A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Enhancing academic and Practice

50 ❘
Teaching, supervising, learning
There are a number of key steps to effective course and curriculum design. One model is
as follows:
• Consider your general aims for the course/programme.
• Write specific learning outcomes (objectives): what do you want the students to learn?
• Plan the assessment framework to match your objectives.
• Plan the content, i.e. sequence of topics/readings.
• Plan the teaching/learning design – what kinds of activities will you and your
students engage in together?
• Compile a list of resources.
• Write the course outline including readings.
• Consider evaluation of the course (formative and summative) and how best
evaluation can be carried out.
It is important to bear in mind that the use of technology in teaching and learning is
increasing all the time (Chapter 7). There is still some resistance to embedding the use of
technology into the curriculum, with some academic staff believing it is more complex
to design e-learning courses and programmes, or worse still believing that using technology
is a simple matter of transferring one’s course notes or PowerPoint presentations
‘on to the web’.
Whatever the context of learning (be it traditional classroom-based or distance learning,
e-learning or blended learning) the purpose of the course or programme, the design,
development and mode of delivery and associated assessment strategies must be
carefully considered (Stefani, 2006), as in Case study 2.
The models of curriculum design described above indicate that assessment strategies
should be considered once the intended learning outcomes have been agreed upon
and articulated. Designing the curriculum in this manner may be considered to be a
‘logical’ model of curriculum development as opposed to a chronological model. In the
‘chronological’ approach, assessment may be seen as being something bolted on at the
end of ‘content delivery’ as opposed to being an integral aspect of student learning.
A logical model of curriculum development
To support staff in visualising ‘the curriculum’, a model first presented by Cowan and
Harding (1986) is generally very helpful. Figure 4.1 on p. 52 shows their original logical
model of curriculum development, which is deserving of detailed explanation.
First, the grey area around the development activity diagram is not an accident. It has
significance in that it represents the constraints within which any development operates,
which can and should have a powerful impact on what is and what is not possible within
the institutional and learning community context. Within this grey area, the arrows
pointing inward indicate inputs from peers and other stakeholders such as employers or
representatives of professional bodies who have a vested interest in the curriculum being
provided.