Constructive Alignment - and why it is important to the learning process

What is Constructive Alignment? Constructive Alignment, a term coined by John Biggs (Biggs, 1999) is one of the most influential ideas in higher education. It is the underpinning concept behind the current requirements for programme specification, declarations of Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) and assessment criteria, and the use of criterion based assessment. There are two parts to constructive alignment: Students construct meaning from what they do to learn. The basic premise of the whole system is that the curriculum is designed so that the learning activities and assessment tasks are aligned with the learning outcomes that are intended in the course. Figure 1. Alignment is about getting students to take responsibility for their own learning, and establishing trust between student and teacher. Achieving Constructive Alignment Figure 2. If we are taking a single component of a programme, we can 'Constructively Align' that course by tackling the following steps: Further Reading Source

The Teacher's Quick Guide To Digital Scavenger Hunts If you’ve got a smartphone or a tablet in your classroom, you’re ready for the adventure to begin! By adventure I mean, of course, the world of active learning through digital scavenger hunts. In this hunt, students are tasked with finding a particular physical object, person, or place and have to use technology to track it down. Note: an ‘online scavenger hunt’ usually implies that you’re hunting around online and not physically with classmates. The Simple Goal So now that you’re all ready to start your very first scavenger hunt, let’s figure out what the goals are. Finding The Technology Like the movie National Treasure, students will need a lot of ingenuity and tools to help them uncover the mysteries you’ve laid out before them. In an effort to get your scavenger hunt jump-started, here are a few useful tech tools that might be of use. SCVNGR – A useful free app that lets you create your very own digital scavenger hunts, start to finish. Finding An Objective A Quick Note

Selecting Technologies | UNSW Teaching Staff Gateway This page helps you choose among various technologies (not just LMSs) using two approaches: examples of learning outcomes, the kinds of learning activities that could achieve those outcomes, and how those activities could be supported by various learning technologies examples of the tools you may be interested in using and the types of activities and learning outcomes that are likely to be relevant. Table 1: Sample learning outcomes, rationales and activities The following table provides examples of learning outcomes, the kinds of learning activities that promote those outcomes, and how the activities could be supported by learning technologies. Table 2: Tools related to activities, and their contribution to learning outcomes The following table provides examples of the tools you may be interested in using and looks at the types of activities and learning outcomes that are likely to be relevant. See also on this section of the website: