A skill that is always in demand is course writing.
Writing a course differs from writing a book or an essay. It entails explaining a learning route. The course materials serve as a learning roadmap. This manual might be meant to be used by a teacher, a student, or even both.
The ACS staff has written more than 1,000 courses and has taught more than 100,000 individuals, primarily through distance education but also in-person. This is the knowledge we offer to aid in the improvement of your course writing abilities.
Learn from our experience while studying course writing here.
Lesson Structure
There are 9 lessons in this course:
- Bases for Education
- Approaches to Education
- Teacher Centred Learning
- Student Centred Learning: PBL, Experiential, Montessori, Self paced learning
- Specialist or Generalist Education
- Competency Based Training; CBT
- Homework
- Delivery Modes
- Issues For Learning; Lifelong learning, Foundation skill development, Reinforcement
- Problem Based Learning; characteristics of PBL,Why PBL, Benefits of PBL, PBL Problems, PBL project stages
- Education Contextualisation
- Trends, Ethics, Equity
- Establishing Course Aims
- Course Writing Methodologies
- Developing Courses
- Course Outlines
- Curriculum Documentation
- Study Notes
- Continuous or Periodic Course Review and Development
- Identifying Needs; student perspective, educators perspective, family perspective, community and industry perspective
- Identifying Resources; student and teacher
- Writing Aims, Competencies and Assessment Criteria
- Writing Course Notes
- Writing Practicals
- Writing for Clarity and Understanding; principles of good writing, structuring the course
- Coding Courses
- Flexible Delivery
- Applying Strategies for Flexible Delivery
- Course Components; Assignments, Exercises, Brainstorming, Buzz Groups, Demonstration, Discussion, Case Study, Guest Speakers, Laboratory Work, Lecture, Mutual Lectures, Practical Workshop, Project, Tutorials
- Level of Study
- Determining Appropriate Level of Study; Quantitative and Qualitative Factors
- Descriptors
- Duration
- Assessment
- Levels of Training; eg. varying certificate levels between UK and Australia
- Lessons and lesson plans
- Determining level required
- Identifying student needs
- Allowing for different modes of study
- Structuring a lesson
- Timing a lesson
- Evaluating and improving a lesson
- Levels and kinds of Language
- Language of learning, and Professional language
- Determining level of Training
- Skills and Training Objectives; Competence
- Curriculum Documentation
- Scope and Nature
- Examples
- Structure and Layout
- Course Materials
- Introduction
- Teaching Resources
- Learning Resources
- PBL Project; Develop a new course with minimum use of limited resources: financial and other.
- Course Material Creation
- Developing knowledge
- Applying Knowledge
- Reflection and Review
- Developing Skills
- Innovation and Flexibility
- Types of Support Materials; documentation, visual elements and illustration, technical aids
- Factors to Consider when Writing Support Materials
- Writing for Distance Education; Problems and Solutions
- Writing a Question
- Dealing with Practical Aspects of Education
- Clarity and Consciousness
- Improving Clarity
- Understanding Causes of Confusion
- Ways to Write Concisely
- Differentiating between Guidelines, Instructions and Procedures
- Correspondence Course Structure
- Writing PBL Documentation
- Handouts
- Visual Materials; Illustration, Charts
- Audio Materials, Recorded Presentations
- Digital Technology; Educational Applications for Digital Technologies
- Multimedia
- The Internet
- Reviewing and Updating Courses
- Change and Inertia in Education
- Policies and Procedures to Support Change
- How to Review a Course
- Procedure for Changing an Established Course
- Procedure for Maintaining Currency
- Recognition and Accreditation
- Who can Provide Education
- Universal Recognition; Is it Possible
- Scope of Endorsement Systems
- Recognition and Qualifications
- What is Accreditation
- The Value of Accreditation
- Accreditation Myths
- Recognition and Accreditation Systems
- Trends
- Who accredits or recognises what
- Secondary, Vocational, University Education
- Industry Training Boards
- Accreditation Authorities
- Other Forms of Recognition
- Application and Implementation
- Delivering Classroom Based Courses
- Session Organisation
- Delivering Practical Courses Outside a Classroom
- Delivering Distance Education Courses
- Customising Distance Education
- Assessment and Evaluation
- Purpose of Assessment
- Formulated, Cumulative and Summative Assessment
- Assessment Policies and Procedures
- Marking Guidelines for Assignments
Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school’s tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.
