Looking forward to the end and backward to the beginning

Even before creating a course outline – a list of topics to be covered in some logical order – it’s worth taking a few minutes to ask “What do the students need to take away from this course?”

Come the final class, what specific concepts should they have learned and in what specific skills should they be competent?   I use the word “competent” because it is not my objective to have them become masters of skills and techniques which are usually practiced by other professionals in the real estate development process.

For example, they should grasp the fundamentals of real estate law -- but not pretend to be lawyers.  They should understand the effect of taxation – but not be tax advisors.  And they should be able to perform basic financial calculations – but not be professional analysts and accountants.

All this indicates the value of “backward design” – identifying the desired outcomes and then creating learning modules that get the students to the goal.  It also means designing methods of evaluating and assessing individual student progress in a way that promotes the learning process without being onerous for either the students or the teacher.

Ah, to be like the Roman god Janus and face both forward and back!

The next step is to produce a list of the specific outcomes desired and use it to generate a logical sequence in which the subject matter will be presented.