Backward design is widely used to improve course quality and serves as a useful framework for structuring the preparation work itself. Starting with learning objectives sets a clear sequence and avoids a common pitfall - jumping into building the course before the most important decisions are made. Planning ahead in this way provides you the time to focus on targeted course refinements to improve student learning.
Month One: Clarifying Direction
Focus: learning objectives, scope, priorities
Dr. Rivera, our fictional instructor, begins her prep by stepping back from content and focusing on direction:
What do students need to be able to do by the end of the course?
Where have students struggled in the past?
Are the course learning objectives still accurate and meaningful?
Example: Dr. Rivera reviews her existing learning objectives: "Students will understand stakeholder theory." She realizes "understand" isn't measurable or action-oriented. Looking at past student work, she notices that students could often define stakeholder theory but struggled to apply it to messy business decisions. She revises it to: "Students will recommend business decisions that address competing stakeholder interests through the lens of stakeholder theory." This clearer objective immediately suggests what evidence of learning might look like. Dr. Rivera proceeded to revise the rest of her course modules using these considerations.
Month Two: Designing Assessments
Focus: major assignments, rubrics, sequencing
With learning objectives in place, month two becomes assessment focused. Dr. Rivera revisits major assignments and asks:
What counts as strong evidence of learning?
Where could expectations or rubrics be clearer?
How do assessments build across the term?
Example: Dr. Rivera had been using a traditional research paper as her final assessment but realizes it doesn't align well with her revised objectives about applying stakeholder theory. She redesigns it as a case analysis where students must recommend and defend a decision for a real organization facing stakeholder conflict. She also creates a rubric that explicitly names "identification of stakeholder groups," "analysis of competing interests," and "justified recommendation" as criteria, giving students (and herself) clarity on what success looks like.
Month Three: Planning Weekly Learning Activities
Focus: weekly flow, engagement, learning activities
After objectives and assessments are clear, Dr. Rivera turns to weekly planning. Each week has a purpose:
What practice prepares students for upcoming work?
Where should interaction or application be emphasized?
Which weeks can be lighter on content?
This is when learning activities, discussions, and media choices come into focus.
Example: Knowing students will need to analyze stakeholder conflicts in their final case study, Dr. Rivera plans Week 4 around practicing that skill with a lower-stakes scenario. She creates a discussion where small groups identify stakeholders in a brief scenario, then compare their results. This gives students structured practice before the final assessment and gives her a chance to see where they're struggling early enough to adjust.
Month Four: Building and Final Review
Focus: course build, clarity, accessibility
In her final month of course preparation, Dr. Rivera builds the course in ICON, updates content, checks accessibility, and reviews instructions from a student perspective. Because major decisions are settled, this phase is more about refinement than design.
Example: While building the Week 4 discussion in ICON, Dr. Rivera realizes her instructions assume students already know how to identify "primary" vs. "secondary" stakeholders, but that term hasn't been introduced yet. She adds a 3-minute video defining the distinction and links to a one-page visual guide. She also runs her assignment instructions through a readability checker and simplifies two sentences that were jargon-filled and complex.
Why This Works
Backward design ensures tight alignment between what students are expected to learn, how they'll demonstrate that learning, and what practice they'll receive along the way. Instead of doing everything at once, the work unfolds as a series of purposeful decisions, all made at the right time. In our example, Dr Rivera is able to focus on refinement because she planned ahead using backward design in order to make targeted course design revisions that have real impact on learning.