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

Curriculum design and development
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Case study 2: Course design and development
The University of Auckland has for a number of years offered a postgraduate
certificate programme relating to learning and teaching. Completion of the
Certificate in University Learning and Teaching (CULT) required presentation of
a portfolio of evidence of reflection and scholarship on a range of topics. Course
design and development was one of these topics and on the basis of my practice
within my discipline I presented the following model of the Course Design
Process.
Background
Intended learning outcomes
Assessment
Content
Course structure
Classroom
Consider the institution, the Faculty and the
Department (i.e the context for course design)
What the students can do at the end of the course
Expressed in active verbs
Must be specific and measurable
Both formative and summative elements
Clear criteria established for assessment
Explicitly linked to learning outcomes
Selected to support assessment and outcomes
Depth/breadth selected according to outcomes
Include skills as well as information
Number and type of teaching situations
Choose most appropriate for the students to
master the content selected
Outcomes specified for each teaching session
Plan topics and activities for each teaching session
Choose most appropriate mode of interaction
Evaluation
Plan for how the course quality will be evaluated
Include multiple sources of evidence
More than just student evaluations
(Sarah Henderson, Information Systems
and Operations Management, University of Auckland)