Syllabus and TOC

Syllabus lists all topics/concepts/principles and subjects to be a part of the curriculum. Well, I have never seen a syllabus that talks about methodology or audience (unless the program caters to audience of multiple age groups or skill sets).

Syllabus is typically a 'dhobi-list' of topics to be covered in the program. But when it comes to writing coursematerial for a program, a list of topics may not be sufficient to chalk out details. A TOC or table of content is required with a clear definition of the subject matter into units, chapters, topics and subtopics.

TOC is a typical drilldown to the deepest level of content chunking to ensure that all necessary information is covered in the coursematerial. TOC is the key to the success of a courseware development project, but still I would bet on the curriculum document for the effective implementation of the entire program.

So, the hierarchy is Curriculum followed by Syllabus and the TOC.

Curriculum and Syllabus

I see a lot of people unaware of the difference between a curriculum and a syllabus. In my understanding (having worked on couple of curriculum design projects myself), curriculum is a superset of syllabus and does not just stop with mentioning the contents and session plan for a program (course).

Curriculum defines the scope of the program. The key aspects that you have to look for in a curriculum are:
1. Objective of the program (what level of competency can you expect of the participants at the end of the program)
2. Goals of the program (what will be acheived during the program. This is more elaborate than the objectives)
3. Program overview with specification on any affiliation with some univ or an edu body, duration of the course, intended audience, all this in a nutshell
4. Program detail to define the features such as duration of the course, courseware design, delivery mechanism, evaluation of performance, guidance (mentor), support systems (EPSS etc)

I have observed that it is a good practice to keep your curriculum document as elaborate as possible. Design phase is the best time to think of cause and effect of any new methodology or delivery mechanism. A dry run would help find holes to be cemented.

For example we were planning a whiteboard-marker driven classroom methodology coupled with computers for the students to practice after every topic is discussed in the classroom. When we did a dry run with a top brass we did find that we had not taken into account the most trivial thing of identifying where the course coordinator would get the necessary props for the class! Trivial, yet vital
(to be continued)

Blended Learning - Competency Driven

Tacit knowledge - often retained by experts is the key aspect that any training manager would want to find a perfect solution to address. Competency-driven blended learning model offers the solution to make tacit knowledge transfer through a training program. People learn or rather absorb tacit knowledge by working along with an expert on the job.

The key to the success of a competency-driven blended learning model is in balancing the live mentoring sessions by experts with ample practice on the job or through a simulated environment.

Competency-driven blended learning model should focus on providing opportunity for the learners to spend focused time on real life applications/situation with support from an experienced mentor (an expert in the field).

Key techniques include a combination of:
1. Computer simulations of usual/unusual situations
2. Role plays in classrooms
3. Field visits with support from a mentor
4. Discussion on situations based on a videographed instances
5. Live-character talking head

How Formative and Summative evaluation helped

I remember the initial phase of my project. My team was all set to roll out the development plan for creating content for school children on basic IT topics.

The content overview was ready and the audience age level mapped (on papers from earlier experience) and the table of contents prepared for the entire book. I so struck me that we were working with a set of audience who are a cent different from those we have already worked with.

I insisted on preparing sample chapters and conducting a formative evaluation to verify my assessment of the audience. It worked! Well, it didn't. Both ways. My formative evaluation really paid off, giving us the true picture of the field. It worked. The stance we had taken on the choice of language (reading level) was not matching the actual reading level of the audience, our reading level didn't work. We woke up.

Field study at formative level is very important. I would've learnt in theory that formative evaluation is necessary to build confidence in yourself, while testing the concept's workability and suitability in the field. But, applying the same in real life meant great revelation in the field of instruction design to me.

Of course summative evaluation was done at the end of the product dev cycle. The reports signaled a successful product and we were able to market it.

Summary: Formative evaluation as important as summative evaluation.

Blended Learning - Attitude Driven

Also known as the behaviour-driven learning model, this approach is a mixture of classroom-based and online learning. Typically this model suits the soft-skill courses that require more face-to-face interaction and intervensions from a mentor.

What makes it different from Skill-Driven Blended Learning Model?

Skill-driven model focuses on improving an individual's knowledge or skill on a specific subject, which can be acheived through constant practice (self-paced may be). They require minimal intervension coz the interactions are primarily aimed at comparing best practices and sharing experience.

Behaviour-driven model focuses on improving an individual's emotional balance. This is the reason why a behaviour learning course would require constant interaction with peers and group activities. A personal approach would maximise benefit that one can draw from this model.


Considerations for any Blended Learning Program

1. A schedule that includes plans for group learning or discussions
2. Introduction and summary sessions handled by the instructor
3. Leverage on the available technology in pacing the course. For example, reading
material could be given on a CD for the learners to munch on at their own pace.
There could be group discussion forums on the Internet/intranet to facilitate
offline discussions.
4. Technology intervensions could include CBTs, eBooks, e-mail support,
e-discussions, online assessment and feedback

CBT and Interaction

Very recently, I had a discussion with some top brass in my company, who asked me to defend my product against a comment that it does not provide enough interaction. My product was a series of CBTs catering to school children. Though I had not really prepared to face such a question I did have a suitable answer to justify my stance.

The product series was timed to be completed within a slot of 20 minutes, thats the time allocated for children to work on the PC during an IT period at schools. If I err on providing much interaction, the system would wait for the user entry. This would result in more time taken by students to complete the session.

Interaction, in my humble opinion should be balanced with the time restrictions (if any) to complete a specific part of the e-learning module. If the learner is left to learn on his/her own, without any restriction on the time that the learner can spend, interraction can be extensive.

I'm not trying to defend some page turner here. I agree that a page turner CBT is as good or worse as a PowerPoint presentation. Balancing user interaction with time restrictions is the key to provide the best e-learning product.