Your Big Ideas: What is your course really about?
We often begin designing our courses with a list of topics to be covered. Before diving into specific learning objectives and lesson plans, it’s helpful to pause and ask: What is this course really about, and what big ideas or key questions will shape students’ learning?
Articulating your course purpose helps you see beyond the content you need to cover to identify what truly matters for lasting learning.
When you can clearly articulate your course’s big ideas and enduring understandings, you create a foundation for more purposeful, coherent, and meaningful learning experiences.
Big Ideas & Enduring Understandings
Big ideas are the core concepts that organize your discipline (and in sub-disciplines, such as your specific course) the key ideas that help students connect individual topics and see patterns across the course.
Enduring understandings go a step further. They are the specific insights you want students to take away about those big ideas, the “so what” that students should remember and be able to apply long after the course ends.
The difference is helpful to keep in mind:
- Big ideas name the concept and connect the learning
- Enduring understandings explain what’s important about it and what students should understand
Pause and consider
Review your course:
- Which ideas connect several topics or units?
- What would students miss if they remembered the facts but not the underlying meaning?
- What do experts in your discipline understand that novices often do not yet see?
Identify and draft the big ideas and enduring understandings in your course
Identify the big ideas in your course—the core concepts that organize your discipline and are worth really understanding (not just memorizing). Some examples:
- Biology: evolution, structure and function
- History: causation, continuity and change
- Economics: scarcity, incentives
- Literature: narrative voice, symbolism
- Math: patterns, modeling
From there, think about the enduring understandings—what you want students to remember and use years from now. These are the key insights that make the content meaningful. Again, some examples:
- Biology: Small genetic changes can lead to major evolutionary shifts over time
- History: Historical accounts reflect the perspectives of those who write them
- Economics: Individual choices can lead to unintended collective outcomes
- Literature: Authors’ choices shape how meaning is interpreted
- Math: Models help us see patterns, but always have limits
A quick way to think about it:
Topic → Big Idea → Enduring Understanding
An example: Canadian Confederation → nation-building and competing interests → political change often emerges through negotiation and compromise among groups with differing priorities and identities reconciled within existing systems
Drafting prompts:
Complete one or more of these stems:
- Students should understand that…
- A central insight of this course is that…
- Although students may initially assume _____, they should come to understand that…
- The relationship between _____ and _____ is important because…
- Decisions about _____ require attention to…
- Knowledge in this discipline is shaped by…
Why this matters:
Focusing on big ideas and enduring understandings helps you move beyond content coverage and design learning that is more meaningful, connected, and lasting.
Watch how Jay Tighe, Author of Understanding by Design, explain backward design.
What is understanding by design? Author Jay Tighe explains [Youtube Video, 7-minute].
Reflect on these questions before moving to other components of course design:
Given the enduring understandings you’ve articulated:
- What specific real‑world or discipline‑relevant contexts do you expect students to transfer those understandings
- What performance‑based evidence will you design so that students can show they can use their learning in those contexts, not just repeat it?
You may not yet be fully satisfied with the Big Ideas or Enduring Understandings you have drafted. At this stage, treat them as guideposts rather than finished products. They can help you make decisions as you continue designing your course, while remaining open to revision as the different elements, such as learning objectives, assessment designs, and learning activities, of the course take shape.
Key Takeaways
Big ideas name the concept; enduring understandings explain what’s important about it.
Purpose drives design: Clear course purpose guides coherent, lasting, and connected learning experiences.
Learning beyond recall: Focus on enduring understandings to promote real-world transfer and application.
Want to join a course design cohort?
The Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT) hosts two course design programs.
Course Design Intensive (CDI)
The CDI is for faculty members, including instructors and sessional lecturers, teaching credit courses at UBC, where you will work in a supportive atmosphere, both individually and collaboratively, to design or redesign a UBC credit course. The CDI is usually offered around mid-August and composed of two in-person sessions and two online sessions.
Journey into Course Design (JiCD)
JiCD is for faculty members, staff, and graduate students, who are designing courses, modules, and/or learning activities. This 2-part in-person workshop is usually offered in May/June and November/December.
Please check CTLT’s event page for the latest offerings of either CDI or JiCD.
