A workshop at the American Association of Philosophy Teachers' conference, July 2016. The first half is about how using backwards design and different types of learning goals as enumerated by Dee Fink can help one one rethink assignments in philosophy courses. The second is about "renewable assignments" according to David Wiley and how they might work in philosophy courses. Ideally one could come up with a new learning goal from the first half and then come up with a renewable assignment to fit it, from the second half of the workshop.

1. TRANSFORMING
ASSESSMENTS WITH
BACKWARDS COURSE
DESIGN & RENEWABLE
ASSIGNMENTS
Christina Hendricks, AAPT, July 2016
Slides licensed CC
BY 4.0

2. Learning goals for this session
• Say how backwards course design might
transform assessments
• Explain at least three types of learning
goals and write one goal for upcoming
course
• Explain what “renewable assignments” are
• Give one example of a renewable
assignment you could consider using

3. Dee Fink
Integrated Course Design

4. Integrated Course Design
Learnin
g Goals
Activitie
s
Assess-
ments
Situational Factors
Adapted from Fink’s Self-Directed Guide to Designing Courses for Significant
Learning

5. Backwards Design
Goals
Assessment
s
Learning
Activities
Why?
Wiggins & McTighe (2005), Fink (2013)
- End of course
- 2 or more yrs later

6. Types of learning goals
Foundational
Knowledge
Application
Integration
Human
Dimension
Caring
Learning
How to
Learn
Adapted from Fink’s Self-
Directed Guide to Designing
Courses for Significant Learning
Others?

7. My new Goals for Intro Course
Integration Human
Dimension
Caring Learning
How to
Learn
Apply
philosophical
thinking to
current events
Recognize if
rely on
unexamined
beliefs
Care about
whether have
examined
beliefs
Take notes on
main
arguments in
readings
Explain how
philosophical
activity is
everywhere
Engage in
respectful
philosophical
dialogue
Explain the
value of
learning
with/from
peers
Explain how
to get help,
what
resources
available

8. Your learning goals
Write here to share: http://is.gd/hendricks_aapt2016
Create a learning goal for one of your courses (ideally
something you hadn’t considered before).
Foundational Knowledge
• What key information/ideas should
students learn?
Human Dimension
• What could students learn about
selves, others, interacting w/others?
Application
• What kinds of thinking need to
develop: critical, creative, practical?
• What skills should students
develop?
Caring
• What changes would you like to see
in students’ feelings, interests or
values?
Integration
• What connections should make
among ideas in course, between
course & other courses or their
lives?
Learning How to Learn
• How can students learn to be good
learners in this course? How to
become self-directed learners?

9. Get Students Involved in Goals!
Have discussion or
survey on what goals
students have for the
course
• Possibly revise the ones you wrote
• Or have them write goals for
themselves & revisit during the course:
www.futureme.org

10. David Wiley
Renewable Assignments

11. “Disposable Assignments”
“… assignments that add
no value to the world –
after a student spends
three hours creating it, a
teacher spends 30
minutes grading it, and
then the student throws it
away.”
-- David Wiley, “What is Open
Pedagogy?”

12. “Renewable Assignments”
“… the student’s work …
add[s] value to the world in
some way …. others will be
able to benefit from their work
for years to come.”
“… people want to contribute
something, to give something
back, to pay it forward, to
make the world a better place,
to make a difference.”
-- David Wiley, “Toward Renewable
Assessments”
Icon by Freepik.com from
Flaticon.com, licensed CC BY 3.0

13. Examples of Renewable Assigns.
• Wikipedia articles
• Videos, podcasts, slide decks,
etc. shared publicly
• Original research shared publicly
• Student-created open textbooks
or other books
o An Open Education Reader
o The Open Anthology of Earlier
American Literature
Google doc with other examples
Image from An Open Education Reader,
licensed CC BY 4.0

14. Using open license Renewable
Creative
Commons
licenses
Allow works to be
reused & revised,*
without having to ask
creator for permission
*All licenses except “No Derivatives”
allow revisions to the work
Image from Copyright in Education & Internet in South African Law
used under CC-BY 2.5 South Africa license

15. Your Ideas for Renewable Assigns.
In pairs or groups, brainstorm ideas for
renewable assignments in Philosophy
courses.
• Could think of one that fits with one or
more of the learning goals you created
earlier
Post here to share:

16. My Ideas for Renewable Assigns.
• “Philosophy in the
World” assignment
• Opinion piece on
current moral issue on
Medium or The
Winnower
• Publish student journal of model essays
• Students create exam questions; writing
advice; videos, slides, etc. to teach concepts
to others—shared publicly or w/future students

17. Get students involved (again)!
• Brainstorm possible
renewable
assignments with
students
• Choose some you
think will work well
• Let students choose
one among them
Group icon made by Freepik from
www.flaticon.com, licensed CC BY 3.0

18. Works Cited
• Fink, L.D. (2005). A self-directed guide to designing
courses for significant learning (PDF). Retrieved from
https://www.deefinkandassociates.com/GuidetoCourseD
esignAug05.pdf
• Fink, L.D. (2013). Creating significant learning
experiences: An integrated approach to designing college
courses (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2005). Understanding by
design (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: ACSD.
• Wiley, D. (2013). What is open pedagogy? (Blog post).
Retrieved from http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/2975
• Wiley, D. (2016). Towards renewable assessments (Blog
post). Retrieved from
http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/4691

19. Thank you!
These slides are available here:
http://is.gd/aapt2016_ch_slides
Christina Hendricks
c.hendricks@ubc.ca
Blog: http://blogs.ubc.ca/chendricks
Twitter: @clhendricksbc
Slides licensed CC BY 4.0