The CONTENT Primer: Aligning Essential Content with Learning Outcomes (The OUTCOME Primers Series 2.0)

NOTE: This is one of six books in The Outcome Primers Series 2.0 that form the only complete professional guide to establishing and sustaining a learning outcomes and assessment system in colleges, agencies, and industry. Other books in the series include The OUTCOME Primer, The ASSESSMENT Primer, The MAPPING Primer, The GUIDING Primer, and The SUSTAINABILITY Primer and may be purchased as a complete set at www.outcomeprimers.com. (WHO) The Content Primer is a practical book for instructors, instructional designers, and workplace trainers on how to (OUTCOME) work to identify, delimit, and align essential content with learning outcomes by designing backwards, outside in; design programs, courses, and workshops from a contemporary, constructivist understanding of learning. (QUESTION) The one driving question answered is: What concepts, skills, and issues are essential for learners to achieve the intended outcomes? (HOW TO USE) Used alone (as a module), it is an effective resource for professional development. Used in conjunction with its five companion Primers, it forms a complete systems approach to professional development for learning outcomes and assessment planning. FEATURED HIGHLIGHTS The following features distinguish this Primer: • Backwards Design –a unique, one-page curricular planning tool that begins with what learners need to be able to do in order to succeed in life roles in the workplace, family, and local/global community. • Examples of backwards design – an extensive assortment of backwards-designed curricular plans from colleges and workplace settings. • Illustrations that simplify complex and abstract concepts. • Contemporary rationale –a socially-constructed rationale for deeper learning in an outcome-based curriculum. • Provides a design methodology that analyzes learning outcomes to determine essential content of courses and helps instructors to let go of the guilt of trying to cover "everything." • Modular flexibility – functions as an independent module for in-service training as well as a systems approach to professional development for outcomes and assessment planning.