Curriculum Design and Development
The content on this page has been kindly contributed by Dr. Martin Compton, Kings College London (KCL).
Artificial intelligence is poised to significantly influence many aspects of our work. One aspect that is both exciting and challenging will be changes to the ways in which we design curricula and the associated assessments. We rightly prioritise rigour, but this can often lead to complex systems for creating or modifying our curricula. The swift pace of technological advancements requires a more agile approach to curriculum development that we will likely need to be open to and evolve collectively as we move forward. Likewise, what we actually teach, how students learn and how they are assessed will also change.
Artificial Intelligence is therefore set to reshape curriculum design and development in two fundamental ways:
1. Transformation in Curriculum Design and Development Processes
AI has the potential to revolutionise the methods and processes of curriculum design. It may take time but it is likely we will find ways to automate and enhance efficiency, with AI helping to collate and interpret trends in our cohorts and in wider society. This includes utilising AI for tasks like generating educational content, streamlining administrative processes, and offering data-driven insights to inform curriculum improvements. Even in the short term, it is worth exploring ways in which AI can support time-consuming and troublesome but fundamental aspects of curriculum design processes such as articulating programme and module level outcomes, summarising module content or generating draft rubrics.
2. Content and Focus of Curriculum
Whilst the changes to the ways in which do curriculum design will evolve over time, we need to consider right now how what changes we may need to consider to the content of our curricula consequent of these recent advances.
- AI as Subject Matter: Curricula are increasingly including AI as a topic of study, given its growing importance across all fields. This involves educating students about AI technologies, their applications, and the underlying principles that drive them.
- AI’s Societal Impact: Understanding the broader implications of AI in society is becoming a crucial element of curricula. This includes the ethical, legal, and social dimensions of AI deployment. Also fundamentally is the ways in which AI is influencing the jobs and other roles our curricula are preparing students for.
- AI in Pedagogy: AI is likely to transform many aspects of teaching, learning, and assessment methodologies. It can support personalised learning paths, be used to support academic skills, be utilised as tutor (or tutorial support), and aid in the fair and efficient evaluation of student work. All of this comes with implications to the ways in which we develop our programmes and design assessments.
In essence, AI is both a tool for enhancing the efficiency of curriculum development and a subject that is becoming integral to the curriculum itself, reflecting its pervasive role in society and the necessity for AI literacy in higher education and wider society.
