How do you evaluate and update your curriculum design based on feedback, data, and emerging trends?

In my experience curriculum development must be curated with the learner in mind. All learners come with prior learning experience and must have opportunities to implement their abilities within the framework. It is more than engagement learners need in a curriculum but the feeling of progression and process that validates their current skill set keeping them challenged and interested in the context.

Change the narrative here; the first step is not defining your goals or your outcomes but stopping, asking students and listening to understand students and THEIR goals, THEIR learning outcomes. What you want to teach may not align with what students want to learn. Being willing and secure enough in your teaching to evolve is the paramount of abilities we have as instructors when developing students today and beyond.

I love the Maslowian approach by commentors. Understanding student needs is paramount, but some professors, (myself), are restrained due to univ policy. I was "dismissed" because I changed a courses' 10 yr out of date curric. The univ countered how I MUST follow the curric because the content was written/approved by the councils. For changes to be made, new curric content must go through arduous/timely administrative processing. The university controlled the curriculum. My creative control came in the form of how I taught the lessons. I could ONLY teach what was agreed upon by others a decade ago (other course content was even older!). Therefore, sometimes there is no defining goals & outcomes. They are done for you, and they are wrong.

Assessment design is critical to learning outcomes. Assessment is not only a tool to determine mastery, but to diagnose gaps in learning, and to glean data that can be used to plan access points for students to meaningfully engage with grade-level content. The pandemic left many students with remediation needs, but by only utilizing remediation tactics, students continue to fall behind their grade-level peers. By using carefully crafted pre-assessments, focused on targeted learning standards, areas requiring growth can be identified. Teachers can then identify areas that are foundational to accessing upcoming (1 to 2 weeks out) learning and create mini lessons/interventions for students that make the upcoming content accessible.

I agree but, assessment instruments must measure competency not traditional pedagogy outcomes. It must be predetermined that if a learner has a gap in learning it is an essential skill that will hinder progression or related to foundation. If this component is not essential there must be the development of a tool that will support the learner in continuing to progress in competence based learning; while identifying the non-essential gaps to ensure learners are aware of gaps that can be supported through use of technology or other tools.

In all my assignments and assessments I start with why. Why am I teaching this? Why is this important to me? Why is this important to the course. Then it's a matter of communicating that why to students. Once students understand why we are asking them to do something (activity or homework), what is the value, how does it relate to something bigger, what are the skills and abilities associated with it- then they are bought in. Make your classes worth showing up for in a generation where there is little need to do so, and remember, it's not a matter of what you know but people's perception of how much you care that will drive them to you as educators.

I am a firm believer in student choice. No two students learn in the same manner, nor do they test or display content awareness in the same manner. When I design assessments/activities, I allow students the option to choose how they demonstrate understanding. This can be in the form of a project, video, spoken English, sign language, creative writing, etc. I have tested this theory in a Deaf classroom I taught w/ signers. Students performed 73% better on an assessment when they had the option to choose between an ASL rather than written English. I later expanded this to an ASL class I taught. Students had the option of demonstrating the vocabulary from that unit in a variety of formats (except written English for obvious reasons).

I argue this is the most important step of great instructional design. If students can't understand how to navigate your content, understand the building of a class and see relevancy and clarity in how all things relate, they will stop out, half-butt it or just simply not do it at all. As an instructor, being able to critical assess yourself and your system is key. Just because it works for you, doesn't mean it works for everyone, be open to that feedback journey.

I think considering your course modality should be part of step 2 - designing assessments and activities. Teaching content asynchronously requires different types of assessments and activities compared to teaching face-to-face or real-time virtual. For example, discussion questions in an asynchronous class need to be well thought out, open-ended, and literature supported to stimulate broad class discussion whereas live instruction can use pointed, closed-ended questions to emphasize points or gauge student understanding.

Agree with Laura here, how are you to do the previous steps without the intentionality of modality established? How we teach online synchronous, asynchronous and in-person should have all uniquely different elements as our learners in those spaces are uniquely different. Simply copying and pasting an in-person course online is so 2019 :)

Schedule regular curriculum review sessions with primary stakeholders including teachers, students, administration, parents, industry and regulators to collect valuable qualitative feedback ensuring further developments meet the needs of the target audience.

I personally do this annually and given my area of teaching, career education, it changes pretty consistently. However, as a word of encouragement to administrators reading this, please pay your faculty for updates! Have stipends for more than just a 5-10 year refresh, because the pace of the world, even on an annual basis, your curriculum might be falling behind. This article, for example, would have not existed 12 months ago, let alone 5 years ago. Reflect critically and act regularly, and pay people for their ability to do so in service to strengthening the quality of your course offerings.