Modular Curriculum Design Using Personal Learning Plans and Reusable Learning Components

Abstract

University-based education is facing direct competition from for-profit corporations over the lucrative lifetime-learning market. This is occurring primarily because universities have not adapted to advances in technology and changes in the educational needs of students. To correct this problem, a new curriculum solution is proposed. This solution is loosely based upon the model curricula generated by professional organizations. The solution utilizes personal learning plans tied to a global learning schema. The end result is a very flexible curriculum delivery model that effectively utilizes modern technology and is potentially superior to any offered by commercial education providers. The future of traditional university-based education is at a crossroads. In one scenario, universities embrace modern technology and customer needs to devise programs that meet the requirements of learners in the new millennium. In another potential scenario, the academy continues to deliver education as it has for the last 800 years and slowly loses relevance until it becomes a quaint institution devoid of any real social impact. This crossroads has materialized at this time due to several factors. These include the development of the Internet, the rapid creation of new knowledge in technical fields, the changing demographics of an aging population, and the adherence to traditional curriculum design and delivery by universities. Of these factors, the only one under the direct control of the academy is the curricula and programs offered by universities. Consequently, this paper will propose a curriculum solution designed to create flexible programs to ensure that the university continues to be a viable institution well into the future. The curriculum offered by most institutions of higher education is based upon a very traditional paradigm. This paradigm requires that knowledge be divided into uniform, semester-sized chucks that are delivered by an instructor to an audience of students who are physically present when the lecture takes place. These chunks are offered at prescribed times during the year and must be taken as an indivisible unit in a specific sequence in order to complete the educational program. While this model may have been satisfactory for generations, it is overly restrictive and does not take modern technology advances into account. Further, it does not consider the needs of the contemporary educational customer. Because of this, innovative change is needed. The motivation for this call to modernize is not based upon the notion that change for its own