How can you successfully implement new curriculum designs?

It is crucial to have a well-thought-out set of goals and a clear timescale for implementation. As a team, establish realistic timeframes for developing a new curriculum, ensuring a sensible and achievable duration for implementation. Rushed and poorly planned curriculum implementation goals will likely lead to significant issues when the new curriculum is operational.

I would add to Step 1 (Identify your goals and rationale) the need to understand and know your students and audience. Knowing their existing levels of knowledge and their motivations in advance will help with the formation of goals and rationale.

Por una las instituciones de educación superior que tienen profesores investigadores, tienen un nivel de profundidad interesante en muchos de sus temas, y las que los profesores son docentes, posiblemente se alinean mas a a la línea curricular que la misma Universidad quiere promover. Que es mas útil para los alumnos ? Beneficiarse de los dise?os curriculares basados en la retroalimentación de la industria o explorar la profundidad que un investigador puede proveer mostrando lo que está descubriendo o analizando ? Hasta que punto el potencial impulso a la empleabilidad debe estar en el dise?o curricular y cuál es el espacio para incentivar a las personas que desarrollen sus intereses de forma libre, sin restricciones?

When I was directing the Graduate Teacher Program at the University of Colorado, our program won the Theodore M. Hesburgh Award 2006 for Excellence in Faculty Development for an unpublished study on our program that demonstrated that courses taught by teachers who were educated and trained to integrate active experimentation through questioning skills, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and concrete experiences into their courses had students who scored higher in the courses and reported more satisfaction with the course and instructor than courses taught by non participating instructors.

I always begin considering: 1. Who are the students-what are their needs- why do they need this? Mismatch of student needs and curriculum design is too frequently evident. 2. What works well right now- how can this be preserved or amplified? 3. What resources and stakeholders can be used to support design, implementation and ongoing delivery? 4. How will the final design set student and staff capability apart from other programmes?

I am a massive believer in pilot programs. You simply will not know how the learning experience will be perceived by the students as we, as in educators, are not the target audience. For pilot programs, I include a short survey at the end of every single module to gather real-time feedback. I ask questions about the relevancy and helpfulness of the activities, content, and assessments. Once all of the surveys have been completed, I’ll scrub through the data to find discrepancies I can’t explain or want to hear more about. From there, I host focus groups and ask specific questions. For example, let’s say that 75% of my class said that week 4 was their favorite. I want to know why and how to replicate this more.

Absolutely, involving stakeholders is critical - think about who and how much... Use edtech tools to gather real-time feedback/data from stakeholders, or elements of gamification either in workshops or presentations to increase engagement (helps especially with students, but can be effective with any audience). But most of all, engage the potential employers of your students - real life relevance of learning brings a whole new level of employability. This can also align with current industry trends and demands. Entice future employers with the carrot of recruiting students from the course, and allow them to help shape, deliver and even assess the course content - all can support a more engaging, practical and employment-ready curriculum.

Any changes to the curriculum should be clearly explained to the team members along with the rationale for such changes. Focus groups provide multiple perspectives enriching the learning experience. It also creates team ownership and provides opportunities for building on strengths.

I will add to the second point which has to do with involving and engaging stakeholders throughout the process. This is to create a sense of ownership and ensure better acceptance of the new curriculum. This can be achieved through clear communication of the vision, objectives, and benefits of the new curriculum to all stakeholders—teachers, students, parents, administrators, and the community at large.

Whenever a new curriculum is introduced, it is extremely important to share it with academic experts, alumni and industry experts before implementing it and teaching it to the students. The best way is by giving a presentation which would explain the changes introduced, the objectives of the change, the learning outcomes that would be achieved. Followed by a focus group discussion. Bringing academicians, alumni and industry experts together will give a broader perspective. 1) The industry people will be able to give an overview of all that will be required to include for better job opportunities 2) Academicians will talk about national and international changes in curriculum

Additionally, it is important to be mindful of the resources available to you when implementing your new curriculum design. Different resources such as books, websites, videos, and even other educators can provide valuable insights that can help you further optimize your new curriculum design.

When considering the plan and execution, higher education administration often look at the initial implementation it neglect the longer term vision, that can be part of a maturity model. A maturity model allows for an initial change that meets stakeholders requirements but also plans for future improvements, goals, and milestones that align with the mission of the university/organization. Neglecting a maturity model will often result in the need for another curriculum redesign sooner than anticipated.

Talk to your institutional librarians! We are often overlooked as a resource when curriculum development and changes are made. Librarians are often subject matter experts and may have great embeddable resources others might overlook. Librarians can help find open access and open educational content to help keep costs down, and are knowledgeable when it comes to the reapurces that students are already using to complete assignments.

Durante la implementación, es importante comunicarse regularmente con las partes interesadas y mantenerlas informadas sobre el progreso y los logros. Puede hacerlo a través de reuniones, informes de estado, boletines informativos, sitios web y otras herramientas de comunicación. También puede aprovechar las oportunidades de capacitación y desarrollo profesional para garantizar que los educadores estén preparados para implementar el nuevo plan de estudios de manera efectiva. Además, es esencial evaluar regularmente la implementación del nuevo dise?o curricular. Esto implica recolectar datos y evidencia para evaluar el impacto del nuevo plan de estudios en los estudiantes, los educadores y las partes interesadas.

