What does a course programme cover?
Adaptability
« Course contents and programmes » are not developed by following one rigid guideline.
Whether you are you creating a teaching sequence or a whole course, the degree of specific detail required while working toward one goal or another and teaching a particular student profile rather than another, means that adaptability is essential.
The documents presenting the programme may be in the form of a leaflet or a student guide booklet or a complete official description with details of every aspect from professional partners to the complete course programme and the type and value of qualification awarded on successfully completing the course which can be used by the teaching staff, educational advisors and certifying authority.
Example : Examples: Look here for examples:
Web presentation: Animal Science – Master's programme
Student Guide Booklet (28p): Ingénieur SAADS. Option Industrie Agroalimentaire au Sud
Course Description (53p): BTS Sciences et techniques des aliments
Note :
In higher education, course description according to skills is becoming more popular for several reasons:
To equate European course content for international student exchanges
To compose a list of professional skills acquired while working (Répertoire National des Certifications Professionnelles (RNCP) in France) to obtain a certificate of validation guaranteeing a level of ability. (Validation des Acquis de l'Expérience (VAE) in France)
To render an establishment more visible to improve notoriety. Communication can be designed to fit demand by highlighting career prospects etc...
Reminder :
"The main goal of a programme is to give a description of the course content. It is an explanation of the topics dealt with and how they are organised in the timetable. This document helps coordination between the students and the teaching staff and presents clearly how a teaching sequence fits into the global teaching content. The European Bologne reform framework makes the comparison of university programmes accessible and an increasing number of European universities are making their programmes visible."
The constituting elements of a training programme
If we consider the global architecture of a Masters course, for example, it could be defined according to:
The targeted career and required professional skills
The level of qualification and the number of required ECTS credits
The timetable which is often set to fulfil academic requirements: number of hours, distribution of subject matter, practical work, classwork, work placements or internships and personal work.
Prerequisites
Course content, defined according to:
defined goals ;
the balance between professionalising and specialising content ;
division into teaching modules (which is often suited to life-long learning) or spread over the course
Teaching methods: globally, indicate whether the methods are active or passive or a mixture of both, if there is classwork or online work, etc. All these decisions have been made earlier on. We will come back to these points shortly.
Practical information: where and when the classes are being held
Evaluation
