Engineering the Curriculum: Towards an adaptive curriculum

The curriculum is one of the most important artefacts produced by higher education institutions, yet it is one of the least studied. Additionally, little is known about the decision-making of academics when designing and developing their curricula, nor how they make use of them. This research investigates how 22 Australian higher education engineering, software engineering, computer science, and information systems academics conceive of curriculum, what approaches they take when designing, and developing course and program curricula, and what use they make of the curriculum. It also considers the implications of these conceptions and behaviour upon their curricula. Data were collected through a series of one-to-one, in-depth, qualitative interviews as well as small focus group sessions and were analysed following Charmaz’ (2006) approach to grounded theory. In this thesis, I argue that the development of curricula for new higher degree programs and courses and / or the updating and innovating of an existing curriculum is a design problem. I also argue that curriculum is a complex adaptive system. Surrounding the design and development of a curriculum is a process of design that leads to the creation of a designed object – the official-curriculum. The official-curriculum provides the guiding principles for its implementation, which involves the design and development of the curriculum-in-use, its delivery, and evaluation. Data show that while the participants conceive of curriculum as a problem of design involving a design process leading to the development of the official-curriculum, surprisingly, their behaviour does not match their conceptions. Over a very short period, their behaviour leads to a process I have called curriculum drift where the official-curriculum and the curriculum-in-use drift away from each other causing the curriculum to lose its integrity. Curricular integrity is characterised through the attributes of alignment, coherence, and cohesiveness. Without integrity, a curriculum is unlikely to be able to deliver all its required outcomes. Utilising the concepts of system dynamics and systems thinking I propose that not only is the curriculum a complex adaptive system, it is a multi-dimensional object. Adopting this notion facilitates possible interventions that may be used to monitor the curriculum and to moderate the effects of curriculum drift. I argue that using the articulated purpose of the curriculum to determine the desired outcomes of that curriculum will enhance curricular alignment, leading to improved student learning and outcomes. Furthermore, perceiving the curriculum as a multi-dimensional object reinforces the proposition that aligning the purpose and desired outcomes of each course with those of the program will achieve improved desired outcomes from the program as a whole. The original contributions to knowledge arising from this research are curriculum drift, an enhanced approach to the curricular alignment, and a multi-dimensional view of curriculum. Perhaps the most important implication of this research, is insight into how we might incorporate curriculum drift into curriculum review models. Successful incorporation has the potential to deliver increased quality of educational outcomes by enabling innovation whilst maintaining the integrity of the curriculum

Simulating Industry: An Innovative Software Engineering Capstone Design Course

Universities are required to produce graduates with good technical knowledge and 'employability skills' such as communication, team work, problem-solving, initiative and enterprise, planning, organizing and self-management. The capstone software developm

Curriculum: A Proposed Definitional Framework

Despite being one of the most important artifacts produced by higher education institutions, the curriculum is one of the least studied. This work-in-progress paper presents a proposed definitional framework for curriculum which if viable, should facilitate a common understanding of the elements, or component parts, from which a curriculum is constructed, and provide heuristic support to faculty as they design, develop, implement and maintain quality curricula. Furthermore, it is likely that a commonly understood and accepted definitional framework for curriculum will lead to meaningful discussion of and wise decisions about curriculu

Students' Perceptions of Individual and Group Performance in Capstone Projects

Final-year capstone design projects in the Bachelor of Engineering and Bachelor of Software Engineering degree programs at the Australian National University (ANU) incorporate a student partnership model called the Many Eyes feedback process. This process has been successful in delivering real learning value to students and enabling students to deliver real value to clients by balancing project outcomes and good governance. This paper examines student’s perceptions of the value their team delivered to the client, and the value they personally delivered. We discuss how variations here can reveal aspects of team function and dysfunction