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Effective Curriculum Design for Online ProgramsDr. Marian Willeke Vice President, Education Management Services

Education Management Services facilitated a workshop on developing and implementing excellent online education in terms of leadership, operations, and curriculum. My name is Marian Willeke and my particular focus was the curriculum aspect of the workshop. This presentation is directed towards higher education academic leadership in terms of shaping their online programs.1

Saying goodbye to the old methods of learning

For us, as administrators of complex systems, considering a phrase like change is new constant can make our hearts stop. However, once we recover from that, it is important to realise that our survival depends on this mindset. If we want to thrive, we have to move forward from simply accepting change, and start innovating. Now, theres a lot of scale across the meaning of innovation. It doesnt mean you have to change the world. I simply mean by staying true to your vision, but staying flexible with how you get there will give you a lot of opportunities.2

The new traditional educationDemand for speed

Competency approaches

Scalable curriculum for adjunct faculty facilitation

Authentic assessment

Diverse media

So what is the current frame of education? I hate to even call this traditional because I think the term itself really is a constraint. Lets call it the current expectations in education. What do our consumers expect?

The demand for speed is a domino effect for this digital age where everything is wrapped around speed. We have Dilberts boss who likes to demonstrate bad management practices by saying work smarter, not harder, but technology is allowing us to accomplish that. The problem is not the lack of technology; its our ability to catch up to technologys capabilities.

Back in the 60s, the imminent adult learning theorist noted that adult learners are primarily goal-oriented, and we are seeing his research come to fruition with the demand for competencies. What SKILL are we giving them? How is it applicable in their goals? That does NOT mean to throw away the liberal arts; it simply means fine tuning our approach for it being relevant to this digital age.

Any adult learning program with a good recruitment process will grow at a pace that is not sustainable for full time faculty. Also, there is the added advantage for using adjunct faculty in that they are already familiar with the adult approach and are in the career field that is being taught. However, to use adjunct faculty, you must have curriculum that can scale. The burden of development cannot fall onto them.

Authentic assessment is sometimes misunderstood as the not college enough approach. This philosophy ditches tests and the lower level of cognitive learning taxonomies such as defining, listing, stating, and labeling. That is embedded in higher level learning experiences such as explaining, understanding, describing, exploring, and summarizing. The measurement isnt a test to see if they can list some characteristics. Rather, the measurement is a collaborative discussion to see if the learner can effectively contribute to how those characteristics can be implemented in certain tough environments.

Lastly, current expectations of education is to frankly, keep the attention. Reading pages of supplemental text will lose them quickly. Images, quick 2-3 minutes videos, 7-10 minute interactive webinars, chunked written content, animated videos, web-based articles all of these and more are essential media to help students maximise their attention to a topic.3

The new future of educationData analysis

Gamification

Personalisation

mLearning

So those points were important survivability issues. However, lets look at some issues that can ensure that we thrive!

Learning Management Systems used to be a limited resource, but now they are being churned out like apps. Many larger LMS companies will try and sell all their whistles and bells, but they arent particularly needed. The research needed for LMS is what kind of data will you get out of it. Statistics, completion times, time spent on pages, and frequency to pages are just basic data analysis points you need to gather. This information will help you group patterns and develop personalised learning.

Games can be a scary world to non-technical implementation. However, they are important to the future of learning. We have to remember that learners retain as low as 10% of what they read and down to 20% of what they hear. When we perform tasks ourselves even in a simulated environment, the number shoots up to 90% retention (Ed Tech: Focus on Higher Education).

Now, it probably feels like Im being obnoxiously conflicting when I say scale your curriculum but make sure its tailored to the learner. However, you still have a lot of options for personalisation even within the pre-set scalable curriculum. A few include providing optional ways for a student to perform the assessment, providing optional ways to present content, leveraging the students personal interests, and even allowing students to choose their own learning path.

Finally, we get to mLearning and this could really be on the previous slides as learners WANT it NOW. However, higher education hasnt caught up well to the options on a program level. However, we need to get there as your potential students want easy access on any device. More mature development would include contextual learning, such as QR codes and GPS tools, and from a development perspective, offer learning in a more chunked, digestable ways. Cognitive overload in our age is tremendous, so the more we can intentionally limit exposure to learning in chunks, the better for them effectively learn, feel good about it, and stay in the program.4

Curriculum distinctives for online programs

So after that overview on what our consumers are demanding, the next question is, at least in my world of curriculum design, what are the curriculum distinctives for a good online program?5

Online curriculum: Needed featuresMixture of collaboration, introspection, and research

Embedded reading and watching relevant to that assignment

Clear connection between objective and assessment

Supporting sources and tools

Regardless of anything else I discussed so far, there are some very basic bottom line features that are needed in any online curriculum.

The first is mixing the type of learning that students are experiencing. Having all discussion driven work or all research driven writing does a disservice to the learner. Three essential skills needed for learners on a meta level is the ability to collaborate effectively, the ability to reflect effectively, and the ability to research effectively. As a result, a baseline for each block of learning should always include each of these learning types.

I already mentioned the importance of chunking learning content in this world of cognitive overload, and embedding the resources needed for each activity helps towards that end. Courses that have a huge list of reading at the top of a week following by a list of assignments has already created a dissonance for the learner. Weve forced them to try and figure out the matching game, and while its instinctive to say well, they should KNOW what goes with what if theyd just read it, we need to remember the personalisation features. There should be reading, watching, and listening. I guarantee they will NOT do all of them, but they MAY do one of them. However, for that to be successful, you have to group it with the relevant assignment.

