Curriculum Development Framework: A Tool for Innovative Programme Development

Curriculum development in the computing area has become critically important as computing technology has become pervasive and the applications of technology are the basis of society and work. Maintaining the relevancy of the student’s knowledge skills and competence to the needs of the economy is a challenge. The Curriculum Development Framework (CDF) created by authors is a tool that integrates various aspects of programme development such as pedagogical innovation, student success, and industry feedback. The aim of the academic curriculum development framework is to provide graduates with the relevant knowledge, skills and competence to ensure their employability in the economy. This paper reviews the current curriculum development practices in the Higher Education sector and proposes an innovative framework CDF which has been implemented and evaluated. Implementation of CDF makes it easier for the curriculum development team to create a course/programme that is enterprising, responsive to the needs of the learner and industry focussed. The framework defines how modules support the programme goals and the well-defined processes that are used to achieve the desired outcomes. CDF is designed to optimise the resources of the curriculum development team and to seamlessly create a new academic programme. The CDF also allows for a fundamental and critical re-appraisal of programmes of education with the opportunity to substantially update and modify the original academic programme. CDF has been applied successfully to undergraduate programme development and revalidation in Computing with great success resulting in the approval of outstanding programmes.