Curriculum development

Visualization

Pedagogy

Computer science

Curriculum

Cohesion (chemistry)

Organic chemistry

Psychology

Artificial intelligence

Software engineering

Chemistry

Knowledge management

Human–computer interaction

Curriculum mapping

Background: The development and deployment of curricula is at the heart of engineering education. Curriculum design is a complex activity with many integrated knowledge domains and tasks. The design of curricula share many common elements with engineering design. It is important to develop cohesion in the curriculum ensuring all elements work in harmony to deliver stated outcomes. There is a need to have robust computer aided tools to help academe in designing curricula, understanding key characteristics of those curricula, as well as allowing students to gain deeper insight into their individual learning pathways. null null Purpose: This work creates a prototype software environment for curriculum design that permits users to integrate knowledge, attainment levels, learning outcomes and assessment tasks so as to build learning pathways, then view and assess their characteristics. null null Design/Method: The design elements are based on defining formal data structures such as ontologies and taxonomies for such areas as discipline knowledge domains, sub-domains and topics; assessment types; learning places and spaces; the creation of structured learning outcomes and other curriculum elements. These are made available to the user in a fully configurable and customizable interface with a backend database. The prototype allows courses and whole curricula to be constructed and then examined for a range of characteristics. Understanding a range of characteristics of the curriculum is facilitated through a user questioning facility and various display modes. The development has received input from psychology and the reference group now includes science. null null Results: The current development has defined and implemented much of the underlying data structures that allow curricula to be constructed. Structured generation of specific learning outcomes for both cognitive and affective domains can be done. The development of linking capabilities addressing required prior learning (RPL) and to future anticipated learning (FAL) allows pathways to be traced across and within semesters. Incremental development of knowledge areas and professional skills/attitudes can be designed and tracked. A number of curriculum design case studies in chemical engineering have been used to test functionality. null null Conclusions: The environment will allow academics to systematically build and assess curricula. It allows academics to have deeper insights overall curriculum and assessment architectures. Students will better understand the learning and assessment pathways within their degree programs. Enhancements to the prototype will help deliver the full benefits to the user.

A curriculum design, modelling and visualization environment