Educational program description grid

The grid should help you structure a description of an educational program, e.g. as a planning aid. You can add other criteria or adapt it to your context.

Definition: "Environment" describes the complete learning environment for a given program, e.g. a degree program, a continuous training certificate, an isolated course. It includes learning objectives, technical infrastructure, pedagogic strategy, learner evaluation, evaluation etc.

The grid

< Short name of the project >

Items	Project description
Meta Data
Project name
Authors of this document
Author information
Status of the document (Version + date, draft, etc.)
Name of the project
Structural and organizational and economic aspects
Can you describe the history of the project ? When was it created and why?
In which structure is the project located? what dependencies with respect to these structures in terms of constraints, dynamics, etc.? A university, an inter-university network? Are there partnerships with actors from the economic and social world? Does the project rely on existing formal or non-formal, face-to-face or remote networks?
Who do you think are all the actors involved? What are their tasks, functions, roles? Do we have a clear definition of each of these roles and tasks? How are the relations between the different actors organised? Do these actors all work in the same structure? If not, in which structures? Can you provide a project organization chart and number of people by category?
How is the program managed? By whom? Can you provide an organigram ?
Financial aspects: What are the financing methods? What is its feasibility? is the project a response to market demands? What are the additional costs induced by the project (if it extends or transforms a current project) ? What is the breakdown between fixed and variable costs? Can the project ultimately be self-financing? If so, in what proportion?
Individual variables What are the major characteristics of the different actors, both individually and as a group? Are their expectations, needs, designs and project supported?
Certification What type of certification (or not) is used ?
Pedagogical aspects
Is there a vision statement ? Can you describe it ? Can you summarize it or reproduce it ?
What are the main learning objectives at the program level ? List the items Are they related to a vision statement ?
What is the type of program ? E.g. informal continuous training, formal continuous training, master program,
Is there as preferred pedagogic strategy, instructional design model (or least a preferred type of educational scenario) ? Or several ? E.g. Direct instruction, problem-based learning, project-based learning
Is there a preferred learning theory ? Or several ? E.g. Cognitivsm
Do learners have the opportunity to negotiate their training path?
How is the training organized over time? where is the training held?
What are the human and material resources used? E.g. teachers, tutors, advisors Are they regular staff or adjuncts / temporary. Where do they come from?
What types of learning materials exist ? Textbooks, online textbooks, online hypertext, video, multimedia presentations, interactive multimedia, .... Which are open ? Are textbook materials available in several formats, e.g. for offline reading
What is the nature of the tasks required from the learners? Assignements Other participation Classes, ....
Are learning activities defined as coherent scenarios ? If so, are you using some king of design language or templates/forms ?
How is collaborative work integrated into the system? Is group work present? Are there collective activities
How is learning assessed? If yes, are there general guidelines ? What is used in different classes ?
What type of learner support exists for courses ? (see also tutoring structure) Help Forums ? Guidelines ? On-boarding activities ? Community tools ? Instant messaging ?
What activities are carried out in presence and remotely?
What are the particularities related to the practices and culture of the particular subject areas of the program ? Tools, procedures, epistemologies, didactics?
Learning environment
List of the technical components (servers) and their version (E.g. Moodle 4.0, Mediawiki 1.35)
What features are used? These are of course related to pedagogic choice. spaces for communication and collaboration, resource tools; support tools for various types of activities (debates, projects, case studies, research, etc.); group work support tools; support tools for the active participation of learners (social presence, informal communication); reflexivity support tools.
What place is reserved for distance and how does this relate to presence? What are the different constraints due to organizational hybridization? What is the share of pedagogical and non-pedagogical tasks in the environment? How is the collaboration and division of labor between the actors organized?
Is there a formal tutoring structure and activities ? Is there a teacher ? If so, does he engage in tutoring and how much Are there tutors ? How much man power / participant ? Other ?
Quality assessment, innovation and change management
Is there a global quality assessment and innovation strategy ?
Is internal program regulation (self-evaluation and action) formally provided for? How does it happen? According to what criteria? Is there a quality assessment manual ? What changes were already made in the past ?
Who participates in quality assessment cycles, in innovation and change processes ? Do learners participate ? Faculty Quality officer(s) External agency Other ?
How do you see the consistency (convergence) between objectives, means implemented through the environment, design of the environment and evaluation criteria? Also called alignment
How are the interactions between the different actors taken into account? Are there bodies where the program (or elements of it) are discussed Who takes decisions ?
Political, cultural and ideological aspects
Is the project wanted or supported by the political authorities? Institutional? Managers of your companies? In what way? Is it part of an explicit policy? Does it respond to a mandate emanating directly from political power?
Cultural factors Are there social or cultural practices that constrain program design ? What socio-linguistic practices does the program have to consider ?
Regulatory environment What are the factors that could enable or hinder program development and implementation ?
What values ​​does the environment promote? what type of knowledge is promoted by the environment? What type of citizen do we want to form?
<add specific HEiE variables here>
To conclude…
How would you qualify your system and its role in your professional context? Does it correspond to what is being done in this context? Is it innovative? If so, in what aspects? What aspects are innovative for you in your role?