Content area
Full text
For a credible and valid educational experience, make sure these three key elements are aligned
The goal of an instructor is to provide a credible and valid educational experience. Curriculum matching is the hallmark of any sound education program. The three components of such a program that must match are the learning objectives, teaching content/methods and testing mechanism. If they do not match, the desired outcomes are unclear, the learning process becomes arbitrary, and the test is unfair and invalid. Only by aligning all three components of the curriculum can an instructor provide students with a credible, valid educational experience.
The matching process begins by designing relevant objectives and planning lessons so the course content and final exam match as closely as possible. This article provides guidance for curriculum matching using a one-hour online on-demand tutorial on asthma as an example. This example can be readily adapted for other topics and delivery models.
A typical curriculum contains three main components: learning objectives (deciding your destination), teaching content and activities (the roadmap to get where you want to go) and a testing mechanism (assessing whether you reached your destination). Each of these components has two basic rules, provided under each component's subheading.
Learning Objectives
The use of learning objectives, also known as performance objectives, is crucial because they clearly state the desired outcome of instruction. They are the blueprint from which to design specific teaching strategies. There are two basic rules for writing learning objectives:
1. Identify the subtopics of the lesson and write one objective for each subtopic.
The number of objectives must be practical and achievable. For a one-hour class, 3-5 subtopics would be appropriate (see Table 1).
2. Learning objectives must clearly state what the participant should be able to do at the end of the session.
Performance terms are easily measurable and include action verbs such as describe, explain, perform, state, demonstrate, perform, apply and list. Avoid vague terms that are difficult to measure, such as know,...