Reflect on your course context and how this will influence your design
Every course is shaped by the context it’s taught in. Situational factors like class size, your students’ backgrounds and experiences, the teaching environment, and available technology all influence how you might design your course. Taking a little time to consider these factors before you start planning can help you make thoughtful, realistic choices that support both your teaching and your students’ learning.
If we could offer some advice at this stage of your course design, we would say, ‘Design for the reality you’re in, not the ideal you imagine.’ It’s tempting to plan your “dream course”, but strong design works within your actual class size, time, and energy.
Covering fewer topics more deeply leads to better learning than rushing through everything. Depth supports understanding; overload leads to surface learning. Courses rarely go exactly as planned. Leaving some space makes it easier to adjust without everything unravelling.
Take a snapshot of your key situational factors:
The Basics
- Course level: Introductory, intermediate, or advanced?
- Class size: small (when you feel you will be able to follow up with every student’s progress), medium (when you feel you could have meaningful conversation with some students), or large (When you may only get to know a handful of students)?
- Format: 6-credit, 3-credit, special setup (and why)?
- Modality: In-person, online, hybrid, or flexible?
Your Students
- Who takes this course: majors, non-majors, a mix, or open enrolment?
- Why they’re here: required or elective?
- What they bring: consistent preparation or varied backgrounds?
Your Resources
- Classroom: Fixed or flexible seating? Technology available?
- Support: Are TAs, makers, or instructional designers available?
- Your time: How many courses are you teaching this term?
Even this brief overview helps you avoid common design mistakes—like planning extensive small group work in a 200-person lecture hall or assigning complex weekly essays when you’re teaching an elective course.
Program-level situational factors:
Consider how your course fits into the degree program. If you don’t know, send an email to the person who asked, invited, or assigned you to teach your course these questions:
- What roles does your course serve in the overall degree program? Is it a service course, a prerequisite to upper-level courses, or a capstone course?
- What are students expected to bring to your course? What prior knowledge, skills, or ways of thinkings are assumed?
- What should your course prepare students to do next?
- How does your course contribute to program-level outcomes or accreditation expectations?
Given what you can identify with your colleagues in your unit, ask yourself again:
- What is the course really for?
- What should students know, do, and value after taking your course?
Consider: By the end of this course, students should be better able to _____________ because ____________________.
Other assumptions:
If you are teaching a course that has been offered for years, you may also want to consider what assumptions students have about the course.
- Are there beliefs that the course “must be hard,” “must cover everything,” or “has always been taught this way”?
- Which assumptions support learning, and which may need rethinking?
It may not be easy to identify these assumptions, you may simply want to keep them in mind in your teaching journey.
The last situational factor: yourself!
Don’t forget to consider your capacity in the mix.
A common mistake in course design is trying to do too much—planning to cover more material than time allows or assigning more work than you can realistically support. This often leads to rushed teaching, surface-level learning, or assignments that are difficult to assess thoughtfully, leaving both you and your students overwhelmed.
- How many courses are you teaching this term?
- How much time can you realistically devote to course prep and grading?
- What other responsibilities (research, service, family) compete for your time?
Impact on your course design:
Beyond identifying situational factors, you can reflect on how they create constraints and opportunities for your design, distinguishing between what’s truly fixed in your context and where you have some flexibility.
Areas where you may have more choice than you think—like your textbook, assessment formats, use of technology, or how you structure class time. These are opportunities to adjust your design in ways that better support your goals.
Key Takeaways
Reflect: Identify the real conditions of your course, including both hard constraints and softer, more flexible factors
Reconsider: Rethink how your teaching strategies, assessments, and activities align with the actual course context
Revise: Continue adapting your design as you learn what works and what needs to change
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.
