Campus Chair of the Business Department, David Grypp, at Milwaukee Are Community College shared a story with me recently about how they have streamlined their curriculum design process from two days to two hours.
The process uses GroupSystems technology and is amazingly simple in its application. When MACC needs to develop a new curriculum, they invite industry experts to participate in a panel or focus group. A session leader then leads the industry team through a series of questions following the DACUM (stands for Designing A CUrriculuM) methodology. The curriculum design methodology involves getting the industry panel to storyboard the appropriate skills needed for a graduate in the field.
The panel uses GroupSystems software to simultaneously give input on the required Duties, Tasks, Knowlege, Skills and Traits needed to perform the occupation. Working backward from this statement of job requirements, Professor Grypp’s team then designs a curriculum that will give their graduates the needed skills. Since GroupSystems software enables all participants in the panel to enter their ideas on the job requirements simultaneously and instantly view the comments from others, the time needed to collect the input is collapsed dramatically.
Filed under: Curriculum Design
