Programme Design and Development
‘As a Faculty member, you can undertake few activities that will have a greater impact on your students than active involvement in the design of a curriculum or a course that you teach’
(Diamond, 1998, p1)
This webpage is a resource for those involved in the design, delivery, implementation and evaluation of a full programme of study (i.e. a curriculum). The resources include both a) best educational practice advice from the literature and b) links to the relevant UCD, National, International Polices/Procedures related to programme design and development.
The first section explores curriculum practices from the early stage, where a team are considering the establishment of a new, or revising an existing, curriculum. We have titled this section Programme Educational Philosophy/Models. Toohey (1999) describes these early steps as:
-Collecting and analysing information on what should be taught (needs analysis)
-Sorting out beliefs/values on education
-Thinking about how the programme will be structured
-Identifying entry requirements/and kinds of support.
The next section, Coherent Programme Design, focuses on advice around the more practical aspects of designing coherent new or existing programmes. This includes areas such as Writing Programme Learning Outcomes, Graduate Attributes Mapping, Design of Programme Teaching/Learning and Assessment Strategies, Programme Sequence and Coherence.
The final section includes ideas for the on-going management, implementation and evaluation of programme(s), i.e. Programme Implementation and Evaluation. This section includes advice on some current challenges in programme implementation, i.e. Flexibility, Efficiency, Effectiveness, and Evaluation.
