Creating Curriculum for the Workplace: The Process

Researching, designing, and preparing curriculum for workplace training is a creative process that can be broken down into some simple steps:

What subject is going to be taught? Usually the subject matter is based on organizational goals or mission, an area needing improvement, developing employee skills or a new process or procedure that needs to be conveyed.

Immersion in the subject area Do research to find books, articles, software, information, and other curriculum that may be available on the subject. What approaches did others use to teach the subject?

Evaluate research materials How does the research information fit into the organizational goals? Does it successfully cover the necessary areas? Is a totally new approach called for?

Curriculum development Formulate a working outline for the presentation. Assess what format or class structure will work best for the type of material. How much time is needed to cover the material? How much time do participants have available? Plan interactive activities for the group or for individual students. Which learning styles will be concentrated on?

Materials development What types of handouts or instructional aids would enhance learning process? Slides? Booklets? Handouts?

Evaluation How will the effectiveness of the training be evaluated? Survey instrument? Testing? Pre or post workshop evaluation? Will the effectiveness be evaluated in the future to see if retained or used in workplace? What kind of return on investment does training provide to the organization? What level of evaluation will be used?

Retrain or update information As necessary, as indicated by evaluation process. Does subject need to be revisited? Have behaviors changed? Are concepts taught being used?