Click here to view the video transcript
Our point in this course is that building a shared curriculum that leaves space for instructor autonomy and expertise is critical when we are increasingly leaning on adjunct labor that needs the shared curriculum to ethically support their time and energy. On top of all that, contextual restrictions are also real. There are restrictions in learning management systems. There are restrictions in textbooks or outcomes that you teach from. Sometimes even the institution has institution-wide templates that are mandated. We see shared curriculum as a spectrum with things like lessons plans. They’re the wild, wild west of you can adopt and adapt in any way you want. There aren’t any restrictions. They’re mostly shared between colleagues.
While on the other end of the spectrum, there’s fully developed, usually online courses, that the only thing not locked down is the announcements. Course design and delivery restrictions negatively impact the enthusiasm and engagement of both instructors and students. Helping instructors insert themselves into the course will turn a boring, lockstep shared curriculum into exciting teaching and learning experience.
Two core ways we see this happening, no matter how restrictive the course, is by giving instructors an instructor manual and a course map. The instructor manual can cover things like what can actually be changed. It can give instructors a heads up where students tend to struggle. These are prime instance of instructor autonomy. It gives examples of where they might own the curriculum. It explains the curriculum and how it might be used. The instructor manual can also share the barriers and restrictions and provide ideas for how to navigate them.
The instructor manual should, at the very least, include a course map. A course map gives a bird’s eye view of the course, so that instructors can one, find pieces that they know students will need just in time support based on their own learning experiences. Two, identify where they might have the perfect extra example article that helps students learn a difficult concept. Three, insert an explainer video they made while teaching at another institution. Or four, plan all the means they plan on using with their course announcements. Instructor manuals and course maps are not only critical to supporting instructors using shared curriculum, they’re also helpful for navigating barriers and restrictions in a specific learning context.
The primary barriers to support faculty using shared curriculum are programmatic, institutional, and/or policy-based restrictions and lockdowns. For example:
- Institutional requirements: An institution might prescribe what, where, and how specific sections and functionalities of a learning management system might be used.
- Discipline requirements: Some programs and disciplines have specific requirements from accrediting bodies that limit curricular adaptation. In some cases, accrediting bodies stipulate student learning outcomes for programs and classes.
- Funding requirements: What the institution and/or students can access greatly shapes how you can design and how instructors might adapt shared curriculum. Funding might impact what technologies you can use and what information might be available to instructors or students from the library.
Navigating Around Barriers
We confess, most of the time we meet barriers with a “challenge accepted” attitude. Creativity and diligence can usually overcome most obstacles. The most important thing is to identify the barriers while helping instructors deliver the course.
- Navigating requirements with instructor manuals: No matter how little control you have in designing something that’s flexible, you can always create an instructor manual that helps instructors focus on the things that they CAN control and identify places for instructor autonomy and expertise to shine. For example, you might highlight places where students struggle and suggest that they offer additional support in the form of just-in-time videos.
- Negotiating requirements with module level outcomes: When course- or program-level outcomes are mandated outside of the local department, you can usually still control module-level outcomes. Module level outcomes should always lead to the bigger course goals; but developing them allows you to design something that is contextually appropriate while also leaving space for instructor expertise.
- Steering instructors with course maps: 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.
Discussions
What constraints does your program, department, institution, or discipline have that might make it difficult to adapt a shared curriculum (in other words, what barriers are standing in the way of instructors taking a shared curriculum and making it their own)?
Please share your thoughts and questions in the comments section below.