Transcript Large Scale Curriculum Redesign in a Distributed Learning

Large Scale Curriculum Redesign Across The
Disciplines in a Distributed Learning Environment
Nicola Martinez
Director of Curriculum
and
Instructional Design
Center for Distance Learning
Who We Are:
Empire State College
Locations around
New York State
The Center for
Distance Learning
(CDL) serves adult
students around the
world
Center for Distance Learning
Adult learning centered
offers asynchronous online courses in five, 15week semesters per year
leading enroller in the SUNY Learning Network
partner with several institutions such as eArmyU &
Navy, public & private organizations, labor unions
Center for Distance Learning
Course Statistics
330 distinct online courses,
many with multiple sections
46 courses developed/revised for Sept 03
50+ courses in development for Jan 04
68 courses developed or revised for Sept 04
70 courses in development/revision cycle for Jan 04
All courses on a two year revision cycle
Managed using the Coursetrak system
Areas of Study
The Arts | Business, Management & Economics |
Community & Human Services | Communications,
Humanities & Cultural Studies | Educational
Studies | Historical Studies | Human Development
| Labor Studies | Science, Math & Technology |
Social Theory, Structure & Change
Curriculum Committee
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The Curriculum Committee oversees the approval of
course proposals and development of policies and
procedures for Center for Distance Learning courses.
The committee provides leadership in identifying and
discussing curricular issues on the course and overall
curricular levels.
Committee Members represent each of the four area of
study subgroups, comprised of 17 area coordinators
representing all areas of study.
http://www.esc.edu/cdldeveloper
Curriculum and Instructional
Design Group
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Advises area coordinators on curriculum development
Shepherds developers through the development cycle
Provides pedagogical, assessment, and instructional
development training as needed
Designs course development processes
Facilitates team development sessions
Aligns support for course developers
Assures academic excellence and design quality of
courses
Oversees program evaluation and improvements.
CDL Course Development Teams
 Development Team = multidisciplinary group in charge of creation,
conversion or revision of Center for Distance Learning courses. A development
team includes one or more of the following:
An area coordinator
A coordinator of instructional design and curriculum development for
the course area of study
One or more course developers
One or more instructional designers
A multimedia instructional designer
And a librarian.
 Developer  Course creator/content expert: a member of the
development team. S/he develops the course content and assessment
activities.
Course Development
Resources and Support
Examples of Resources and Support
Provided to Developers:
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Instructional Design Assistance
Pedagogical Advice
Library Review of Course and Research Assignments
Assistance Designing Learning Activities
Media Rich Content Identification
Multimedia Learning Objects
Website Identification, Evaluation, and Compilation
Digital Image Identification
Best Practice Examples Provided
Curriculum Redesign Goals
 At the macro level, redesign curriculum across the
center
 At the micro level, take a systematic approach to the
improvement of course design, including:
look and feel
pedagogical approaches
standard documents
visual learning components
media rich content enhancements
library research activities
Faculty Contributions
 Course Models:
 Hassenger
 Oaks
 Carnevale
 Ball
 Design Ideas
 Best Practices
 Exemplary materials
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to share with other faculty as part of the curricular
and pedagogical redesign project.
Our Approach
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Develop a new standard for course information
documents and implement them in the courses
Create a new design for CDL web courses to increase
navigability and overall consistencies in look, feel, and
format
Enrich courses with multimedia components and other
graphic enhancements
Include library referenced materials in all courses, with at
least one library-based learning activity per course
Identify and implement best practices in the pursuit of
academic and pedagogical excellence in web course
development for adult learners taking distance learning
courses
Course Ratings
 We established a three-tiered categorization of courses
based on the inclusion of the above recommendations and
the application of a new course design.
 All new and revised courses are reviewed an assigned the
following ratings
Course Rating System
Tier
Rating
Tier 3
Exemplary Course
Tier 2
Acceptable
Some
criteria met,
revisions needed
Tier 1
Not Acceptable
NR
Not Rated
(recommend cancel)
Course Rating System
Tier information and classification is generated as a
result of the information captured in The Empire
State College Online Course Evaluation Checklist.
All courses are considered unrated until they have
been reviewed with this instrument.
The evaluation piece associated with The Empire
State College Online Course Evaluation Checklist
happens at several levels.
Online Course Evaluation
Checklist
 Administered during and after a new course has been developed,
before delivery
 Before an old course is revised to identify specific areas targeted for
improvement
 After an old course has been revised to ensure that it is complete
and meets all baseline criteria for a Tier 3 course
http://www.esc.edu/coursetrak
The Course Resource Needs
Analysis
Information captured in the Course Resource Needs Analysis Form
is used to generate work requests for
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technical assistance
library assistance
multimedia learning object creation
digital media research and implementation
instructional design/pedagogical support
copyright permissions
http://www.esc.edu/coursetrak
Curricular Redesign Project:
 New Online Courses
 Print to Web Course Conversions
 Major Revisions of Online Courses
 Residencies to Online and Vice Versa
New Online Courses
 Easiest to Implement
 Pre-designed templates with pre-filled standard documents
 Successful delivery of Tier 3 courses
Print to Web Course
Conversions
 More difficult than new
 Challenges:
Legacy approach
Challenge converting from static to dynamic
environment
Legacy Courses
 No images or media enrichment. Did not benefit from multimedia
specialist intervention.
 May or may not have library research component. Did not benefit from
librarian-researched resources.
 Did not benefit from newly available library of shared resources for
developers, including explicit best practice guidelines for learning
activities and sample assignments
 No standard structure
 No standard documents
 Naming inconsistencies
 Content may be extremely well developed, or may need revision as well
Revisions
 New course model
 Image enrichment and multimedia intervention
 Librarian-researched resources
 Content enhancement
 Revising of learning activities
 Perhaps a reorganization of course sequencing
Successful Revision Method
1. Fill the new, empty course template with a pre-designed
course model
2. Rename and renumber the old course materials.
3. Drop them into the new model at the bottom of the new
materials
4. A library of course development resources is also placed in
the new template
Successful Revision Method
5. A course developer and instructional designer copy and
paste the old materials into the new template. The
developer takes this opportunity to review content and
learning activities. S/he revises the material as
appropriate.
6. Requests for images and learning go to the multimedia
specialist
7. Library resource requests go to the librarian
8. Instructional designer assists the developer to make
additional structural changes to the course as appropriate
Course Readiness
 Pre-Publishing Refinements
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Final edit
Format review
Evaluation
Content Review by content expert
Conclusion
Large Scale Curriculum Improvement is an Ongoing Center
for Distance Learning Project. Current projects include:
The goal of bringing all CDL courses to a tier 3 level within
2 years
A media, learning, and development research team
focusing on researching next generation interactive media for
learning enrichment
Implementing visual learning across the curriculum,
beginning with science, marketing, and Fire Services courses.
Questions?
Contact Information:
[email protected]
518-587-2100 x 776