Curriculum design change of the industrial engineering BA program

Abstract

Higher education institutions are complex adaptive systems that need to respond to environmental pressures in a flexible way in today's dynamically changing environment. Resource dependency theory provides a framework to understand the process of adaption required to meet challenges. Based on the theory this paper introduces a case study presenting curriculum design change of Industrial Engineering BA program at the University of Pannonia, Hungary. The case study followed four steps of curriculum design change: reasons, design and development, teacher preparation and course design, and course evaluation. As a result of external and internal constraints the foreign language education and learning modules of the Industrial Engineering BA program had to be improved in 2009. After almost 3 years of offering a new foreign language introductory course the evaluation of the efficiency became necessary. Results show that learning module change has a positive effect on student activities of foreign language course enrolments and efficiency. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media.