Planning for Learners’ Needs Design
When designing or updating a course, starting with learners helps ground course-design decisions in who students are and what they need to learn. Knowing learners means thinking about what students bring to the course, what motivates them, and how your course can support their learning and growth. You will not know everything about students in advance, so be mindful of the assumptions you are making and create opportunities to learn more once the course begins.
What can you learn before the course begins?
Before the course starts, consider where the course fits within the program and how it contributes to program-level learning outcomes. This gives you important context for deciding what students are likely to bring, what they need to develop in your course, and what they should be prepared to do next.
Useful information may include:
- the course’s role within the program and its relationship to program-level learning outcomes
- course level and prerequisites
- what students are expected to know or be able to do when they enter the course
- what knowledge, skills, or competencies should they leave the course prepared to use or build on
- class size and modality
- whether the course is required or elective
- relevant institutional or program-level information about the student population
Conditions that Can Support Student Motivation
Research on student motivation offers some useful ways to think about the conditions that support learning. Deci and Ryan’s seminal work on self-determination theory identifies autonomy, competence, and relatedness as core psychological needs that support motivation, while subsequent research has also emphasized the importance of purpose and relevance in sustaining student engagement.
- Autonomy: Give students meaningful opportunities to make choices within the structure of the course, such as selecting topics or assignment formats, asking questions, or deciding on aspects of their learning.
- Competence: Offer clear expectations, structured guidance, and appropriate challenge, with opportunities to practice, receive feedback, and see their progress.
- Relatedness: Create a learning environment where students feel connected to you, to one another, and to the learning community.
- Relevance: Help students see why the learning matters and connect new ideas to their previous knowledge, experiences, goals, and disciplinary or professional contexts.
Designing for learners and their contexts
Students bring different experiences, prior knowledge, goals, responsibilities, and perspectives to their learning. They are also learning in a changing higher-education environment, including one increasingly shaped by generative AI. Considering both who students are and the conditions in which they are learning can help you make course-design choices that are realistic for students and manageable for you.
| Student experiences and contexts | Course design response |
|---|---|
| Varied backgrounds, identities, experiences, and ways of learning |
Use Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles to plan for learner variability from the outset, including different ways for students to engage with learning, access information and demonstrate what they know. |
| Competing pressures from work and family |
Provide clear assignment timelines and predictable weekly schedules. |
| Increasing use of generative AI in learning |
Consider how AI affects your learning outcomes, learning activities, assessment, and what students need to know and be able to do in your discipline. |
| Different levels of prior knowledge and familiarity with academic tasks |
Build opportunities for students to practice and get feedback through low-stakes learning activities before higher-stakes assessments. Make appropriate student supports visible in your Canvas course or syllabus. |
Practical ways to get to know learners
You will learn things about students once the course is underway that you could not know in advance. Gathering that information can help you check your assumptions, see where students may need more practice or clarification, and adjust your teaching as the term progresses.
Some simple approaches include:
- Pre-course surveys: Send a short form before the term starts to learn about student motivations, prior knowledge, experiences, and interests.
- Formative diagnostic quizzes: Use ungraded online quizzes during week one or before major new concepts or skills to see what students already know and where they need more support.
- Real-time polling platforms: Use interactive digital tools such as Wooclap to check understanding, surface questions, or identify areas of uncertainty during class.
- Structured community building: Use an early course activity to help students get to know one another, share learning goals, or establish expectations for working together.
Putting it into practice
Reflect on your current course planning with these questions:
- Learners: What assumptions are you making about the students taking your course, and how can you test those assumptions?
- Motivation: Where could your course better support students’ autonomy, competence, relatedness, or sense of meaning?
- Inquiry: What do you need to learn about students once the course begins, and how will you gather that information?
- Adaptation: What is one course-design decision you might make differently based on what you know or learn about students?
Learn more
Bureau, J. S., Howard, J. L., Chong, J. X. Y., & Guay, F. (2022). Pathways to Student Motivation: A Meta-Analysis of Antecedents of Autonomous and Controlled Motivations. Review of Educational Research, 92(1), 46–72.
Deci, E. L., & Ryan, R. M. (1985). Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior. New York: Plenum.
Soicher, R. N., & Becker-Blease, K. A. (2023). Utility value interventions: Why and how instructors should use them in college psychology courses. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology, 9(2), 196–215.
Centre for Teaching and Learning. Creating classroom community guidelines. University of Alberta.
Information Services and Technology. (2026, June 16). Using Wooclap for learner engagement. University of Alberta.
Whitehead, P. M. (2023). Autonomy-supportive teaching in higher education: A practical guide for college professors. Rowman & Littlefield.