Aims
- Choose a sound foundation on which to build a course that will meet a specific demand.
- Writing course materials and documentation should be thorough and concise.
- Describe the variations among study levels, notably in postsecondary education.
- Create course curriculum documentation.
- Find and assess sources for a course’s readings, videos, and other resources.
- Design and produce a range of instructional resources to aid in student learning
- Decide on a process for periodically reviewing and updating the course materials.
- Comparing the relative merits of official course recommendation systems.
- Prepare to put a developed course into action.
HOW ARE COURSES BROUGHT TO LIFE?
Although there are many various approaches to construct a course, most typically written documents are used to define, explain, outline, and discuss the course’s objectives and content.
Course outlines, curriculum material, and study notes are three different sorts of documents that are frequently used to construct a course:
(a) Course Outlines (or Descriptions)
They can provide a comprehensive description of the course or split it down into its individual modules and/or lessons.
Most often, these documents are used during the pre-enrollment stage, such as when choosing courses or doing marketing. The framework may serve as a guide for teaching professionals to use when they offer the course for less formal courses, such as adult education and hobby classes.
Both the student and the faculty can view the course outline.
b) Curriculum Support
These texts completely and accurately clarify what a course is. Their objective could be:
- As a reference point to be used by anyone writing course notes, study guides, or even delivering lectures or practical sessions.
- As a document to be submitted for accreditation purposes.
They are often only utilised and seen by school staff (teachers and administrators).
Writing curriculum documentation can be expensive, and keeping it current can be even more expensive. They are frequently written first in big education systems (such as government accreditation systems), and their development entails obtaining and incorporating feedback from designated experts. For instance, a curriculum advisory group often establishes the guidelines for writing this documentation, then meets with course writers on a regular basis to assess their progress.
It is not always necessary to have curriculum documents, and if they are not required for accreditation, you should carefully weigh the cost savings that can be realised before allocating money or staff time to this kind of material.
b) Study Notes
These are books, handouts, notes that go with them, study aids, worksheets, and anything else that fulfils one of the following two purposes:
- To provide a source of information or
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To provide a guide or pathway for the student to follow.
Frequent or ongoing course development
Almost usually, it has been considered that there is only one method to relate course development to time: develop a course, see it through to completion, and then deliver it.
Almost usually, it was thought that making changes to the curriculum should be done every few years; the only difference was how frequently a thorough review would be conducted.
In reality, there are two choices:
Regular Review
Here, the revision process is the same as the one used to create the curriculum documentation (or course outline if there is no curriculum document). Usually, a committee reviews it and a curriculum writer makes changes afterward. The committee is then expected to make any necessary modifications and approve the changes. The average gap between these reviews (across the world) is five years.
Regular Review
This entails consistently and continuously obtaining feedback from the instructional staff, students, and/or industry. The route may never significantly vary at any given moment, but it may be adjusted on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis; periodically and as necessary.
Before to the widespread use of computers, this strategy would have been challenging to maintain, but in the modern world, it is quite simple to update curricular materials, course outlines, or study notes as and when necessary.
ASSESSING NEEDS
Student viewpoint
Sometimes, students are unsure of what they need. One must first grasp a discipline in order to know what is required in that discipline. A student’s comprehension of their demands in a course will unavoidably be constrained if they do not comprehend the discipline. There may not be much of a need for them to enrol in a course if they do grasp the discipline.
It is inevitable that students would have desires and expectations related to a course they take. Every student is likely to have a unique combination of priorities and expectations, and as they move through the course, those expectations are likely to alter.
When a student completes a course, what will have changed?
They Perceived
The course ought to have enlightened them, and with more knowledge and awareness, they might recognise needs they hadn’t noticed before.
The Global
At the end of a course, the community, industry, and value of knowledge and abilities may have changed significantly from what they were at the beginning.
a teacher’s viewpoint
An excellent teacher must be sympathetic, or able to put themselves in the position of the learner both while the student is learning and after they have finished the course.
Family Viewpoint
Families and/or parents desire to recognise the importance of schooling.
A View from the Community and Industries
Work and profit are what drive the community and employers (or in the case of government or non-profit organisations, achieving more value for the money spent). While many employers just think on the short term, some will be concerned about the long term effects of training.