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A high-quality and aligned curriculum is created through collaborative planning

Essential to achieving high quality curriculum is to build a shared understanding about the curriculum with the teaching community in all four stages of the development. Educational alignment refers to a state of cohesion and consistency between the intended learning outcomes and content of teaching, the assessment methods, and the study climate. 

Collaborative planning of the curriculum ensures that students have a variety of ways and methods to learn during their degree studies and make step-by-step progress in developing their competencies. Cohesion, alignment and predictability in study paths promote student well-being and motivation. At its best, a curriculum that is planned collaboratively may increase the well-being of the workplace community as well. 

To enable fluent collaboration, it is important to identify the key stakeholders involved in curriculum development and their relationships: who needs to be included in the development process and how. Additionally, it is beneficial to reflect on your community’s development process, practices, and structures: do we have jointly agreed practices for co-development or is there a need to create new structures? Do we recognize the phases of the curriculum development process in the same way?

Below, you will find:

• A downloadable working template to help you evaluate and analyze the collaborative relationships involved in curriculum development and identify needs for improvement in collaboration. The tool includes instructions and an evaluation matrix.
• A downloadable working template to help identify your program’s practices and key stakeholders, as well as highlight what is working and what needs improvement. Additionally, several key perspectives for discussion are listed for support.
• Other useful pages on aalto.fi, where you can find more information about aligned teaching and the curriculum design practices at Aalto University.

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Stages of curriculum development

Curriculum development consists of four identifiable stages that are implemented over the curriculum period’s two-year span. The development may be seen as a continuing work in progress, for development of the next new curriculum may begin immediately after the publication of the current one. The stages may be adapted according to the needs of the degree programme or major. 

Stages of curriculum development:

1. Assessment of the programme and its curriculum
2. Identifying and setting the development goals
3. Developing of curriculum alignment
4. Implementation of teaching and learning

1. Assessment of the programme and its curriculum

Curriculum development starts with a comprehensive knowledge-based self-evaluation of the programme and its curriculum.

The curriculum’s success in different areas is assessed in the self-evaluation. The self-evaluation is based on feedback and statistical data which, together with input from the teaching community, stakeholders and students, create a foundation for understanding the current state of the programme. 

Aalto University takes part in national and international evaluations, audits and benchmarking activities, and regularly self-evaluates its own planning and implementation processes in the areas of teaching and learning. In addition, Aalto monitors its students’ academic progress, graduation and employment, and collects feedback from students during the time of their studies as well as feedback from employers and graduates on the quality of Aalto's education and the competencies Aalto graduates have acquired.

The assessment of the programme and its curriculum takes place in the following stages: 

A) Defining the critical areas (key questions) to be assessed: what do we wish to know about? Do we want to evaluate the purpose and objectives of the program, its attractiveness, the student experience, consistency, or shared practices?

These self-evaluation questions below can help you to analyse different areas of the programme and its curriculum. First you need to identify and choose your key questionsfor performing the evaluation. 

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B) Collection and analysis of the relevant information: what kind of information and data are needed to conduct the assessment, and who is important to include in the discussion about the data? This preliminary analysis is important so that assessment discussions with the community and stakeholders may limit the amount of data presented and focus on the essential points.

Below, you will find:

• A downloadable documentation template for identifying and combining key questions, data, and stakeholders. The template helps structure observations and discussions related to assessment planning: what information and data are needed, and who should be involved in carrying out the assessment. The template can be customized to suit your needs.
• Other useful pages on aalto.fi, where you can find more information about what kind of data is available and how it can be used in educational development.
   

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C) Building a shared understanding of the current state of the programme in the assessment workshops, based on analysis of the feedback and statistical data: through which methods can we discuss the findings of the self-assessment and build a shared understanding of the programme's current state?

Below, you will find:

• A workshop model for building a shared understanding of the program with your team. This workshop template supports you in planning your own workshop or session. The model helps you to draft the structure and implementation of the discussion, and you can customize the framework to suit your needs.
• A template for documenting the discussion held during the workshop. Clear documentation supports the recollection of agreed-upon matters even later on.

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2. Identifying and setting development goals

Curriculum development goals are identified and set based on a curriculum assessment that has been carried out. 

The goals are defined on the basis of analysing assessment data with teaching staff, students and stakeholders. Setting the development goals focuses on synchronisation and prioritisation of internal and external aims, drawing up a concrete short-term and long-term action plan, and monitoring the plan’s implementation. 

First the central areas for development need to be identified and prioritised: what kinds of development goals can be identified on the basis of the assessment? What are the programme’s own development goals, and what kinds of shared goals of the university or the school must be taken into account? How may the internal and external goals be synchronised? What is important to develop immediately and what may be developed over the long range? 

