Highly structured course design: daily and weekly active-learning exercises with frequent low-stakes formative assessment¶

Design · All designs
Evidence · 2 claims (2 for) · 1 study (1 causal), q3 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 2 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The highly structured course design assigns "daily and weekly active-learning exercises with the goal of providing constant practice with the analytical skills required to do well on exams," in contrast to low-structure courses based on lecturing and two or three midterms plus a comprehensive final. Its components, added in implementation order, were clicker questions in peer-instruction format, weekly online peer-graded practice exams, open-book reading quizzes on basic vocabulary and concepts, class notes summaries aimed at metacognition, and in-class group exercises with random-call participation replacing Socratic lecturing. Moderate structure added clickers and practice exams; high structure added reading quizzes and group exercises.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

Requires frequent low-stakes assessment points (clicker questions, practice exams, reading quizzes) that together represent a minority of total course points, with exams remaining the primary determinant of grade

Constraints¶

The study population was sophomores who had completed a chemistry prerequisite, so failure rates were lower than at many other institutions before any intervention

Target Learners¶

Undergraduate biology majors in large introductory gateway courses

Learning Goals¶

Higher-order cognitive skills at the application and analysis levels of Bloom's taxonomy, and reduced course failure

Claims¶

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

Freeman Scott, Haak David, Wenderoth Mary Pat. (2011). Increased Course Structure Improves Performance in Introductory Biology. CBE—Life Sciences Education. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.10-08-0105

Page metadata

Field	Value
`type`	`design`
`id`	`highly-structured-course-design-bio180`
`title`	`Highly structured course design: daily and weekly active-learning exercises with frequent low-stakes formative assessment`
`description`	`The highly structured course design assigns "daily and weekly active-learning exercises with the goal of providing constant practice with the analytical skills required to do well on exams," in contrast to low-structu...`
`status`	`review`
`generated`	by `process:settle-candidates` on `2026-10-15`
`trust`	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
`sources`	1 — `freeman-scott-2011`

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