A Road Map for Planning Course Transformation Using Learning Objectives

The Vision and Change report called for biology educators to transform undergraduate biology education. The report recommended educators transparently state what students should know and be able to do and create assessments to measure student learning. Using backward design, learning objectives (LOs) can serve as the basis for course transformation. In this essay, we present a roadmap for planning successful course transformations synthesized from the literature. We identified three categories of critical features for successful course transformation. First, establishing a sense of urgency and offering faculty incentives to engage in this time-consuming work creates a needed climate for change. Second, departments are empowered in this process by including key stakeholders, building faculty teams to work collaboratively to identify LOs used to drive pedagogical change, develop assessment strategies, and engage in professional development efforts to support the process. Third, there must be intentional effort to manage resistance and ensure academic freedom and creativity in the classroom. General recommendations as well as areas for further research are discussed.