Curriculum Design with a SME

In the previous post I wrote about working with a client/subject matter expert (SME) to support her in structuring her training material using Gagne's framework. When I showed her my proposed draft of her material laid out according to this framework she asked me, "How did you get here? I know you used the Gagne curriculum template, but what was your process?"
What a great question! Here was an opportunity to deconstruct what I do for the purpose of helping someone new to instructional design get started.

Earlier posts have addressed the need for a course outcome guide after taking stakeholders through a process to elicit outcomes, skills and concepts for a training or curriculum. The process that follows assumes those things have happened and now it is time to come up with a curriculum or training outline that covers the elements listed in the course outcome guide while incorporating the subject material provided by the stakeholders.

Here is the process I use to get to the stage of having a draft of a curriculum or training outline for someone to look at. I do two things simultaneously; or more accurately, I work back and forth between two processes. I review all the subject material, writing down key concepts or skills; 1 per sticky note. I randomly attach these sticky notes to a large table top, or better yet, a wall. As I do this, a big picture of what this training or curriculum is becoming, emerges. 

In addition to my sticky notes, I also begin to sketch a diagram or picture metaphor to represent the concepts and skills from a macro level, that is, how they fit together as a whole, looking for natural patterns and a logical flow to the material. This resulting diagram or drawing is a graphic organizer, a way to visually depict the big picture overview of a training or curriculum. If I easily see a metaphorical representation; e.g. the 18-or-so-year journey of raising children is like being on a highway with signs and guard rails; then I sketch a picture metaphor rather than a diagram. A metaphor or a diagram can both work as graphic organizers; one-page big pictures that overview and organize the content of the training or curriculum.

Graphic organizers such as these have been show in the literature to contribute to student learning. They help students relate the unknown to something familiar, and they also give the whole before providing the details of the parts. Here are a couple of examples. This one uses a house to represent the components of a healthy partner relationship and is more metaphorical. I designed it as part of a healthy partner curriculum to give the big picture view of what would be covered throughout the course. This is what it looks like coming back from the graphic designer. If you are interested in the curriculum you can contact Children's Justice Alliance, the client for whom I created it. The second one is a diagram to overview a consultative model of supervision: what supervisors do in supervision and how they conduct that supervision with their case managers. I designed it for a client who wants an independent study manual (in lieu of face-to-face training) for supervisors of case managers. This second one is in the sketch stage and has not yet experienced the delft and artistic hand of a graphic designer, but no worries, I'm sending it off to her today!

Once I have a pretty good idea of how I want to visually represent the training or curriculum, I create a story, of sorts, that allows me to tell the big picture overview in a logical sequence. I do this by moving the sticky notes around into columns, by category. For example, if I have why, what, and how categories for a particular topic, all the sticky notes that are about the "why" of the topic go in a column, in order, from top to bottom, in a logical sequence. Next, all the "what" of the topic goes in another column, also in a logical order, from simple to more complex. Finally, all of the "how" sticky notes form a third column, in order from simple to more complex. When clients tell me after reading through a curriculum I have developed for them, "Wow, it reads like an adventure story," I know I have been successful in creating a coherent narrative of their subject matter from what they've given me.

Then I adjust my picture or diagram, simplifying language and using the same term for a particular topic, skill or important point across the curriculum or training. Many times SMEs who have done something for 30 years have a variety of ways of saying the same thing. While that is rich expertise that demonstrates the subtleties of their professional practice, for the purposes of teaching someone new, it is good to select the SME's favorite/most inclusive way of saying something and standardizing it across the training. Subtleties can come later.

I adjust back and forth between my columns and my visual representation until they are consistent. This allows me to create a high level (macro, bird's eye view) of the content in plain talk.

An important part of this process is stepping away from the sticky notes and drawings and allowing my mind to percolate on them without my constant attention. This means I go about other business and just allow myself to walk by that wall with those artifacts several times, while doing more mundane tasks. Invariably something connects for me when I pass by or when I'm doing something more routine that stops me in my tracks. At that point I can run back to the wall, make adjustments in either the sticky note order or the diagram. When I have it, I know it. The two are consistent and complementary. Then, I write up the curriculum outline, using Gagne's framework, scan the drawing and send both off to my client for review. We set up a time in person to talk through the training outline and the drawing and make pencil and paper edits on hard copies. Then off I go to write the curriculum or training (if that's what I've been hired to do) or off they go to put their training together, using me for review and feedback as they build their curriculum.

Gagne's template is fabulous, a course outcome guide is critical, and gathering stakeholder input is a must...but it all must be accompanied by actually getting an outline down on paper and being able to translate it to someone else. The above process, is one way that has worked really well for me, over and over again.