ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes how individual programs and their courses come into being through a curriculum-development process, resulting in a full program of required and elective courses that fulfills big-picture objectives from the student to the department to the institution. An institution’s entire portfolio of programs can be thought of as a curriculum as much as an individual major or minor program in a department or school. “The purpose of the curriculum is to provide a set of experiences that will ensure that each student’s development occurs in an orderly, balanced, and thorough fashion. The development of individual courses for a curriculum is important to address as a matter of “instructional design.” Very broadly speaking, the predominant matters of education concern purpose, curriculum, teachers’ and students’ roles, learning environment, and measurements of teaching and learning effectiveness. Meeting learning objectives through well-designed learning objects is next in the design phase.
