Designing and Assessing Courses and Curricula: A Practical Guide (Jossey Bass Higher and Adult Education Series) - Softcover

Many institutions, departments, and instructors recognize significant problems in the content and design of curricula or courses. But their efforts to change are often hampered by uncertainty about how to make orderly changes, where to begin, the questions to ask, the options to explore, what outcomes to target, and what roles faculty, curriculum committees, and administrators should play.

Designing and Assessing Courses and Curricula provides a model for this change. Written with the faculty member in mind, it responds to the questions of faculty who see the need for change, but are unsure of how to reach their goals. Tested and refined through long-term use and study, the change model presented in this book shows how to move from concept to actualization, from theory to practice.

ital]Designing and Assessing Courses and Curricula reflects the best current knowledge and practice in course and curriculum design and connects this knowledge with the critical task of assessing and learning outcomes at both course and curricular levels.

It features sections focusing on such up-to-the-minute issues as diversity, multiculturalism, critical thinking, and technological innovations, and it features the central role of assessment in the design process.

Robert M. Diamond answers the call for clear, imaginative planning with faculty, administrators, and students working together toward change. He provides an effective model for designing, implementing, and evaluating courses and curricula, as well as flexible design options that are suited to diverse student needs.

[ital]Designing and Assessing Courses and Curricula moves the focus of course design from content coverage to an emphasis on the learning process. While based in theory, the book is first and foremost a practical guide for faculty and administrators, showing how to design or redesign courses and curricula, the structures in which learning takes place. In this invaluable guide, Diamond shares the strategies that have worked well in making the kinds of constructive change higher education seeks to initiate.