Navigating an enquiry based curriculum using a curriculum knowledgebase
Tim Cappelli, Hilary Dexter
University of Manchester, United Kingdom
Background: This paper studies the work done in developing a curriculum mapping knowledgebase for an undergraduate medical programme at a major university. This knowledgebase will allow tutors, students and administrators to find individual elements of the curriculum and plot their connections to other related elements. This will allow users to easily update PBL cases, review Intended Learning Outcomes or identify gaps in assessment. The paper will highlight the issues of curriculum administration and development of a complex enquiry-based curriculum. Enquiry or Problem based curricular are typified by the complexity of the interrelationships between the component parts of the programme. Such curricula typically consist of problem-based scenarios, underlying knowledge, skillsets, learning activities, assessments, intended learning outcomes (ILOs) and various other elements which need to be co-ordinated, connected and maintained in order for the programme to function.Approach Used: The development approach used in producing the curriculum knowledgebase involved the use of a rapid application model that fully involved end users in the development process. Interviews with domain experts, workshops with users and validation workshops with other medical schools provided the project with a generic domain map for enquiry based curricular. The development phase then focused on creation of an ontology based knowledgebase alongside a user interface.Results of work: The work has resulted in a domain map and ontology for enquiry based programmes that we believe is generalisable to any subject or context. This provides the basis for a customisable knowledgebase that may be contextualised for any institution. This knowledgebase is interfaced with a dual-purpose UI that provides uses with a route-based navigation tool to explore the various elements of the programme, alongside a document-based interface that allows users to edit or review key curriculum documents in a co-ordinated approach.Conclusions: The project is limited in its application to one subject and evaluation of the work through Use Test Cases and user feedback is still at an early stage. However, although the tool still requires further development, indications show enormous potential for the tool in helping intuitions plan and maintain complex curricular.no references included