Designing corporate training and academic coursework involves tailoring educational experiences to the specific needs, goals, and characteristics of distinct learner groups in different contexts. Here are key differences between designing corporate training and academic coursework:

Audience:

• Corporate Training: Targets employees within a specific organization, often with diverse professional backgrounds and varying levels of experience. Training is designed to meet organizational goals and enhance job-related skills.
• Academic Coursework: Targets students pursuing academic degrees. Students typically have a more homogeneous background within a specific discipline, and coursework is structured to meet academic standards and objectives.

Purpose and Goals:

• Corporate Training: Primarily focuses on meeting specific business objectives, such as improving productivity, onboarding new employees, or addressing skill gaps. The emphasis is on practical, job-related skills and immediate application.
• Academic Coursework: Aims to provide a broader and more comprehensive understanding of a subject area. The goals include academic knowledge acquisition, critical thinking, research skills, and preparing students for future careers or advanced academic pursuits.

Context and Relevance:

• Corporate Training: Emphasizes immediate applicability to the workplace. Content is often job-specific, directly relevant to organizational needs, and geared towards solving real-world problems.
• Academic Coursework: Emphasizes academic theory and a broader understanding of the subject. Content may include historical context, theoretical frameworks, and a foundation for future learning and research.

Flexibility and Customization:

• Corporate Training: Often needs to be flexible and customizable to meet the specific needs of the organization, including adapting to industry changes, compliance requirements, or emerging trends.
• Academic Coursework: Follows a more standardized curriculum with less immediate need for customization. Courses are designed to meet academic standards and may undergo periodic review and revision.

Assessment and Evaluation:

• Corporate Training: Focuses on practical assessments and performance metrics tied to job-related tasks. Evaluation methods often include on-the-job assessments, simulations, or measurable outcomes tied to organizational KPIs.
• Academic Coursework: Includes a mix of assessments, such as exams, essays, projects, and presentations, designed to evaluate a student’s comprehension, critical thinking, and ability to apply theoretical knowledge.

Timeline and Pace:

• Corporate Training: Tends to be more time-sensitive, often requiring quick deployment to address immediate needs. Training modules are designed to fit into employees’ work schedules without causing significant disruption.
• Academic Coursework: Follows an academic calendar and is spread over a semester or academic year. Pace is generally more structured, allowing for in-depth exploration of concepts and extended periods for reflection.

Learning Environment:

• Corporate Training: Often delivered through a variety of modalities, including online platforms, workshops, or in-person sessions. May incorporate a blend of synchronous and asynchronous learning.
• Academic Coursework: Typically delivered in a more traditional academic setting, with lectures, seminars, labs, and discussions. The focus may be on face-to-face interactions, but online learning is becoming increasingly common.

Regulatory Compliance:

• Corporate Training: May need to adhere to specific industry regulations, compliance standards, or organizational policies, requiring a focus on meeting legal and regulatory requirements.
• Academic Coursework: Must align with academic standards set by accrediting bodies and institutions. Compliance with educational regulations is a priority.

While both corporate training and academic coursework share the goal of facilitating learning, they differ in terms of audience, purpose, customization, assessment methods, and learning environments. Designers must consider these differences to create effective and relevant educational experiences in each context.

A curriculum designer plays a crucial role in education by creating structured and effective learning experiences. The role involves developing a comprehensive plan that outlines what students will learn, how they will learn it, and how their progress will be assessed. Here are some key aspects of the role of a curriculum designer:

1. Identifying Educational Goals and Objectives:
   • Define Learning Outcomes: Curriculum designers work to articulate the goals and objectives of the educational program. They specify what students should know and be able to do upon completion of the curriculum.
2. Content Selection and Sequencing:
   • Selecting Curriculum Content: Designers choose the topics, themes, and skills that will be covered in the curriculum. This involves considering the relevance, importance, and appropriateness of the content.
   • Sequencing Content: They determine the order in which content is presented to facilitate a logical and developmental progression of learning.
3. Instructional Methods and Strategies:
   • Choosing Teaching Methods: Curriculum designers decide on the instructional methods and strategies that will be employed to facilitate learning. This may include lectures, group activities, projects, or hands-on experiences.
   • Incorporating Technology: They may integrate technology tools and resources to enhance the learning experience.
4. Assessment and Evaluation:
   • Designing Assessments: Curriculum designers create assessments to measure student understanding and mastery of the curriculum objectives. This can include exams, projects, presentations, and other evaluation methods.
   • Feedback Mechanisms: They establish systems for providing feedback to students and teachers to support ongoing improvement.
5. Adapting to Diverse Learners:
   • Inclusivity: Consideration of diverse learning styles, abilities, and backgrounds is essential. Curriculum designers aim to create inclusive materials that address the needs of a broad range of students.
6. Professional Development:
   • Supporting Educators: Curriculum designers may provide training and professional development opportunities for teachers to effectively implement the curriculum. This can include workshops, resources, and ongoing support.
7. Staying Informed and Adapting:
   • Continuous Improvement: Curriculum designers should stay informed about educational research, best practices, and emerging trends. They need to be flexible and willing to adapt the curriculum based on feedback and changing educational needs.
8. Collaboration:
   • Working with Stakeholders: Collaboration with teachers, administrators, parents, and other stakeholders is vital. Effective communication ensures that the curriculum meets the needs of all parties involved.
9. Alignment with Standards:
   • Ensuring Compliance: Curriculum designers often align their work with educational standards and regulations to ensure that the curriculum meets established criteria.

Overall, the role of a curriculum designer is dynamic and requires a combination of educational expertise, creativity, and a commitment to facilitating meaningful and effective learning experiences for students.

In part one I invited you on a “hero’s journey”. 

What I left out is the explanation of what a hero’s journey is.  Please allow me a moment to define the phrase “hero’s journey”. The “Hero’s Journey” is a pattern of narrative that developed by scholar Joseph Campbell.

What is the premise of the hero’s journey? Hero is introduced; hero encounters trials; hero meets a mentor; hero rises triumphant. It’s the classic story pattern from all your favorite childhood fairytales, superhero movies, and other stories.

Think of your favorite story, movie, song. How did that author create the emotional response they wanted to convey to you the consumer of the content. Using the hero’s journey, we as authors and storytellers elicit an emotional response. Humans have used storytelling to warn, educate, and inspire since, well, humans were around. Cave paintings are an example of storytelling passing down useful information from generation to generation.

When crafting your story, your presentation, your training courses, your website matching the emotion to the topic will keep your audience engaged. Stories resonate with people, help people connect with a topic, and have the power to inspire and motivate. Stories enhance the experience. As a result, people are far more likely to remember the knowledge they have learned.

What does this all mean? By following the steps of the hero’s journey, you are creating a powerful narrative that allows you to challenge your audience. It also assists in designing activities that are engaging your audience, also providing them with a clear path to completion and success.

Part Three we will continue our hero’s journey.