After more than a decade of teaching thousands of students in STEM, Dr. Justin Shaffer wanted to expand his impact beyond the walls of his own classrooms. The result is his first-ever custom deck, Alignment: A Course Design Card Deck – a powerful tool for teachers and professors who want to design better courses, increase student engagement, and improve learning outcomes.
From Classroom to Card Deck
Since 2012, Justin has taught nearly 9,000 students. While impactful, he realized that was still just “a drop in the bucket” compared to the millions of students taking courses each year.
In 2022, he founded Recombinant Education, a professional development company that helps faculty and administrators design more effective courses through workshops and consulting. But with travel, scheduling, and time constraints – not to mention raising two kids – Justin wanted a scalable way to extend his reach.
That’s when the idea for a course design card deck came to life. The Alignment Deck allows instructors to practice aligning their course objectives, activities, and assessments – giving them a flexible, hands-on tool they can use anytime.
Simple, Colorful, and Designed for Educators
The concept was sparked by a colleague, Carter Moulton, who had created his own deck (Analog Inspiration, exploring human aspects of AI). Seeing Carter’s success inspired Justin to explore how a card format could help educators in the same way.
The Alignment Deck features a graph paper background to reinforce the “design” theme, paired with bright borders, clear text, and fun licensed illustrations from Canva Pro.
“I’m not artistically talented at all,” Justin admits. “But I wanted something clean, simple, and colorful. The final result turned out even better than I expected.”
The reaction from educators has been overwhelmingly positive: “The simple emotion that people seem to experience is joy. Whenever I see people open a deck and fan the cards out, the smile on their face just keeps growing.”
Like many creative projects, the Alignment Deck almost took a different path. Justin initially used a graphics database without realizing the licensing costs would be prohibitive. Catching this at the last moment, he switched to a new provider – ultimately producing a better, more polished final deck.
Justin’s guiding motto is simple: “Improving STEM Education Together.” His work, both as a professor and through Recombinant Education, reflects his dedication to collaboration, innovation, and improving learning outcomes at scale.
Advice for New Creators
His biggest advice to aspiring card creators?
“Make a prototype and test it out.”
Printing and testing early versions allows creators to gather feedback, refine ideas, and ensure their deck works the way they imagine – especially important for game mechanics or instructional tools. For 2025, Justin plans to create another deck – this time focused on students. While the Alignment Deck is geared toward instructors, his next project will help students themselves build effective study strategies and success skills.
When choosing a manufacturer, Justin wanted an American-based company that was responsive, highly referred, and reasonably priced. “Shuffled Ink fit that bill completely,” he says. “The cards that I received are beyond fantastic – the colors, the materials, the cut, the entire package is exceptional.”
Connect & Buy Alignment: A Course Design Card Deck
Educators can purchase the Alignment Deck directly through Recombinant Education:
Order Here
Ships same or next day, arriving in 3–4 days after ordering.
Website: www.recombinanteducation.com
LinkedIn: Justin Shaffer