The most distinctive feature of my course design is the use of collaborative workshop-style contact sessions that make learning visible, scaffold progress towards assessment, and allow me to facilitate students’ thinking in real time.
Starting with learning outcomes
As I teach mostly technical courses, the course-level learning outcomes are often specific and discipline-grounded. However, I also work with smaller topic learning outcomes on a week-by-week basis, and these are what most directly shape what happens during the contact sessions. This helps me ensure that the learning journey is purposeful and that each session contributes clearly to broader course attainment.
Designing assessment early
Once the intended learning is clear, I turn my attention to assessment. I usually introduce the summative continuous assessment early in the semester because the work often takes between four and eight weeks to complete. Most often, I use a mixture of group projects and individual tasks, designed to assess both technical understanding and application. The major task is usually a technical report based on an authentic case study.
A feature I value strongly is that students are often asked to source the case study themselves. Before they proceed, however, I vet the proposed case carefully. I check its relevance to the topic, its level of complexity, the feasibility of completing the work within the semester, the availability of evidence or site information, and its suitability for the intended learning outcomes. This allows the task to remain authentic while still being academically purposeful and manageable.
Building the semester spirally towards assessment
I do not see assessment as something that appears only at the end of learning. Instead, I try to build the semester spirally towards it. The contact sessions are used to help students develop the assessment task progressively, alongside the learning topics they go through each week. I design mini activities that feed into the final submission, and I often ask students to present interim progress so that I can give constructive feedback before the final submission stage.
This means that the coursework is not detached from the weekly teaching. It grows out of it. Students are not left alone to “do the assignment” after class. Rather, the course is designed so that the weekly learning process supports the final work in a deliberate and developmental way.
Why collaborative workshop-style sessions matter
If I had to identify the most distinctive feature of my course design, it would be the collaborative workshop-style contact session. I do not want the session to be dominated by me talking while students listen. I want to see learning happening in the room, so that I can facilitate it. For that reason, my sessions are usually task-based and workshop-oriented.
A typical session begins with a short explanation or introduction to the day’s topic, together with an overview of what students are expected to explore. Very quickly, however, the session moves into learning activities designed around the topic learning outcomes. These sessions are usually workshop-style and task-based. Students work through activities together, and I move from group to group to listen to their discussions, prompt with questions, clarify misconceptions, and challenge their thought processes. I want students to feel challenged, responsible, collaborative, curious, and intellectually stretched. More importantly, I want learning to be visible during the contact session itself. That visibility allows me to respond in real time and support students while they are still in the process of making sense of ideas.
I also make sure that before the session ends, there is a closing summary that helps students connect what they have done to the topic and understand how the activities supported their learning.
Learning types that shape my design
My course design has been informed by Diana Laurillard’s work, and in particular by learning types that support active engagement. In practice, I draw most strongly on investigation, production, collaboration, and discussion. These are the learning types that are most visible in my teaching. Collaboration is especially prominent. I want students to work together in meaningful ways, and I even shape the physical classroom environment to support that, for example by getting them to rearrange tables into clusters so that group interaction becomes more natural and purposeful.
Managing group work and individual accountability
Because I use group work regularly, I pay attention to how collaborative responsibility is managed. I generally allow students to negotiate and assign responsibilities among themselves, while I remain at the oversight level. When issues arise, such as complaints about uneven participation, I do intervene where needed by speaking to the student concerned and reminding them of their team responsibilities. I also use peer marking as part of the assessment regime to strengthen individual accountability within group tasks.
Alongside the collaborative work, I usually include an individual reflective component. This is important to me because I want to assess not only what students produce together, but also how each student is developing as a self-directed learner and future professional.
Assessment for technical understanding and professional judgement
The technical reports I assign are intended to demonstrate more than content knowledge alone. I want students to show diagnosis, interpretation of evidence, justification of decisions, professional communication, structured problem-solving, and feasible recommendations. Group work is important because it mirrors professional collaboration, but I also make room for individual accountability. Students negotiate responsibilities within the group, I provide oversight when needed, and peer marking forms part of the group-work regime.
The reflective component adds another dimension. Here I am usually looking for a mixture of self-directed learning, awareness of strengths and weaknesses, responsiveness to feedback, personal growth, and a developing sense of professional responsibility. I consider this especially important because future professionals need more than technical capability. They also need the habit of learning from experience and taking responsibility for their own development.
Feedback as part of learning
All summative assessment tasks are accompanied by rubrics that students receive with the assessment brief. This gives them a clear understanding of expectations from the start. During the semester, I also provide informal feedback through interim presentations and ongoing interactions in class. For individual essay tasks, I go further by recording personalised feedback for each submission. I see feedback as part of the learning process, not something that appears only at the end. This combination of clear criteria and developmental feedback helps students see assessment as part of the learning process rather than only as a judgement at the end.
Using digital environments to extend learning
Moodle acts as the one-stop centre for learning resources, activities, and submission in my courses. I also use tools such as H5P, Teams, and shared documents, especially when designing self-directed learning weeks. In those weeks, I try to provide a complete learning package that includes resources, activities, and self-assessment. This is important because limited contact time is a real constraint in my teaching. Collaborative learning activities take time, and in a two-hour session it is not possible to explore as much content through active processes as it would be through lecture alone. For this reason, digital design and self-directed learning are important complements to the contact session.
What tells me the design is working
Two signs matter to me more than most. The first is more thoughtful discussion in class. The second is when students begin taking greater ownership of the work. These are important indicators because they tell me that students are not merely complying with tasks, but are engaging more seriously with the learning process itself. That is what I ultimately want my course design to support: not only successful submission, but a more active, responsible, and professionally meaningful learning experience.