Why Beginners Get Lost: Making Sense of Course Design

Foundational courses often overwhelm first-year students in higher education when experts organize content in ways that hide the steps beginners still need. This session presents the Cynefin framework as a tool that helps instructors, instructional designers, and academic support professionals better understand the student perspective and decide when learners need structure, guided reasoning, or structured exploration. Participants will learn a workflow for classifying course topics, choosing teaching moves that match the kind of learning required, and redesigning one lesson or learning outcome to make expert thinking more visible. The session includes a guided activity, a sample unit map, and a worksheet attendees can use in their own contexts. Participants will leave with a practical method for reducing overload, supporting novice learners, and planning more intentionally for complexity in foundational courses.