- You will have shared and described a curriculum design Thing you're using yourself
What do we understand under this 'Bring Your Own' exercise?
During the previous weeks you already got to know 5 Things to do with curriculum design, and we'll introduce you to some more in the coming weeks.
But for this Thing, we're interested in curriculum design Things that YOU are already using.
This could be any kind of tool, system, resource, guide and so on that you're using to help you with your curriculum design.
Just like we've been describing the what and how of the previous Things, we'd be interested to understand what your Thing is about, and how it's being used as well.
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| What tools do you use to help with curriculum design? |
Blog Thing 6
- What is your BYO curriculum design Thing that you choose to share with us?
Describe what sort of Thing it is (tool, resource, guide, system etc), what it aims to do and how it's being used. - How did you find out about this (via a colleague, through training session...)?
- Why is it particularly useful for you? What aspects are less useful (for you)?
- In what way do you you see it being useful for other course designers?
- Add a link / image / upload a version so it's clear what the Thing is and other participants can try it out as well.
If you're interested...
- Are there more curriculum design tools that you're using? Don't hesitate to add them too!
- Which of the previous Things you mentioned are most useful in what situation?
- Do you know any tools that your colleagues are using which are worth mentioning?
By this point some of our participants had succumbed to competing commitments, so “bring your own” Thing was a less popular item than we originally expected. mrj10 was setting the bar high in feeling that he “should probably present some sort of high-powered, web-enabled gadget that designs curricula at the press of a button”, but we did think that teaching staff would have something - some resource, template, guideline or layout tool - they used to help them design.
ReplyDeleteWhat seemed to come through from the responses we received was that curriculum design is first and foremost an act of individual creation. For mrj10 “my ‘own’ tool is probably just a blank sheet of paper (or, more accurately, a blank wordprocessor document).” Socratic Investigations extolled the virtues of the blank blackboard, chalk and talk also being their favourite tool for teaching: “Keeping tools at a bare minimum has its often underestimated advantages ... the simplicity of the tool contributes to a positive education/distraction ratio.”
mrj10 went on to give a very helpful overview of his own curriculum design process. Hopefully my paraphrasing will be forgiven:
Decide what topics to cover in the course (given that there are no external reference points to suggest what needs to be included)
Decide what material it is feasible to expect students to handle, given their backgrounds and experience (which is where heterogeneity in the student group can become challenging)
[Structure the course]
Devise suitable assessment methods (that try to support learning, rather than being about assessment for assessment’s sake)
Plan the structure of individual sessions to include a mixture of modes of learning e.g. lecturing, class/group discussion, practical exercises and how much of this will be lead by me or by students
Complete pro-forma template of learning aims, objectives, book lists etc ... I usually end up doing this last as I find it a rather sterile form-filling exercise.
It would be fascinating to hear how this compares with other peoples’ design workflows.