Managing a crowded curriculum

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Introduction and context

The view that the curriculum is 'crowded' has been around for some time - a feature of societal/ educational change and the articulation of curriculum standards throughout the 1990s.

There are two aspects to the notion of the 'crowded curriculum':

  • the 'curriculum' itself, and
  • the impact of curriculum development and implementation agendas on academics.

There are essentially three levels of curriculum:

  • the requirements of industry
  • the policies/priorities of the University
  • faculty or department-determined programs and practice.

A number of factors appear to contribute to the notion of the 'crowded curriculum' in higher education. These factors include:

  • the demands of industry for 'work ready' graduates equipped with a range of skills;
  • mandated industry requirements in some fields in terms of content coverage or time devoted to practical experience. For example, one academic said, "We've got three accrediting external bodies which have to approve the Nutrition, the Food Science and the Environmental Health so in considering what our clients or our students are undertaking during their degree program, we've got to tick off against what the accrediting bodies want.";
  • institution-level policies that affect curriculum design and assessment procedures;
  • the growth in diversity of the student body over the last decade, and the associated need to support these students and cater for their diverse needs;
  • increasing complexity in the number and range of program offerings and degree structures, including growing expectations of cross-disciplinary collaborations; and
  • the dramatic growth in new scientific knowledge and the associated expectation that students be acquainted with this and have opportunity to develop the necessary skills to work with vast amounts of information and new technologies that have an impact on the discipline.

Views from the field: Enhancing assessment in the context of a crowded curriculum

i. Make every assessment task a valuable learning exercise

Any act of assessment should leave the student better equipped for future learning. [academic]

ii. Use assessment to prepare students for lifelong learning

My definition of content recognised that we probably never have had the luxury of teaching all the knowledge in any domain and we certainly don't have it any more. So what we need to do is equip our students in any particular discipline area with a tool kit of key concepts, key jargon, key technical skills and an information structure, and functional information structure that's the basis of their lifelong learning. [academic]

iii. Assess the most important aspects of the course

Not with every student, but there is definitely a culture amongst our undergrads or our students that the things that are assessed are the important bits and the things that aren't being assessed are more peripheral... I've tried to make sure that [I assess] stuff that I think they absolutely have to know, because it's just a response in part to just trying to realise most students are not so much learning that way, but they're organising they're studying that way. [academic]

Examples: Some tips for enhancing assessment in the context of a crowded curriculum

Give students survival skills at the beginning of the course that will save them time later on.

[Example: West]

Use computers to test key competencies and give remedial teaching to the sub-set of the class that needs it.

[Example: Shapter]

Use computers to provide feedback to students.

[Examples: Plastow; Peat 3]

Use classroom clickers during lecture to interact with students and determine the level of understanding and consequently adjust their lecture content.

[Example: Wood 1]

Streamline the assessment of practical classes

One academic, faced with declining student numbers due to the perceived large workload, decided to redesign the course [Example: Benkendorff 2]. In her words, "The challenge was to design the assessment to meet the aims of the topic, whilst not exceeding the expected student (or teacher) workload. This was done by streamlining the practical tasks and assessment." Students responded positively to her introduction of a practical manual, which includes pre-lab questions and space of individual observations and reflections. One student wrote, " I think the practicals were very useful to actually put into practice what we learnt in the lectures. Also the set up of the practical questions was good and not having to write a full scientific lab report meant more attention could be paid to the actual prac."

Students themselves present some of the course content during tutorials, and are assessed for their presentations.

[Example: Pane]

Second and third year students are employed to run tutorials for students in earlier years

[Example: Miller 1]

Students research different aspects of a case and share their findings with each other

[Examples: Wassens 2; Macaulay]

Review and redesign courses to ensure that they meet contemporary student needs

[Example: Wood 2]

Map courses to look at the types of assessment tasks required of students in other subjects and in subsequent year levels to ensure a coordinated approach to designing assessment tasks.

[see also: Curriculum planning and review]




To reference material from this site, please use:

Harris, K-L., Krause, K., Gleeson, D., Peat, M., Taylor, C. & Garnett, R. (2007). Enhancing Assessment in the Biological Sciences: Ideas and resources for university educators. Available at: www.bioassess.edu.au