Academic Program Development and Accreditation

Innovation Models for Integrating Accredited and Unaccredited Education

Created byAndrew Sears, Charles McElveen

Last updated 8/2022

English

English [Auto],

What you'll learn

Design courses in Udemy or for an unaccredited organization to be offered for academic credit
Design an effective higher education academic degree or certificate program
Collect stakeholder feedback and conduct online research of similar programs to determine effective program design
Develop program outcomes and an outcome map to courses
Develop values integration for those in Christian higher education, ministry, missions agency or churches providing high-quality unaccredited, semi-accredited and non-formal education
Apply lean startup principles and agile methods to academic program design to adapt to resource-constrained environments
Complete the documentation needed to submit an academic program for review to an accreditor or design programs documentation to support alternative methods to accreditation (in contexts where that is needed)

Course content

8 sections • 21 lectures • 2h 11m total length

Introduction4:44
Gain practical skills in designing accredited academic programs and credit-bearing courses for online and blended learning, with lean startup and agile methods for resource-constrained environments.
Resources for this Course0:12

How to Design Courses in Udemy for Academic Credit8:14
Explore designing Udemy courses for academic credit and accreditation, aligning Udemy courseware with accredited programs, eight-week structures, and portfolio or articulation options.
Proven Unbundling/Rebundilng Models to Get Credit for Unaccredited Courses8:34
Explore unbundling and rebundling through open courseware to assemble for-credit degree paths from unaccredited courses via partnerships, customized programs, and blended learning across certificate and degree options.

Introduction to Academic Program Development and Assessment4:44
Design and assess academic programs for credit and accreditation using lean startup and agile methods, with outcomes mapping, curriculum alignment, and values integration for faith-based contexts.
Academic Program Design Models10:54
Explore how instructional design models like Adi apply to academic programs, contrast waterfall with adaptive and lean startup approaches, and discuss minimum viable product iterations for rapid program design.

Academic Program Needs Analysis and Research14:07
Identify internal and external stakeholder needs and analyze comparable programs to shape an aligned academic program, using scalable methods for large and small institutions.
Academic Program Needs Analysis and Research Materials0:19
Aligning Programs with General Education, Institutional Outcomes and Standards14:31
Develop and align your program outcomes with your institution’s mission, general education outcomes, and external standards through needs analysis, curriculum maps, and accreditation alignment.
Program Needs Analysis and Research

Writing Effective Program Outcomes11:15
After this lecture, students will be able to Identify characteristics of effective learning outcome and use the six levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy and corresponding verbs to develop effective learning outcomes.
Materials: Writing Effective Program Outcomes0:33
Faith Integration in Academic Program Development Part 115:12
Explore faith integration across institutional learning outcomes, program outcomes, and general education. Balance cognitive, effective, and psychomotor domains with rubrics and practicum to address Western bias.
Academic Faith Integration Part 27:33
After this lecture, students will be able to identify what academic faith integration entails and how to begin integrating into course design.
Faith Integration Materials1:05
Developing Program Outcomes

Curriculum Mapping9:34
Explore how curriculum maps link program and course learning outcomes to signature assessments, ensuring alignment, gap identification, and backward design for program improvement.
Materials: Developing Curriculum Maps0:15
Developing Program Assessment Plans5:09
Learn to convert curriculum maps into creditor-friendly program assessment plans using the five-column model, defining mission, outcomes, direct and indirect measures, and results use.
Materials: Developing Program Assessment Plans0:49
Program Outcomes, Curriculum Mapping and Assessment Plans

Requirements

Some experience with developing educational programs
Have a general idea of goals and potential courses that would make up your academic program

Description

This is a project-based course where the finished project will be develop an academic program. Key elements of the course include:

An extensive template for conducting Needs Analysis, Research, Curriculum Mapping Research and Assessment for your program.
Evaluation Rubrics you will use to self-evaluate your program and its courses
How to Design Courses in Udemy for Academic Credit
Proven Unbundling/Rebundilng Models to Get Credit for Unaccredited Courses

By the end of the course, students will have developed materials needed to have their educational program reviewed for credit.

Andrew Sears is the President of City Vision University where we are bringing radically affordable education. I previously co-founded MIT's Internet Telephony Consortium with one of the fathers of the internet (David Clark) focused on disruption in the telecommunications industry. Before spending the past 20 years living with and serving the poor with disruptive educational technologies, Andrew worked as a consultant to Sprint, venture capitalist and internet startups.

Note, because work at Christian higher education institution, I have included some assignments on how to design program to integrate faith. Students that are not interested in these topics are welcome to skip them or just view them as an example of how to design for holistic values integration and apply with your own institutional values.

This course was developed largely as a volunteer-driven project of the Christian Higher Education Innovation Alliance to build the global capacity of higher education to serve the poor and the majority world. We would also love for you to make contributions to improve the course, so if you have any suggested resources, links or other improvements, please let us know. We hope that this can become one of the best free courses available on Instructional Design, but we can only do that with help and feedback of people like you.

Who this course is for:

Udemy course designers that would like to create courses for credit
Educators that would like to get their programs accredited
Department chairs or other designers of accredited degree or certificate programs
Educational program directors at non-accredited institutions wanting their programs to be able to be accepted as transfer credit to accredited institutions
A particular focus will be on Christian educators and/or those serving the poor or in developing countries
Educators interested in developing online or technology
Those who value pragmatism and cost-effectiveness in education

Academic Program Development and Accreditation

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Introduction to Academic Program Development and Accreditation2 lectures • 5min

Innovative Models in Program Design2 lectures • 17min

Introduction to Program Design and Assessment2 lectures • 16min

Academic Program Needs Analysis and Research3 lectures • 29min

Writing Effective Program Outcomes & Faith Integration5 lectures • 36min

Developing Curriculum Maps & Assessment Plans4 lectures • 16min

Developing Program and Course Improvement Processes2 lectures • 8min

Preparing Your Program for Accreditation1 lecture • 1min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: