Learning Objectives:

Assess your needs for a new course or
Evaluate your needs for re-designing an existing course

Start Your Analysis:

Here are some important questions to reflect on.

#1 What is the purpose of this course?

To be able to design a course, you must first be able to explain why you are creating the course in the first place.

#2 Who is your audience?

It's important to understand who the course is for along with their motivations and needs in taking the course. Is this course for students, faculty, staff, or anyone else?

#3 What will learners gain from this course? Will they learn new information, gain a skill, etc.?

To create a course that best facilitates its purpose, you need to know exactly what learners will gain as a result of the course. The Bloom's Taxonomy is a helpful resource in determining outcomes for your learners.

#4 How will you determine learners’ success?

This question is important as it will help you determine whether your course had an impact on learners. Will you use quizzes, exams, assignments, or other forms of assessments? If a learner is gaining knowledge, a skill, etc., how will you accurately evaluate their progress?

#5 How will learners interact with your course?

To achieve the goals of the course, it's important to think about how learners will interact with the course, you, other learners, and even themselves. Some examples are found below; thinking about this question now will help you with the Design step:

With Content: Internet research, presentations, quizzes/exams, readings, simulations, student-generated content, videos/podcasts, written assignments, etc.
With the Course Facilitator: Announcements, assignment feedback, discussion response, FAQ outlet, F2F meeting, varied contact methods, virtual meetings, etc.
With Other Learners: Group discussions, group paper, group projects, peer review, self-introductions, student-only forums, study groups, etc.
Through Self-Reflection: Practice quiz, reflective journal/blog, self-assessment, etc.

Resources:

For Evaluating Existing Courses use the Kirkpatrick Model to Assess your course