Resource:How to design curriculum for your new innovation center

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Overview

Designing curriculum is not an overnight venture and hinges on the support of faculty, staff, students, and the administration to become a success. Curriculum can take shape in many forms including pop-up classes, classes for credit, and workshops in an Innovation Center. Learning how to effectively utilize all these resources at a university is a challenging task but it is possible with a strong group of student leaders.

Vocabulary

Credit Classes

Sessions that allow students to learn a topic for credit towards their degree that often form after a professor has tried the lesson in an experimental fashion. These classes are paid for and supported by the learning institution regardless of their location. This is the standard class that students and faculty are familiar with for teaching.

Curriculum Design

Old ideology that focused solely on building a robust set of learning objectives and "How-Tos" regardless of how each student would be effected. This has now shifted into Learning Experience Design.

Learning Experience Design

New ideology that spawned from Curriculum Design to incorporate how students truely learn and how their environment affects the learning conducted in classes. This shift has brought forth questions around "How could bad or boring classes be improved?" and "What makes good or interesting classes so great?". These questions are being tested through experimental teachings in pop-up classes and workshops in Innovation Centers.

Pop-Up Classes

Short workshops that are often the beginning, experimental stages of credit classes. These are used by professors to test out new topics and methods for teaching with an engaged student audience. Collaboration is often a key part of these courses followed by a focus on breaking the conventional static classroom setup. More information on Pop-Up Classes can be found here: How_to_establish_a_series_of_pop-up_classes_that_focus_on_bringing_hands-on_learning_experience_to_students,_staff,_faculty_and_community_members.

Faculty Support

A key to starting any movement on a university is faculty support. Timothy Moore it, “You need to find at least one advisor who will be your rock. Basically, they will be the bridge between you and the university. Anything you want to accomplish or support for will go through them.” There is no limit for how many advisors you can have, in fact, the more faculty that you can get on board with your idea the more resources you will have.

To find faculty support, you must do your homework first. (This step taken literally won’t hurt your chances either because you will need teachers to like you.) You will need to find a professor who is very passionate about a topic that is close to yours. Just google your professor’s name and see what comes up! Any biographies, ads, even social media can help you to find a passionate professor.

The next step is forming a relationship. The more quickly you can do this then the closer you will be to your end goal. Start by building up information about the professor and their interests. If you are taking a class instructed by them this will be easy because they most likely will have told you about themselves and you will already have a reason for speaking with them. If you are not taking a class from the professor, then it’s up to you to create an open line of communication. When initially starting any form of relationship with someone, start with asking about them and their goals. Showing interest in their work will make them interested in yours. When you finally feel comfortable asking for their help do so, and this will build a foundation with your advisor. Do not become discouraged if they decline your offer, it simply means that there is an even greater advisor to find.

If you are fortunate enough to be working with several advisors, then be sure to arrange a system that allows you to maximize your support from each. Set up a strong communication network that everyone can easily access and be sure to help foster relations between your advisors. Periodic meetings will help your advisors to know what they can do to help.

Pop-Up Classes

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Expansion

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Timeline

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Misc Information for Success

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