Module 4 -

Making It Personal - Design Your Own Design Model

Why Use a Curriculum Design Model?

We’ve seen that most teachers at some point need to develop some instruction to cover topics not covered in the adopted textbooks or school materials. Developing curriculum can be complicated. If you end up creating a large unit, having an instructional design model to work from can help you avoid forgetting something. Following a structured design model will ensure that you are creating a “complete” set of materials. Having a model to refer to will make sure you can get started on the task.

Develop Your Own Definition of Curriculum Design and Instructional Design

Assignment #2

A very helpful exercise here is to try to define what curriculum design and instructional design are, in your own words, as informed by your own experience. If you search the web for a phrase such as “principles of curriculum design” you will find no general agreement as to what the principles of curriculum design are! If you examine three or four definitions, you will quickly decide that the best way to have a ready definition of curriculum design is to develop your own. I recommend doing this. It will only take 10 minutes, but you will have a much clearer idea after. It is much easier to find a workable definition of Instructional Design.

Develop Your Own Customized Model of Curriculum Design.

Assignment #3

The absolutely best way of using an instructional design model is to have one that you are very comfortable and familiar with. We have been introduced to a number of different models here.

Your assignment here is to adopt and describe a model of curriculum/instructional design that you can use for your own purposes. The purpose is that you take away with you a complete structured design model. This model can be one you have come across in this course, one you invented for yourself, or a combination of the two (a customized version of an existing model). List the steps of your model and describe briefly what happens at each step. Double check to make sure that your model is “complete” by comparing it to ADDIE.

This site (we've already seen another part of it) contains many links to other design models. This site has comparing design models on a slide show format.

  One simplification in this course is the use of “instructional design” and “curriculum design” interchangeably. For an introductory level course, this is a justifiable step to take. The terms really can be differentiated and clarified. One way to think of a difference is to imagine that in the course of designing curriculum, you will design the instructional methods and strategies. Here, then, instructional design is considered a part of curriculum design.
Autumn 26, 2008