EIU Faculty Development and Innovation Center

Alignment in Course Design

• What is alignment?
• Course mapping
• Levels of alignment
• Example of strong alignment
• Example of weak alignment
• References

What is alignment?

A significant purpose of instructional design is to help ensure course alignment. Alignment refers to how critical course elements work together to promote a learners’ achievement of the intended learning objectives. Critical course elements that relate to course alignment include the course and module learning objectives, assessments, and course content (instructional materials and learning activities). The series of questions to think about when aligning a course are:

1. Do all of the module (or week, chapter, etc.) learning objectives (MLOs) in my course adequately and appropriately support successful completion of the course learning objectives (CLOs)?
2. Do the assessments in my course provide evidence of successful completion of MLOs and CLOs?
3. Do the instructional materials and learning activities in my course support the successful completion of the assessments?

Note: For the purpose of readability, the term "course learning objectives (CLOs)" also refers to "course competencies" or "course outcomes" used as the basis for a course.

Course mapping

Course mapping is an activity used to demonstrate course alignment. The process of course mapping is sort of like incorporating a GPS into the design of your course. It is about intentionally connecting teaching and learning destinations by linking module learning objectives (MLOs) to overarching course learning objectives (CLOs) and then tying each assessment, instructional material, and learning activity to its correlating MLO. When you document each CLO with its related MLO then tag each piece of course content to its MLO, it's like creating a teaching and learning roadmap for your course. This roadmap becomes a visual guide that helps you (and your learners) see how everything aligns, connects, and also helps explain the why behind all the asks you make of your learners in your course. The table (directly) below is adapted from an example on the course mapping guide website and represents a course map for Module 1 of a Java Programming course. See the alignment correlations highlighted in yellow? They serve as the destinations on the roadmap of a well-aligned course. For convenience, the action of course mapping is incorporated into the FDIC backward design template located on the backward design webpage.

Levels of alignment

Objectives are the building blocks of course design. Objectives operate in correlation with each other and at various levels. There can be objectives higher than course learning objectives (CLOs) (i.e., program and/or university level objectives), overarching CLOs, zooming in a bit, there are module learning objectives (MLOs), and then there can be individual assignment objectives. It's like an objective hierarchy! The goal is make sure the objectives correlate and progressively support each other. Each objective should correlate with at least one objective that is a level above it. For example, a learning activity objective should correlate with at least one MLO. And the MLOs? They should correlate with at least one CLO. Course mapping is intentionally connecting the dots, level by level, to build a solid foundation for your learners' success.

Example of strong alignment

This example maintains strong alignment by focusing on a single action verb, "analyze" in the learning objective. The research paper, instructional materials, and learning activities are all designed to support and measure learners' ability to analyze the impact of environmental policies on sustainable development. The assessment aligns with the verb "analyze" by requiring critical analysis, while the instructional materials and learning activities provide the necessary content and experiences for learners to develop and practice this analytic skill.

Example of weak alignment

This example exhibits weak alignment. The verb "understand" in the learning objective is vague and not measurable. The assessment, a multiple-choice quiz, only tests recall of key terms and does not require the depth of understanding implied in the learning objective. The instructional materials and activities cover general concepts and lack depth and focus. Discussions and reflection papers, while beneficial, may not directly contribute to the specified objective.

References

Course Map Template. The Online Course Mapping Guide. (n.d.). https://www.coursemapguide.com/mapping-your-course.

DePaul (n.d.). Alignment in Course Design. DePaul Teaching Commons. Retrieved January 25, 2024, from https://resources.depaul.edu/teaching-commons/teaching-guides/course-design/Pages/scaffolding-alignment.aspx

OpenAI. (2024). ChatGPT (3.5 January version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com. Examples of strong and weak alignment were inspired by ChatGPT.

The written information and resources are developed or curated by the 

Faculty Development and Innovation Center

phone 217-581-7051 :: email fdic@eiu.edu :: web eiu.edu/fdic

Contact the FDIC for instructional design related questions or to schedule a consultation appointment. The FDIC staff can recommend instructional design strategies for your online, hybrid, and face-to-face courses.

Last updated: March 29, 2024