Blueprint for Learning: Constructing College Courses to Facilitate, Assess, and Document Learning

An acclaimed educator presents hands-on advice on teaching that meets today’s emphasis on learning outcomes and assessment. This book is informed by the most up-to-date research on how people learn. It is suitable for all instructors in higher education - as well as high school teachers. Laurie Richlin has been running a workshop on course design for higher education for over fifteen years, modifying and improving it progressively from the feedback of participants, and from what they in turn have taught her. Her goals are to enable participants to appropriately select teaching strategies, to design and create the conditions and experiences that will enable their students to learn; and in the process to develop the scholarly scaffold to document their ongoing course design and achievements. This book familiarizes readers with course design elements; enables them to understand themselves as individuals and teachers; know their students; adapt to the learning environment; design courses that promote deep learning; and assess the impact of the teaching practices and design choices they have made. She provides tools to create a full syllabus, offers guidance on such issues as framing questions that encourage discussion, developing assignments with rubrics, and creating tests. The book is packed with resources that will help readers structure their courses and constitute a rich reference of proven ideas. What Laurie Richlin offers is a intellectual framework, set of tools and best practices to enable readers to design and continually reassess their courses to better meet their teaching goals and the learning needs of their students.