Curriculum Development
In this section, we will take a look at how our curriculum is built and the curriculum collaboration process.
Curriculum Workflows & Platform
All of our curriculum and related content are hosted and managed in a structure that is very similar to how software is collaborated on in the open-source world. In particular, the curriculum and almost all of our technical content:
Source lives in Github repositories filled with folders and files that comprise the course
Works like any code repo with issues, pull-requests, and commit history
Content is developed using an enhanced markdown formatting language
Easily re-use snippets of content to avoid content duplication
Code syntax highlighting, expandable text blocks, alert boxes, and many other features
Full support for fully dynamic logic and conditionals and code snippets within the course content
Full support for multiple course variations (with the same content being packaged in different ways)
Special dynamic tag system enables dynamic insertion of data, dates, information seamlessly drawing from the cohort, location, user, and other details of the person viewing the course.
Support for custom downloadable files which can be easily hosted and linked to
Support for markdown-powered slide presentations using reveal.js
Approach Benefits
Through our approach, we can use the same best-practice collaboration workflows pulled from software and easily:
Manage multiple courses in parallel with different applications and start/end dates
Manage version control and tracking changes (branches on Github)
Collaborate on changes with pull requests, code reviews, and merges
Full support for coding and dynamic data right within the course content pages
Integrated assignment and project grading modules
Real-time status reports for students available directly on the course system
Course Content Deployment
Curriculum developed using our platform can easily be linked into running classes powered by our linked technical course portal which is powered by these curriculum source packages.
An automated release process ensures that content updates are pushed to the source repository, the content becomes reflected automatically on the course portal to students (when pushed to the master branch)
Courses can be managed entirely from our organizer dashboard for your organization (or through CodePath.org)
Course participants can single-sign-on via Github and access any courses they are enrolled in
Additional Curriculum Assets
In addition, often the markdown course content will link to content on the following third-party services:
Speakerdeck/Google Slides - Slide decks
Youtube - Video content playlists
HackerRank - Coding assessments or quizzes
Content Structure & Orientation
Courses are a combination of certain shared content (introducing the course, explaining how to submit assignments), and then a series of units of content in a carefully designed order. A “unit” is a particular section of the course that a user can focus on. A course is composed of a sequential series of “units”.
For example, a 6-week Android course could be split into six “units”. Each unit comprises the curriculum including technical guides, videos, et al for that one week in the course. In contrast, a 1-week full-time program might have five “units”. In this case, each “unit” might consist of a day.
Diving Deeper into Curriculum Components
Each course curriculum is by design a sequence of units or modules. Within each well-constructed unit or module of content, we have the following pieces:
Unit Overview - An overview for the unit and includes links to relevant pages, external resources, files, videos and other content to be reviewed that week.
Hands-on Lab A hands-on lab for a given unit to be run usually during class time in a lab session. Typically this is a series of challenges/checkpoints to be completed by the student to develop a better understanding of key concepts.
Assignment/Submission - Primary deliverable for a given unit. Typically this is a larger project that ties together the core use cases and concepts for this week. Usually includes a due date, a record video walkthrough, a set of required user stories, and additional optional user stories to extend the project.
Session or Group Activity - group or “pod” activity to be completed during a class session i.e brainstorming app ideas that must be completed during that unit. Anything to complete in class.
Hints and Tips - Hints, tips, troubleshooting, solutions, etc that a student should review before and during the completion of the assignment. Usually developed with a first pass and added to over time as students run into issues.
These units often include assets linked such as:
Slide decks (hosted in markdown, Speakerdeck, or Google Slides)
Topic Videos (hosted on Youtube) - Explaining specific concepts or topics to be used in this unit
Assignment or Lab Videos - Intro videos pertaining to a specific assignment or lab
In addition, there is the following shared content that can be used across all units:
Files - These are arbitrary files that can be linked throughout the course. Sample code, zip files, PDFs, etc belong in here.
Images - These are arbitrary images to be displayed within the course templates.
Pages - These are markdown content pages that are not associated to any one unit. These can be linked throughout the course. Usually for submission instructions, student outlines, etc.
Snippets - These are arbitrary files associated with a course that should not be displayed within the course structure. This is typically for standalone content associated with a course such as pre-work for applicants, course outlines, or other content not associated with a particular unit.
Curriculum Philosophies
Refer to our guiding principles and measuring quality pages for more insights into our program design philosophies.
Think of your course starting with an application and human-centric approach
Don’t think of your course as teaching a topic, or teaching concepts. Start by asking yourself three questions:
Who is my specific audience, and what do they know or care about already coming into this class?
What do my target students specifically not know how to do yet that they’ll need to know to succeed?
What do I specifically want to enable my audience to be able to build or bring into digital reality?
Anchor everything to these three questions above, and return to them again and again. Read this guide on application-centered curriculum design here.
Diving Deeper into Developing Curriculum
For a deeper look at the actual process for developing a new curriculum in association with CodePath, check out our New Curriculum Development Map. In that document, we cover many more details about the key stakeholders, contractors, and the stages of rolling out a new course. This includes:
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