Planning backwards

Planning backwards is likely the most important principle in course design. After you have identified the situational factors that define the context for your course (see Fink, 2003) you need to decide what the learning outcomes (goals) are for the class. You need to clearly articulate what the students should know and be able to do after they complete your course in preparation for their next course in the curriculum or their professional tasks. The principle of planning backwards speaks to me because of my background in athletics.

As a coach in international and NCAA Division I gymnastics, planning backwards was required practice if you wanted to develop an effective training plan for the athletes. If you wanted to win a championship you had to sequence your practices such that your gymnasts would learn the physical skills and gain the mental confidence and attitude necessary to accomplish that feat. Therefore, you built your practices from easy to difficult, slow to fast, etc, but in a backwards fashion. It should be no different in any learning situation, but in higher education few courses are designed with this principle in mind. Developing and sequencing learning activities from simple to complex across a semester takes quite a bit of thought, and many instructors rely on textbook authors to take care of sequencing materials. .

Let me refer back to athletics one more time. Backwards planning is fully focused on the athletes, their physical and mental health and continual progress to peak performance. Competition, success, glory, fame, and sometimes lots of money, are strong motivators to work hard on the planning process and "get it right." Clearly, on the academic side of higher education we don't have these strong motivators, but we are responsible for preparing many young people for the next course in their curriculum, and the challenges of life and their profession. Something that is in the end much more important than winning a trophy. Therefore thougtful development of learning goals and meticulous backwards planning are necessary components of course development.