Outcomes before content: objectives that drive design

Here's the move that makes course design dramatically easier: decide what learners will be able to do before you write a single lesson. A good objective is a decision-making tool. Once it exists, every question, 'do I include this? how long should this be? what should the activity be?', has an obvious answer. Does it serve the outcome or not?

Weak objectives use fuzzy verbs: understand, know, be aware of. You can't see understanding. Strong objectives use action verbs you can observe: write, build, classify, diagnose, design. If you can picture the learner doing it, you can design for it and assess it.