U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Community Oriented Policing Services

 Fact Sheet www.cops.usdoj.gov

 

Course Design Document Template 

The course design document (CDD) is a comprehensive outline of the content of each course, which serves as the foundation 

of course development. The CDD will layout the scope, goals, objectives, exercises, and overall strategy of the course, so 

(1) the COPS Office can understand the course projection and (2) course developers have a clear plan of course development. 

Each awardee should work closely with their COPS Office program manager on the CDD, sharing drafts with their program 

manager until a consensus on the CDD is reached. Once the COPS Office program manager approves the CDD, it is sent for 

an internal review by the COPS Office. Once the review process is complete, further revisions might be required. The draft 

course may not be developed until final approval of the CDD is provided by the COPS Office. 

The CDD should contain, at a minimum, 

the following items: 

Course Title 

State the course title. 

Scope Statement 

State the subject matter and course relevancy. 

Course Overview 

Provide a summary of the course. 

Course Purpose 

State the intent of the course. 

Central Course Topics 

State which topics are included in the course. 

Central Course Activities 

Provide an overview of general course activities. 

Terminal Learning Objective 

Provide an action verb statement that outlines what the 

student is expected to learn or be capable of performing 

at the conclusion of the course. 

Establishing Learning Objective(s) 

Provide the incremental learning objectives that support 

the terminal learning objective, which should be measurable 

performance statement that enables the student to demonstrate achievement of the terminal learning objective. 

Duration of the Training 

State the course length. 

Target Audience 

State the intended participants. 

Instructor-to-Participant Ratio (for in-person 

courses only) 

State the number of participants to the number of instructors for the course. 

Eligibility Requirements 

Specify who is eligible to participate in the course. 

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Course Design Document Template Fact Sheet 

Prerequisites 

Describe whether there are any fundamentals necessary 

before a participant takes the course. 

Adult Learning Strategies and Principles 

State the adult learning strategies and principles being 

utilized and practiced in the course. 

Instructional Preparation 

(for in-person courses only) 

Describe what the instructors are expected to know for 

the course and how the learning environment should 

be arranged, and provide, at a minimum, the bulleted 

information: 

Required materials 

Training room preparation 

Training room configuration 

Classroom technology and audio-visual equipment 

Instructor Teams (for in-person courses only) 

Describe how the course is intended to be delivered and 

the number of course instructors. 

Evaluation Strategy 

Describe learning checks, Level I and Level II evaluations, 

and overarching learning strategy for the course. 

Course Progression 

Describe how the course is divided and the flow 

of the course. 

Modules 

Describe each module in outline form and include, 

at a minimum, the bulleted information: 

Module title 

Module description 

Terminal learning objective for each module 

Establishing learning objectives for each module 

Outline of module contents to include exercises, 

videos, activities 

Overview of the functionality associated with the 

module (for online courses only) 

Resource list (for in-person courses only) 

References 

July 2019