Schedule Your Course

Scheduling the course refers to the process of organizing the sequence and timing of the course. This is the step where you translate your overall course plan — learning objectives, activities, readings, feedback, and assessments — into a structured timeline that shows what happens when. 

Scheduling involves questions like: 

  • What topics or themes will be covered each week? 
  • Which learning activities (e.g. group work, lectures, discussions) are best placed early, in the middle, or late in the course? 
  • When will formative feedback or key assessments take place? 
  • How can I scaffold learning so students build progressively towards the course outcomes? 

Scheduling is not just about logistics. It’s about pedagogical strategy: ensuring that students encounter the right content at the right time, and that each activity builds on what came before. It also allows you to ensure balance (between individual and group work, theory and practice, instruction and reflection) and to avoid cramming too much into the final weeks. 

 

Scaffolding of students’ learning

To scaffold student learning means to provide structured, temporary support that helps students reach higher levels of understanding and skill than they could achieve on their own. The idea is rooted in the work of Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky, who introduced the concept of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) — the space between what a learner can do independently and what they can do with guidance. 

Scaffolding involves designing teaching in a way that bridges this gap. As students become more competent, the ‘scaffold’ is gradually removed, allowing them to take increasing responsibility for their learning. 

In practice, scaffolding can include:  

  • Sequencing tasks so that earlier activities build the foundation for more advanced ones. E.g. ask students to explain basic disciplipary concepts in a mandatory assignment before working with concepts in a project 
  • Walking through a model using a generic example in plenum before students try on their own/in groups 
  • Using peer feedback to deepen understanding based on teacher’s guiding questions 

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