Next, a development plan will be created, in which clear goals and actions for development are defined, and responsibilities, a timeline, and if necessary, a follow-up meeting are agreed upon. It is also important to agree on how to communicate about the development work: what information and feedback the decisions are based on.

Below, you will find:

• A workshop template for building a shared understanding of the program's development goals with your team. This workshop template supports you in planning your own workshop or session. The model helps you draft the structure and implementation of the discussion, and you can customize the framework to suit your needs.
• A downloadable documentation template for identifying, listing, and prioritizing various development needs.
• A downloadable action-plan template. The model can be adjusted to fit your team’s needs. Please note that it is important to create a plan for both short-term and long-term development. Documentation supports tracking the progress of development.
• A link to the aalto.fi page that describes the university-level curriculum development goals.

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3. Developing curriculum alignment

Educational alignment refers to a state of cohesion and consistency between the intended learning outcomes and content of teaching, the assessment methods, and the study climate. Alignment may be viewed as alignment between different courses, or between a planned course and its specific implementation. Alignment may also be viewed at the level of the curriculum as a whole. 

Alignment between the level of the degree and the whole programme is also significant for course alignment: in a well-planned, cohesive degree programme, students develop competencies in a logical progression, deepening their previous learning while avoiding excessive repetition. An example of this is when new skills are adapted and put into practice only after the student has been introduced and made familiar with the subject through previous studies. 

Curriculum alignment is developed through the following stages: 

1. Building a shared understanding about the programme’s purpose and the primary competence produced by the degree What are the essential skills and knowledge? What kind of professional identity as an expert does the graduating student have?
2. Development of programme intended learning outcomes to match the shared understanding built in the previous stage. What is the student is expected to know, understand and be able to do after completing the degree programme? Intended learning outcomes consist of the substantive content of skills and knowledge specific to the field, as well as other specialist or professional competency aims required in working life (generic know-how).
3. Development of degree requirements What study modules compose the student’s degree? A degree with clear structure smooths the way for starting and progressing through studies, helping students to complete their degrees within the target time. Degree requirement design is guided by the degree structure set forth in the degree regulations.
4. Planning course alignment for timely study progress Do courses proceed logically and have their study and assessment methods been examined from the perspective of the student’s study load? Viewing this at the programme level also helps to ensure that students are introduced to learning tools (such as software) at the right time in their studies. It is also important to prevent courses from being scheduled on top of one another so that students can make steady progress in their studies.
5. Being aware of changes in programme resourcing

Below, you will find:

• Other useful aalto.fi pages related to the alignment of teaching, where you can find more information about the methods through which alignment can be developed and built collaboratively with the teaching community.

4. Implementation of teaching and learning

Aalto’s way of working is based on the PDCA cycle (±Ê±ô²¹²Ô–D´Ç–C³ó±ð³¦°ì–A³¦³Ù). After the curriculum is published and teaching has begun, the process of continual development proceeds by promoting a teaching culture that encourages feedback and interactivity.

Feedback is an instrument whereby teachers can strengthen their own interaction with students and assess and improve their own work and work outcomes. 

While teaching and learning is occurring, teaching can be developed through the following stages: 

1. By soliciting feedback before studies begin, teachers can adjust their teaching for the course before it starts. Feedback before a course can be collected by means of pre-class assignments or various kinds of questionnaires (using Presemo, Zoom poll or MyCourses tools).
2. Feedback obtained during a course allows the teaching to be fine-tuned while the course is ongoing. Feedback during a course can be obtained by assigning learning tasks, group discussion, feedback groups or various kinds of questionnaires (using Presemo, Zoom poll or MyCourses tools).
3. When a course implementation ends, collects feedback automatically on it through the electronic system. The course teacher then analyses and reflects on the feedback for planning possible further improvements to the course. Peer discussions on the feedback and actions to improve a course facilitate its development. 

Below, you will find:

• Other useful aalto.fi pages related to feedback, where you can find more information about the methods through which you can collect feedback and how it can be utilized in educational development.

Pedagogical training to support curriculum development

Aalto University’s Teacher Services offer pedagogical courses to support the pedagogical skills of the teaching staff.

Curriculum Development course (3 ECTS)is focused on curriculum development and is intended for all active teaching staff members who are involved in the development of broader teaching units, such as programmes, majors, or minors.

In the course, you will become familiar with the stages and methods of curriculum development described on this page and participate as part of your group in developing a current theme for your programme/major. The development undertaken during the course may relate to, for example, the renewal of the curriculum's objectives, content, or alignment. The course also provides an excellent opportunity to learn about the development work occurring in other programme's and to share best practices.

In the Course Design course (5 ECTS), you will work on one of your own courses. During the course, you will conduct an analysis of the current state of your own course from the perspective of coherent course design and draft a plan for the course’s development.

Information about course offerings and registration is published on the main page for pedagogical training.