Frequently Asked Question

Unit Designer builds one unit plan for a section, then lists the lessons inside it. Use it when Design this section was set to Design a unit.

Start

On the Design Hub, open the section and select Design a unit, or Design unit if you are returning to it. The wizard title is Unit Designer.

The steps are Methodology, Describe, Unit, and Unit plan.

Methodology

Choose the model first. Later analysis and the unit plan follow that model.

• Understanding by Design (UbD) — work backward from enduring understandings and evidence of learning, then sequence the lessons.
• Concept-Based Curriculum Design — facts and skills tied to conceptual understanding, generalizations, guiding questions, and transfer.
• Competency-Based Design — performance indicators and scoring criteria, then lessons that lead to a summative demonstration.

Describe

Enter a prompt, upload a source file, or both. Say what students should understand and be able to do by the end of the unit. A source file can be an existing unit plan or syllabus. Select Analyze & Next. AIM pre-fills the unit details. Review that text before you generate the plan.

Unit

Review:

• Unit title
• Number of lessons
• Minutes per lesson — AIM shows the total instructional time
• Established goals — select course outcomes this unit will address. If Competency Designer has not been run yet, you can still add unit objectives here.

Select Generate unit plan.

Unit plan

Edit the plan. Select Save unit plan when it is ready, or Regenerate plan to draft it again. Back to Design Hub returns you to the section.

On the hub, the section shows the methodology name and a Unit plan label. Planned lessons appear as subsections. Each one stays a draft until you design and publish it. Edit unit plan is in the section’s Edit menu until lessons have been generated. The unit plan page is kept hidden from students when the section is published.