Storyboard: Additional Information
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Why Should I Use a Storyboard for Course Planning?
Example Storyboard Entry
Bloom’s Taxonomy and Learning Goals
Assessments vs Activities
When to Use Discussions
Why Should I Use a Storyboard for Course Planning?
The storyboard is an important tool for course design because it reduces the likelihood of leaving out primary components of an effective online course, namely:
learning goals, resources, learning activities, and assessment/feedback.
The expectation of the UMB Graduate School is that students taking online courses will engage, as much as possible, in Active Learning whereby students learn
by doing and they create meaning through individual or group activities. The storyboard structure is based on this concept.
The two most essential components/columns in the storyboard are:
1. Module-Level Objectives – that is, what are students expected to be able to do / what behaviors will change / what attitudes will change as a result
of reviewing the content and participating in learning activities
2. Assessments – that is, how will an instructor measure the level of learning as described by the objectives
The Active Learning method of instruction does not attempt to assess learning of the content, but rather learning of the objectives. If students demonstrate a
high degree of mastery of the objectives, it can be assumed they also understand the content. The content/resources are essential for giving students the
knowledge to develop skills and practice them through learning activities, but demonstrating competence of the objectives (rather than the content) should be
the primary goal of an effective course.
Example Storyboard Entry
M ODULE
TOPIC
Module 4:
Long-Term
Care
M ODULE-LEVEL
I NSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES
COURSE-LEVEL
LEARNING
OUTCOMES
What new skills,
behaviors, or attitudes
do you want students to
have acquired upon
completing each
module?
Which course-level
learning outcomes
are supported by
the module-level
instructional
objectives?
What course content will give students the
background knowledge to accomplish the
module-level instructional objectives?
What activities will give students practice
learning the module-level instructional
objectives before they are assessed?
How will the instructor measure the
degree to which a student has
mastered the module-level
instructional objectives?
 Compare/contrast
how long-term care
is handled across
various healthcare
institutions
10, 11
Chapter 5—Introduction to Long-Term Care
Discussion: Using at least four terms on the
definition list, describe how various
components of the U.S. Healthcare system
identified in the video contribute to longterm care? What philosophical, economic,
and political issues contribute to the
differences?
Essay that asks students to compare
and contrast how the same patient
(provide case study) would likely be
afforded care by 3 different
healthcare institutions.
[This would support the 1st and 3rd objectives]
Analysis: Based on the readings and student
research, complete the Long-Term Care
chart by describing the Location, Timing, and
Available Treatments for each patient
category. (Provide chart)
Using 3 patient scenarios identify
which type of long-term care would
be most appropriate for each and
explain why. Include a description of
the care that would be available to
each patient based on which care
setting students assigned them to.
[This would support the 2nd objective]
[This would assess the 2nd objective]
 Identify the
appropriate type of
long-term care
based on categories
of patient needs
 Define terms and
concepts associated
with long-term care
[Students should be able
to competently perform
these three actions after
completing the module]
I NSTRUCTIONAL CONTENT AND R ESOURCES
Chapter 6—Aging pp. 20-24
Kaye HS, Harrington C, LaPlante MP. Longterm care: who gets it, who provides it, who
pays, and how much?
Conflicting Incentives for Long-Term Care
http://www.eldercare.org/LTC.html
Video: C. Johnson’s “A Time to Care”
http://www.hhm.org/video2.html
[Each of these supports one or more objective]
A CTIVITIES /P ROJECTS
A SSESSMENTS
[This would assess the 1st objective]
Quiz on defining terms and
concepts.
[This would assess the 3rd objective]
[Note: Assessments do not
necessarily have to be a one-to-one
match with objectives. One
assessment might provide proof of
learning for two or more objectives,
depending on how it is constructed.]
Bloom’s Taxonomy and Learning Goals
Benjamin Bloom devised a hierarchy of student learning that is widely used for course design. When writing Course-Level Learning Outcomes and Module-Level
Instructional Objectives, it is considered best practice to use Bloom’ taxonomy of action verbs.
Bloom’s taxonomy is divided into these six categories:
Graduate-level instruction should employ the three highest levels of thinking – Creating, Evaluating, and Analyzing – the majority of the time. This means writing
objectives using verbs in the higher categories.
The following link enables you to download a list of Bloom’s verbs organized by levels of thinking. See Page 2 of the downloadable document. It also includes
examples of related activities that are appropriate for a given level.
Tip: Avoid using “Understand” or “Discuss” as verbs when writing objectives because they are difficult to measure objectively.
Assessments vs Activities
It is sometimes easy to confuse an activity with an assessment.
Assessment
The main question that needs to be answered with an assessment is: How does an instructor know that a student has accomplished the stated objective? So, for
example, consider this objective: “Describe problems with access to long-term care.” How can a student’s competence be measured for this objective? They
could be asked to write a short essay describing problems with access to care in general. Or, given a scenario with one or more patients with likely access
problems (poor, elderly, etc.), describe (in text, using PowerPoint, video, etc.) the likely access problems and how it might impact care. Or, given statistics about
who is using long-term care, explain why there are differences among various groups due to access.
Activity
An activity provides students with the opportunity to practice the skills or behaviors defined by the module-level learning objective before they are assessed.
Using the example in the previous paragraph, an activity that precedes the assessment might be something like this: “Conduct (literature) research on a specific
population segment and identify health care access problems. Share what you learned by posting a brief summary of your findings to the discussion board, citing
at least 3 sources. Read and comment on at least 2 others posts.”
Grading Activities and Assessments
Both activities and assessments can be graded but for different purposes. The difference is in the type of evaluation you are attempting: formative (activities) vs
summative (assessments).
Formative (to gauge ongoing student progress and to make timely modifications to the course in order to facilitate learning)
Activities may be graded, but do not have to be. Graded or ungraded, instructors can use activities to get an idea of the level of student performance before
they are given an assessment. Instructors can also use activities to make adjustments to the course, such as reinforcing certain concepts that the students
seem to be struggling with based on the performance of the activities. One example of an ungraded activity is often referred to as the “Muddiest Point”,
where students are asked to submit a brief description of a topic that they do not understand well. This gives the instructor feedback on student competency
as the course is in progress.
Summative (to determine level of student mastery of learning objectives)
Assessments measure how well the students achieved the learning objectives and are always graded. Assessments are applied after students have been given
access to content/learning resources and provided activities to practice new skills.
When to Use Discussions
It is best to use discussions as “Activities” rather than “Assessments”. You can still assign grades for student contributions to discussions, but discussion posts are
not the best measures of individual student competence because they can be so variable depending on the levels of interaction and the flow of conversation.
Discussions are, however, very good for enabling students to practice using vocabulary or concepts, for example, and for extending learning about concepts
through interaction with more experienced peers/instructors.
If you want to use a discussion for assessment, it is recommended that you use a detailed rubric that clearly delineates what specific information students are
expected to contribute in order to achieve a good grade.