This third point is really my just not being able to help myself as an instructional designer. It may be slightly in the weeds, but I see course after course with some objectives up front, and some assignments in back, with no obvious connection. We HAVE to connect those dots.

Lastly, despite the content we provide through various medium, additional supporting sources and tools are very beneficial to the students. For example, I always provide a citation tool for my students so that they can fill the correct info in the correct field, and out pops the correctly formatted reference. Two things happen. First, I get really well formatted references and I dont have to spend 70% of my time on formatting when I should be focusing on content. Second, students feel like they get to learn the competencies they care about because I CAN focus on the content. Its a simple tool. Not a complicated publisher driven software that ties us to a publisher. While those are occasionally needed, its important to recognise when we need the high touch tools, and when we just need to provide a wee bit of support for that learner.6

Quality Online Curriculum.presuming needed features have been applied.

Standardised approach to the learning

Standardised presentation and expectations

Accessible across devices

Coaching approach with facilitation

Lets say that you have achieved all of those features in a nice scalable degree program. We want to bump up the quality and take the next steps for growth.

These points drive back towards my introductory points. In order to grow, we have to be scalable. In order to be scalable, we have to have standardisation. Again, that does NOT take away the options for personalisation, but it standardises the components that provides you the SPACE to personalise. Examples would include the appearance and presentation for every course. Expectations largely involve rubrics. If you have multiple rubrics for discussions, students will be focused on the rules of the game rather than the content. Keep it simple. Keep it standard, and your students will have the space to learn.

Accessibility across devices really points back to the mLearning options. This is what learners want, but its not as easy as slapping a URL in your iPhone Safari. Even simple websites looks incredibly different from computer to smartphone to tablet. When I go to download apps like Amazon, they have an app for each type of device because they are developed differently and will interact with that device differently. While I have no desire to scare anybody from going for this, I just want to be clear that its not a simple process. It takes planning, investment, and an implementation plan.

Lastly, but most importantly in my mind, is the coaching approach within your facilitators. There is never a one-size-fits-all because of differing audiences, degree programs, and facilitator skills. I could talk for days on this topic, but suffice to say, there are several options and that the bottom line is the needed mindset of the facilitator to be a coach, not a professor.7

Sellable Programs

This slightly sarcastic comic is unfortunately too true. Organisations do not care about formatting standards, test taking, or rubrics. They want the employee to be articulate and skilled in the area of expertise being hired. So to have a sellable program, we have to get down to who are audience is in order to prepare them effectively.8

Who is your audience?

Wanting career advancement

Needs a job

Out of school for many years

Afraid

Dealing with constant information overload with few filters

As mentioned earlier with Houle noting that adult learners are mostly goal-oriented, we see this again in that really your prospective adult learners want either a promotion or a job. Or a different job. Or a better job. The trend here is career. There are those who are learners for the sake of learning, but that argument for education is fading fast as MOOCs and self-teaching programs like The Teaching Companies give those types of individuals the exact resources they need to pursue their goals.

However, we have some challenges. They usually have been out of school for a number of years and are frankly, really freaked out. So imagine a child in a dark room. There are no windows or doors visible and at least 4 different people are yelling at the child where to go and how to get there. The child has also been given a smart phone to GPS their way out. How could the child possibly fail? We easily count the ways. And those are your students. 9

Develop Goal-Oriented Programs

Immediately applicable to career or desired career

A clear building block to career specialization

Content focused on skill competency, not academic career

My early days of instructional design was heavily influenced with the mindset of keeping it simple. I naturally like to complicate things, so this was a hard lesson that I continually work to learn; however, I always know that I can make it simpler and strive to achieve that, which is something all of us need to do. Remember the child in the room. We want to simply help the child get out. We want to simply help the learner get to their goals. Thus, ensure your programs are very goal-oriented. Benchmark and research deeply into your potential programs, and make sure that it is very applicable to a developing career.

Once you do that, you start building around that program to help people develop specialisations within that field. Then once you determine your plan, work to stay focused on skills. It is highly doubtful that your typical adult learner cares about post-graduate work. They want proficiency for their career.10

Soft Skill Needs

Decision Making Skills

Critical Thinking Skills

Communication Skills

Within those programs though, dont let it be a silo of content around the topics. Research is telling us that organisations are clamouring for decision making skills, critical thinking skills, and communication skills. If we dont help learners develop these soft skills within the competencies, they still wont get where they want. This is why a coaching mindset is so critical in your faculty, and even an academic coaching program within your institution.11

Systems thinking: No silver bulletIntentional curriculum design

Training faculty

Recruiting

Advising

Financial aid

The bottom line is that there is never a silver bullet. If you are weak on any of these links, then your chain will collapse. No one person can solve or advise on all of these topics. The team work within each of these areas are critical to the success of your adult program.12

Takeaways and Planning NotesTake a few minutes to consider the points that stood out to you most from this session.Consider actions you want to take as a result of this information.

http://educationmgt.com@EducationMGTjfischer@educationmgt.com

I encourage you take a walk or do what works for you to reflect, and then consider what in this presentation resonated with you, and what action you might take as a result. If you wish to talk further with Education Management Services, please dont hesitate to contact us!13