evidence you will need to see to be convinced that your learners have achieved the objectives.
Finally, plan the activities and resources that will support your learners in achieving the objectives, and therefore in showing your desired evidence of their achievement.

Some teachers may find it more instinctive to do these steps in the opposite order. Doing these steps in this order, however, is a more intentional way of planning your lesson. It allows you to ensure that everything you and your learners do is making progress toward the desired objectives, and no time or effort is wasted working towards mastery of something that's not actually an objective of the lesson.

Why do you want to use backward design to plan your modules?

Read and watch the "Overview" and "The Benefits of Using Backward Design" sections of these resources on Understanding by Design Links to an external site. from the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. The video you will watch as part of this is a talk by one of the founders of backward design as applied to instructional design. Try not to get lost in his slightly protracted example about teaching to a goal of fostering creative thinking in the middle of the video. The rest is very worthwhile.

What are the steps of backward design?

The next three modules of this course, Modules 2, 3, and 4, are all about the three steps of backward design, respectively. For now, your understanding of backward design as a whole will benefit from a basic understanding of what these three steps entail.

Step 1 of backward design

We've already established that during Step 1, you want to decide on the objectives you want your learners to achieve through completing the lesson. This involves creating a clear, cohesive, succinct list of learning objectives that encompasses all of the objectives for the entire lesson. If an endpoint isn't covered by this list, it should not be addressed in the lesson, so it is important to think critically about what it's important that your learners come away with.

For example, if I'm training my dog, and I decide that the learning objective for my lesson is that he should be able to sit and stay on command, I should not start teaching him to fetch in the middle of the lesson, because I have already decided that sit and stay are my objectives. I should also not judge his success on whether or not he can fetch. If fetch were a priority to me, I should have included that in the objectives.

Each learning objective should finish the sentence: "By the end of this lesson, learners should be able to..."

Step 2 of backward design

Your next step is to figure out what evidence you will need to see to be convinced that your learners have achieved the objectives. You will want to build assessments to gather this evidence. An assessment could be an assignment like an essay or a design project, it could be a quiz or an exam, etc.

For example, to assess whether my dog can sit and stay on command, I would set up a demonstration during which I issue the command to sit, and determine whether I see my dog sit. I then issue the command to stay, and determine whether I see my dog stay. I would probably want to set up some criteria such as how long the dog must stay to fulfill my objective. All of my assessments should align with my learning objectives - as I said before, if my objective is that my dog sit and stay, I should not assess him on his fetching skills.

There are often numerous ways of collecting evidence of mastery of an objective. Sometimes they are very direct, as with my dog example, and sometimes they are more tangential, such as asking a learner questions about a process instead of asking them to perform that process in front of you. These may be more convenient ways of assessment when the process itself takes a long time, is dangerous, or requires specialized equipment or materials, for example.

Step 3 of backward design

Lastly, you will want to plan the activities and resources that will support your learners in achieving the objectives, and therefore in showing your desired evidence of their achievement. This is the stage in which you plan what someone might more traditionally consider your "teaching." What do you want to tell your learners? What resources would they benefit from – readings? videos? What activities do you want to have your learners do? These elements can be considered educational resources or learning resources.

Again, your educational resources should always align with both your learning objectives and your assessments. Does the information or the practice you are planning for your learners work towards mastery of one or more of your learning objectives? If not, reconsider including that educational resource in your lesson. Likewise, have you provided everything the learners need in order to show evidence of their mastery in the assessments you've designed? If not, you may need to add some educational resources that do so.

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