Pour un suivi non seulement rétroactif mais également proactif et concomitant pour apporter des corrections au fur et à mesure qu'on avance dans le programme d'études

Also, when evaluating the effectiveness of your new curriculum design, you should consider the impact it has on the community, as well as on society as a whole. For example, the curriculum design may require students to engage in activities that build empathy and foster collaboration with their colleagues, or to develop a sense of citizenship and social responsibility.

Approved! Listen to your students, though feedbacks always help. One single positive, or even negative word would matter. Go impress your students.

This plays an important role for your future curriculum design. one should always hear all aspects of feedback that shared by each stakeholder and not only from audience. Critical feedback always helps in developing future programs in a more robust way.

“Don’t get too attached,” is a personal mantra. When I’m designing and developing learning journey’s I tend to get attached to content, exercises and activities. But it’s not for, or about, me! Instructional design and development is an on-going, iterative process. Content and lesson plans may be great, but still need to be tweaked, revised or cut if they don’t work toward the goal. Once you think you’re product is ready, run a pilot, gather feedback, and listen to your customers. Make improvements, or scrap the sections that didn’t land. Be ruthless in your quest find the most direct and reliable route to the goal.

Evaluating and improving our curriculum implementation should start from the "WHY"with student-centric factors: an in-depth analysis of the 'WHY' could relate to growth mindset, grit, character, human skills and hard skills. Regularly assess how these elements are fostered through the curriculum and its impact on student development. Use student feedback, observations, and self-reflections to gather insights. This approach not only enhances learning outcomes but also aligns with our commitment to a WHY based and focused on human/ity, wherethe school supporta personal growth alongside academic achievement

Integrating such methods of sharing the achievements within curriculum is the best , less time consuming and easiest way. With this I mean, students are our customers. We are preparing and implementing the new curriculum design for them, so let it get promoted and talk volumes by them. It is practical and resonate well. For instance community drive to teach empathy, compassion and helpfulness , visits to museums, historical places will not only let them have subject content learnt but also inculcate in them collaborative, social and economical skills. ( When they prepare budget for the visit ) Their practical actions published in print and electronic media will let the world know how effective new curriculum is.

In the realm of higher education analytics, celebrating achievements extends beyond curriculum design. Real-time data analytics tools enable institutions to track student performance, identify trends, and enhance learning outcomes. For instance, universities can leverage predictive analytics to foresee challenges and intervene proactively. Take the implementation of a personalized learning path using AI algorithms as an achievement to celebrate. Share the success story through webinars, showcasing improved student engagement and academic success rates. This not only promotes the institution's commitment to innovation but also inspires a data-driven approach across the academic community, fostering continuous improvement.

Sharing experiences is critical. On a local level, utilize any social lunches or seminars at your university to share your success on a low stakes level. Listen to feedback. As you hear how others take your information, then start to share out with a broader audience using social media platforms or education websites.

When celebrating success it is critical to recognize efforts from both staff and faculty that often go behind the scenes. Faculty may get recognition from students or publications, but staff generally do not have many avenues for external recognition. This recognition helps promote the culture among all employees, but also the community as a whole. A community of students, teachers, alumni, and extended associates are more likely to contribute to a university that acknowledges success and improvements.

Fitness for purpose. Context matters. While we may look at successful examples and learn from them, it can never be a copycat because each context is different ( political, economical, societal, attitudes towards learning.. etc)

In the excitement of introducing a new curriculum, it's easy to overlook how well it integrates with the existing one. It's not necessarily a bad thing to diverge from the old curriculum; sometimes, that's exactly what's needed. The real challenge lies in implementing both curricula simultaneously. This is crucial to ensure that students who enrolled under the different systems can graduate smoothly. This might mean a lot of course substitutions, which could potentially weaken the educational experience for students in both systems. The most problematic situation arises when advisors direct students to take courses externally but fail to provide adequate support or guidance in these situations.

Curriculum Design per se for doing the change is neither realistic nor effective. Key focus has to be on 3 critical elements: 1. Why to change? 2. What to Change? 3. How to and how much to change? Once talking about these 3 critical elements an issue of inclusion of technology and educational support infrastructure has to be considered. Learner’s needs, the pace of learning and job specific competencies and competency mapping culminating with competency based assessment and reevaluation of competency frameworks if needed could not be undermined. Easier said than done, curriculum development, designing and especially redesigning are continuing and rigorous processes requiring incremental reforms in total learning experience.

Education can be seen, using a definition by Simon Sinek, as an “infinite game” , within which a “finite game” takes place every year, namely the academic year. This awareness should guide us in understanding that the educational methods known and deemed valid are not untouchable, but can be subjected to a continuous process of study, reflection, and possible change. And this is why I believe it is essential to continue to study and document ourselves, starting from what emerges worldwide from various researches analysing the Education sector, without clinging to a “we have always done it this way, there's no reason to change”. There are so many reasons to change!

This article presumes an unrealistic degree of agency that readers will have over curricular redesign. In reality, these efforts are broad management operations involving scores of (often divergent) voices and stakeholders. I'm involved in one now, and what I've learned is that one has to balance vision with compromise. There needs to be an initial set of goals and a path toward achieving them, but if you can't make strategic compromises, you won't get very far. Faculty governance means that no one's vision will move through the process unaltered. Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.