Rigor in Unity DE Undergraduate Courses
Successful completion of an Undergraduate Unity Degree means students are prepared to implement complex plans in their workplace and navigate autonomously within the context of their field-specific knowledge. They can do some transference and abstraction of content to new or different areas, but their capability and agency is specifically assessed within the field we prepared them for, in which they should be expected to be able to execute plans and tasks provided to them.
Specific courses in an UG degree must lead students to successful achievement of this standard. As such, the followin
DE UG Rigor Quick View
Course Aspects | 100 Level | 200 Level | 300+ Level |
|---|---|---|---|
Activities and Tasks | Directed Research (Databases, lists, or search engines provided) on instructor-guided topics. Course Projects tend to focus on a task within a situation, emphasizing the communication of field specific concepts to non-expert audiences, eg STEM topics to the general public | Research with some guidance. Semi self-directed research optional, with very clear instructions for what is an acceptable source. Course Projects tend to have students propose / construct solutions to specific aspects of a problem, and develop products (websites, presentations, etc.) that communicate the solution to a mixed audience (scientifically literate and not) | Self-directed research recommended with some guidance / instructions defining what is an acceptable source. Course Projects work within a scenario to evaluate different solutions to problems, applying / adapting the “correct” solutions to address or intervene in those problems. |
Learning Materials | Peer Reviewed Resources Optional. Textbook may be apropriate. | Peer Review Resources Required. Textbook may be appropriate. | Peer Review Resources Required. Content may be too focused or specialized for a textbook; but so long as the textbook is appropriate it can still be used. |
Note on research: Directed vs self-directed research is a spectrum. The more "self-directed," the less instructions / guidance / resource archives are provided to students to complete an assignment in which research is required; the more directed, the more directions and requirements are placed on students that define how/where/with-what that research can be completed.
DE UG Rigor Guiding Questions
The following questions are useful for interrogating the appropriateness of certain design choices when building an UG course.
Learning Materials
Textbooks - is a textbook suitable for covering the topic(s) of the course? If a lower level course, can the textbook provide most of the material?
Popular media - has the topic(s) of the course been covered in a news story or other commonly available source? Are those sources reputable enough for a course of this level?
Peer-reviewed literature - are students able/required to comprehend concepts, research, methods, and practices from established figures in the field?
Peer reviewed literature may not be necessary in some lower level undergraduate courses
Peer reviewed literature becomes more necessary in higher level undergraduate courses where discipline-specific knowledge and practices are emphasized, as well as the need to be informed of current trends and best practices
When curating learning materials, the key question to consider is the purpose of the resource. How and why is it being used? What will they do with the information in the resource? How does it connect to the learning outcomes of the course? Or, how does it support/aid students in progressing towards the outcomes?
Graded Activities
Course Project
The Course Project serves as the major assessment of the course and often covers the majority (or all) of the course outcomes. Course Projects contain scaffolded formative assessments that allow for students to practice applying concepts, receive feedback, and make any necessary changes in order to produce a comprehensive summative assessment that demonstrates their attainment of the course outcomes. In most Course Projects, students produce a discipline-relevant artifact that often involves research, synthesis of sources, and a written product and/or delivery of a presentation.
Questions to consider when crafting a rigorous course project:
What do practitioners in this field typically produce?
How is knowledge acquired and shown?
What are the key skills of a practitioner?
Discussions
Discussions create spaces where students can explore open-ended elements of their discipline or field of study. Rigorous discussions prompt students to consider different sources or presentation of information; disagreements, varying viewpoints, lack of consensus, or controversies; case studies; scenarios. A discussion that lacks rigor relies on close-ended prompts, defining or restating concepts and terms, or simple comprehension checks of provided learning materials. These types of discussions also cause students to produce essentially the same initial post, so it is difficult for them to respond to each other and expand on / continue the discussion. Discussions cannot be the only assessment in a week because students must engage in some type of assessed activity where feedback is provided solely by the instructor (as opposed to receiving only peer feedback, as in a discussion).
Questions to consider when crafting a rigorous discussion:
What are current issues/disagreements/topics in the field today?
What topic or skill can be strengthened by a variety of perspectives?
What feedback can peers reasonably provide to each other?
Assignments
Assignments can take a wide variety of forms to assess student learning. They provide students with the opportunity to receive directed instructor feedback. Assignments must align to course outcomes, even when a Course Project can address all course outcomes. Assignment rigor will vary based on the content and outcomes being assessed. The Bloom’s Taxonomy verbs associated with an assignment can be a good indicator of the complexity of the task.
Research Assignments
By default, courses should supply the quality resources the students are expected to use for their assignments (see Learning Materials, above)
Resource curation may be more prevalent in lower level courses
If courses are requiring students to do research on their own, the course should include some content/support/resources on how to evaluate the quality of sources, specifically in that subject
Questions to consider when crafting a rigorous assignment
What are students doing to demonstrate knowledge or skill acquisition?
What topic or skill necessitates directed feedback from a subject matter expert across a knowledge/skill differential? (ie from instructor to student)
Rigor in DE UG Lab Courses
As a type of undergraduate course, lab courses follow somewhat similar rigor guidelines to undergrad content courses. However, the laboratory courses have rigorous skills-based outcomes. The outcomes may indicate a range of competency for students: for some outcomes, students must achieve mastery of a skill whereas other outcomes may simply call for being exposed to a skill. Designing for students to meet the skills-based outcomes requires a hands-on lab approach. It is preferred that students practice the skills in real life rather than only through an online simulation or proposed scenario in a discussion or assignment. Rigorous skills practice can be achieved through SME designed labs or lab kits from a third party company. Labs should require students to practice procedures/techniques, data collections, research, data analysis, and report writing if applicable.
Learning Materials in Labs
The lab course should review/reinforce course concepts but do not need to explicitly teach those concepts as the content course is meant to accomplish this. New techniques or concepts introduced in the lab will require learning materials that cover these topics.
Graded Activities in Labs
Given the focus on skill development, a Course Project may not be the best assessment to gather/combine the (possibly disparate) skills of a lab course. Course Projects are therefore not required for all lab courses, but can be included based on fit with Course Outcomes.
Graded discussions are not required each week. In fact, the skills-based learning is better suited to assignments, and discussions are not necessary.
Lab reports and scientific writing are key features of a lab course and should appear in some form of assessment(s) in the course.
Guiding questions for lab assessments
How are the different weeks’ skills and concepts tied together, in a Course Project or other summative assessment?
How are lab skills measured and assessed in the lab course?
What activities can be done at home that mirror or are analogous to skills professionals and practitioners use in a real lab or fieldwork setting?
How are students collecting and analyzing data in the course?
Rigor in DE UG One- and Two-Credit Courses
The same standards of rigor apply to courses that are worth fewer credits, but the structure of the course may be more varied. Some one and two credit courses do not contain Course Projects and instead rely on a few more substantial assignments. Other courses contain only Course Projects as the material may be more cumulative and integrated. Regardless, students are still expected to engage with relevant learning materials and demonstrate competency in learning outcomes through assignments and discussions. Fewer hours of student work are expected in these courses, to reflect the lower credit value, but the rigor of these hours should be equivalent.