Welcome to the ‘Shared Curriculum: Designing for Others to Use’ course, which has been developed with Catrina Mitchum and Shelley Rodrigo.
Click here to view the video transcript
I’m Dr. Catrina Mitchum, and I am a faculty coach and adjunct associate professor at University of Maryland’s Global Campus based in the US. Shelly and I have been teaching and researching about online digitally mediated teaching and learning experiences. As of the filming of this video, we have taught 44 years. Shelly, I’m not sure how we got that old. And we have both designed and redesigned and taught from courses that are pre-designed at a variety of different institutions. In this course, we’re gonna be talking about faculty and instructional designers who are involved in the design and the development of shared curriculum. We have both been designer and teacher.
Hello, my name’s Shelley Rodrigo. I am the senior director of the writing programs at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona in the United States of America. I’ve been here for about 10 years. I’ve been teaching online for over 25 years, and I’m so excited about sharing my experiences. Yes, I think there’s expertise, but definitely more learning experiences with you all.
As the use of shared curriculum grows, especially pre-designed or pre-built courses, more experienced faculty are included in the design, development, and ideally revision, processes. A lot of course or program coordinators/directors are increasingly finding themselves responsible for developing curricular and instructional materials that will be shared with the faculty teaching courses in their unit. Designing and developing curriculum for other instructors to use requires acknowledging that there are multiple ways to teach and learn the course content. Whether you are developing required syllabi, assignment prompts or test questions, or developing an entire course that will be shared with other instructors in the future, reflecting on your past teaching and learning experiences will make you a more flexible shared-curriculum designer. In this course you will learn how to design curriculum so that it is easier for other instructors to navigate it and leave space for them to bring their own experiences and expertise into it.
“Instructors need to be able to adapt both the course design and the course content to the specific context of their course. They need to be able to connect course content to the contemporary realities of the world.”
“Letting instructors see how the course is going to “play out” gives them the information necessary to identify when and where they can use their autonomy and let their expertise and experience shine.“
Get Involved And Share Your Learning
- Share your perspective. Throughout this course, you will see discussion prompts at the end of each lesson inviting you to share your thoughts and experience. We encourage you to respond to these discussion questions and read those of other educators to benefit from theirs. When you see a comment you agree with or find helpful, hit the ‘Like’ button to help other educators find it. You can also reply to any comments from other members that you find interesting.
- Ask a question. You can ask questions of experts and other educators in the discussion threads in courses.
- Pick up your course badges. To earn your Course Completion Badges make sure you mark all lessons as ‘Mark Complete’ once you have completed a lesson. At the end of the course, click ‘Mark Complete’ and you will be asked a few multiple-choice questions to earn a Course Completion badge. Once you’ve had a chance to apply your learning, come back to complete an Impact Badges by applying what you have learned in the courses and answering a short survey.
If you have any questions or issues, please email us at [email protected].
Discussions
Think of a week in one of your classes where students usually struggle. Imagine someone else was teaching your course. What tips might you give instructors for developing an announcement to help students navigate that tricky week.
Please share your thoughts and questions in the comments section below.