Backward Design

Backward design is a process for designing courses that entails three steps:

  1. Determine the content and skills you want your students to learn in the course.
    1. What are the course learning outcomes?
  2. Determine how you will know whether students have learned that content and skills.
    1. What assessment(s) will students complete to demonstrate in a measurable way that they have met the course learning outcomes?
  3. Determine what practice will prepare students to succeed on the assessment(s).
    1. What will the nature, frequency, and sequence of learning activities be in the course?
    2. How will you track student progress, provide feedback to students to guide their efforts, and help students learn to identify where their own learning is and isn’t on track?

Using these three steps can help instructors to map their courses and align the course elements. Separate pages in this section address steps one (learning outcomes) and two (assessment). For step three (learning activities), consult the teaching your course page.

A graphic illustrating the backward design model.

See also the PDF version of this image. (, )

Additional Resources

: A simple explanation of backward design.

: This short, accessible book chapter offers concrete, practical tips grounded in research.

: Focused on blended (hybrid) courses, this chapter provides short definitions of key concepts and practical charts instructors can use to plan their course.

: The classic text for backward design reviews concepts such as the “twin sins” of covering content without purpose and implementing engaging activities without purpose.

: This section of the book contains short, practical chapters with useful planning tools on how to scaffold and sequence online courses in four domains: procedural, metacognitive, conceptual, and strategic.