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Teaching@UW

Align your course

In 2025, the Faculty Senate at the University of Washington approved the adoption of a set of core elements of effective teaching into Section 24-32 of the UW Faculty Code. One these elements of effective teaching is aligned:

Aligned: Effective teaching is intentionally designed and organized to help learners meet learning objectives.

Students are more likely to engage and learn when you intentionally design your course around clear learning goals or outcomes. The strategies and guidance below can get you started on developing your course and syllabus through a process referred to as “alignment.”

What does it mean to “align” your course?

A course is aligned when all the elements of the course are working together toward a clearly defined goal or set of goals. One way to understand alignment is to think about a car. A car is a complex machine with thousands of parts and multiple core systems. Those parts have to work together and must ultimately serve the primary goal of a car, which is to transport people. If a car’s systems don’t work together or if there are unnecessary parts in a car, it can hinder the car’s performance. So alignment is about ensuring that your assignments, activities, assessments, and course materials all “align” to your goal(s).

Backward or reverse course design

The process of designing an aligned course starts with the end goals and works back from there. This approach to designing a course is often referred to as “backward” or “reverse” course design.

Instead of starting with a list of topics you need to cover in your course, the alignment process begins by asking the following questions:

  • Who are my students? Are they majors or non-majors? First-year students? New to the discipline?
  • Where do I want my students to end up? What knowledge or skills should they leave with?
  • What can I do to get them there? What activities and content will help them build knowledge and skills?
  • How will I know if my students get there? What evidence will convince me that they have the knowledge and skills I want them to have?

Developing measurable learning outcomes or objectives

Learning outcomes are core to the concept of alignment. A learning outcome is a simple, concise statement that tells students what they should be able to do as a result of working through your course. Measurable learning outcomes can help instructors and programs determine if learners are achieving the goals we’ve set for them. But how can you tell if your learning outcomes are “measurable”? Consider the following sample learning outcome:

“Learners will understand the difference between X and Y.”

How will you know whether learners “understand” the difference between X and Y? To know whether learners “understand” something, you need to observe them doing something else, such as correctly identifying or articulating something or performing some action. Avoid using vague verbs like understand, know, learn, realize, and appreciate in your learning outcomes and instead replace them with verbs that describe the actions your learners will take to demonstrate their understanding. Here’s a measurable version of our sample learning outcome:

“Learners will be able to differentiate X from Y.”

One benefit of measurable learning outcomes is that they can point toward potential assessment methods that align with the outcome. Using the sample above, an instructor could develop a quiz question that asks learners to match the terms X and Y with the correct examples or definitions. Or we could assign a short essay that asks learners to explain how X and Y differ.

Explore Bloom’s Taxonomy and active verb list to assist you in developing learning outcomes.

Aligning your assignments, assessments, and activities

Learning outcomes are destinations. Assignments and activities help students journey toward those destinations. Assessments help you understand how the journey went for students. Your assignments and activities should incrementally move your students toward your learning outcomes.

Scaffolding your assignments

Even in introductory courses, the concepts and processes in our disciplines are complex and nuanced. Because we’ve been deep in our disciplines for so long, we sometimes develop “expert blind spots” that cause us to lose sight of the many smaller, component skills needed to tackle complex problems and concepts. For students to learn, we need to break down that complexity and develop assignments that incrementally build students’ knowledge and skills. This is a concept known as scaffolding.

Consider this example learning outcome:

“Students will be able to develop an argument based on scholarly sources.”

This outcome asks a lot of students. It requires an understanding of the nature of source material and knowledge of the components and processes involved in constructing an argument based on evidence. It is unlikely that students would succeed if we just handed them this assignment on the first day. You can set them up for success by developing smaller, scaffolded assignments or activities that build toward the larger task. For example, you might ask students to:

  • Compare and contrast a scholarly and non-scholarly source
  • Use library databases to find scholarly sources on a topic
  • Annotate a scholarly source
  • Practice writing a thesis statement

Assessing for outcomes

Just as your assignments and activities build from your learning outcomes, your assessments should be designed to measure students’ grasp of the knowledge and skills associated with your learning outcomes. Assessments can take many different forms.

Learn more about designing effective assignments.

Practicing and demonstrating alignment

Because alignment is one of UW’s core elements of effective teaching, it is important that UW faculty members know how to demonstrate and recognize it. Below is a list of practices and materials that might indicate that a course is aligned. Developed by members of the UW Faculty Senate Council on Teaching and Learning, the list is neither required nor exhaustive, but may be a good starting point for instructors and reviewers preparing to engage in a collegial review process. Your department may also have discipline-specific examples to consider.

  • Instructor provides students with syllabus outlining course or unit learning objectives
  • Course learning objectives are aligned with departmental and/or national curricular goals
  • Assigned readings/assignments/activities are designed to help learners reach course learning objectives
  • Instructor relates readings/assignments/activities to course learning objectives
  • Standards for evaluating students are transparent and aligned with course learning objectives
  • Readings/assignments/assessments are appropriately challenging for course level

In the video below, UW faculty members discuss how they integrate alignment in their teaching practice and demonstrate it in promotion and tenure processes.

Aligning your use of technology

Learning technologies offer instructors additional opportunities to create dynamic, relevant learning experiences, share information, and structure interaction for students in in-person, hybrid, and online courses. But technology, in and of itself, cannot foster learning. The technologies you adopt need to support your larger vision and align with your learning outcomes.

Here are some questions to guide your technology decision-making:

  • What are my learning goals? The best technology is useless if it isn’t connected to a clear instructional purpose.
  • Does the technology add value? Asking students to devote brainpower to learning a new technologies every week may reduce the amount of brainpower they can devote to course concepts. And always avoid choosing a complex technology when a simpler one will do.
  • Is the technology supported by the UW? Many technologies on the web are advertised as “free.” That doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to use them. Free software often carries hidden (non-monetary) costs, usually involving the appropriation of student data.When choosing technology, first explore the learning technologies supported by the UW and/or connect with the learning technology support staff on your campus. Here’s where to get learning technology support:

Creating your syllabus

A syllabus provides the instructor and students with a common reference point that sets the stage for learning throughout the course. Get guidance on how to create a syllabus.