In higher education, the need for effective, efficient, valued and well-liked courses is growing. More students must pursue higher education in a shorter period, and using ICT in education requires well-designed courses.
Most teachers in higher education must develop their own courses or modules. There are no ‘methods’ in secondary education. Sometimes, teachers will use the design of courses or modules designed by colleagues. They follow the didactic design step by step with minor changes in exercises or contents. Or they adapt the didactical design to their specific context.
But what do you do if you are not satisfied with your course design or when the didactical approach in a curriculum is changed and there are no clear-cut and easy-to-use examples?
Tools for fast and efficient course (re)design
This website is about the book The Art and Craft of Course Design written by Tony Earl. He wrote this unique book in 1987.
Why do we think publishing his book on the Internet is meaningful?
The book reflects Tony Earl’s ideas about course design. He was not a conventional education scientist. He used scientific results but added concepts, models and heuristics to enable a systematic and design-oriented approach. He forced you to think outside the box with the help of some crazy ideas like the Think Tank, the Four Referents, the Response Environment Organizer (REO), and the Melody of a Course. His tools stimulate systematic and creative thinking.
Colleagues considered Tony Earl to be an excellent teacher and designer of instruction. In his workshops and, finally, in his book, he explains how he did the job.
One of the reviewers of Tony’s book at the time of publishing gave this clear remark:
‘You need skills like formulation of learning objectives and making a task analysis, but you should also be able to use your imagination and intuition. This focus on art is exceptional and often missing in course design.‘ The reviewer continues with the remark that the process, instruments, and skills for craftsmanship reflect the creativity and intuition that are given a place in design. Concepts like art, intuition and imagination are not often used in instructional design theories. But in course design, these concepts are fundamental.’
So…
We learned from him how to design a higher education course, which worked. We cannot copy him, but he offers us some excellent ideas for a course’s fast and efficient (re)design. We strongly believe that these ideas will help teachers to (re)design courses that fit modern ideas about higher education and also do their views on good higher education.
July 2014, Jan Nedermeijer, Ans Ronduite and Pierre van Eyl. Contact: jannedermeijer@hotmail.com
Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Please refer to Tony Earl.
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Hello Tony,
I was one of the stduents from the Chemica SubFacultaty, who had the pleasure of teaching by Tony. during the seventies in Utrecht (O&O van O, Maliebaan 5!)
Just on this moment i wie my memories on REO’s and so on en is was vey surprises that is see ,tje Common website with all your memories on Course-making.
I can tell you more, but i do’n’t know: how are you?
Hello Tony,
I was one of the stduents from the Chemica SubFacultaty, who had the pleasure of teaching by Tony. during the seventies in Utrecht (O&O van O, Maliebaan 5!)
Just on this moment i wie my memories on REO’s and so on en is was vey surprises that is see ,tje Common website with all your memories on Course-making.
I can tell you more, but i do’n’t know: how are you?
Hallo Jan,
Hallo Jan,
We kennen elkaar van de scheikunde faculteit. Helaas is Tony een aantal jaren geleden overleden. Hij was nog steed bezig zijn ideeen over design van onderwijs uit te werken. Pierre van Eyl, Ans Ronduite en ik hadden regelmatig contact met Tony. We vonden dat het boek van Tony niet moest verdwijnen. Vandaar dat we een website ervan gemaakt hebben.
Overweging is ook dat het ontwerpen van onderwijs vaker in de literatuur gebruikt wordt, maar niet zoal Tony dat deed.
Alles goed met je?
Groeten Jan Nedermeijer
SORRY FOR THE BAD ENGLISH, IT WAS DIFFICULT TO SEE MY COMMENT.
HOPE YOU ARE IN GOOD HEALTH
JAN
Hi there,
I recently came across your website on tonyearl.curriculumdesignhe.eu and found it very interesting. I was curious, have you ever considered creating an eBook out of your website content?
There are tools available, that allow you to easily convert website content into a well-designed eBook. This could be a great way to repurpose your existing content and potentially reach a new audience.
Of course, I understand this might not be something you’re interested in, but I just wanted to share the possibility!
Anyway, here is the tool I had in mind. It’s only $16.95 so worth checking out:
https://furtherinfo.org/zek0
Best regards,
Dessie