Usually, in India we have a board of education committee. Normally the board members are most experienced and they decide the curriculum and new courses. Workshops will be offered to teachers to know about the updation.

Usually, in India we have a board of education committee. Normally the board members are most experienced and they decide the curriculum and new courses. Workshops will be offered to teachers to know about the updation.

My experience is that the BEST method is feeback from students. Anonym surveys. They will be your best critics and your best advocates and they will become part of your pesonal staff, some of them, even volunteers.

I think the best way to do this is to have the institution that is offering the education require that all students regardless of placement, status, or age every year take a one hour course that is not graded but must be attended and must be active in the class to pass.

This class would be from a random pull of all students from all grades or disciplines. Have once a week meeting for more than an hour to discuss the classes that they are taking and talk about all of the problems that each of them has with the lessons, understandings, and to through out all the comments as well as ideas that this posses.

The class would be very structured to start the year and then less structured as the semester goes on. The students would have to attend no less than 32 of them in a years time and could attend different times if they get it approved through the Professor.

The Professor would not "TEACH" the class but facilitate the class. At the end of each term the Professor will turn in a term paper that looks at how many issues the class discuses, what teaching issues were seen as a problem, if any valid ideas were discuses about issues in the field of study they are working on or teaching. They would then make recommendations to the college or school about ways to integrate the fields that on the outset seem to be unrelated. They would also talk to and recommend new courses that could overlap areas that were sometimes thought not to be related for further research.

This would then lead to new areas of research and study and a better interdisciplinary approach to education. These would be well paid posts that are seem are prestigious. All teachers are rolled through the program not just the few that are tenured. Even the first year educator would be in the random pool.

This would help guide education in new and exiting directions as well as break down the walls that divide the disciplines.

This may seem like an old fashioned approach to the problem but with all the technology that is out there, the face to face with people that are doing the work everyday is still the best way to move forward.

You would want these classes to move to different locations and buildings as well as us all the latest technology. everyone would come away with the knowledge that there is much more to be discovered than we first think.

The Professor would direct the class in different directions at times when it falls into anything personal, or discriminatory as these are things that will destroy the classes ability to progress. If the teacher sees a lull in the ability to go forward there would be a set number of topics that need to come up in the class.

All the topics would be from every field of study and random in order not set by the teacher. If the class gets off track even more then the professor would stop the progress and poss a written question that would be then talked about after the students took notes on the topic that will be discussed. There is only grades for participation and not content.

A few things that we check are:

1. Student feedback for adding or removing the material

2. Availability of new textbooks

3. How can I add more interactive content?

4. Update the tutorial activities

@ Fermin and Nageswara: I am not sure about the option 'student feedback' in this context! Normally students want to dilute the curriculum and this might mislead the objectivity. Dilution or hardening is not the issue but an efficient and informative curriculum is important.

I agree Lijo. You have to take their feedback with a pint of salt. It is me who will be finally deciding based on the logic of the student feedback. It is not absolute. Unlike a University system you mentioned, we have an advantage since I can fully control in certain framework what I teach.

Alright, I understood @ Nageswara!

I interpreted this as how a professor or chair 1) update a program that is somewhat out of date, and 2) make the class(es) more interactive across disciplines.

Answering the first part of your questions, who initiates the new program, in my opinion, relies on an outside advisory committee in conjunction with the program committee. One aspect of programs and courses within those programs is their applicability to either further academic study or application in the outside world. In the first case we need to poll the areas of further academic study to make sure the skills we are teaching, and the learning objectives int he preparatory course, are still relevant for the new study. In the second case we have to undertake the same investigation in the outside world to make sure the skills and ideas we are teaching are still relevant in the world of work. This does not means we teach only applicable skills but if concepts we are teaching are out of date then we need to abandon those concepts. I do not think that we, as academics, can truly evaluate the needs of employers in today's fast paced business world.

The second part of question relies on involving students (especially graduates of the program or course) to see how they are using the program or courses' knowledge. Then I have invited those outside discipline professors to provide how they use the teachings in my course. I invite them to submit examples and problems from their courses or programs that I can include in my course in order to take my course teaching to a higher level of relevance to my students. This also spurs interactivity and active learning by my students.

There is a written procedure for changing the curriculum. It starts with commitees from the department level.

1. Collect all references,

2. Have a feedback from student,

3. Discuss with other lecturer,

4. Get feedback from student for twice,

5. Improve the lectures,

6. Implement it,

7. Conduct monitoring and evaluation,

8. Improve the lectures (repeat the process point 5-8)

9. Improving from the beginning after 5-7 years.

There are two issues: 1. Curriculum and

2. Given that you have to teach a course how you update your course.

The first question usually involves a special committee, which proposes a certain curriculum to the assembly of the Department, which finally decide. However I prefer the way John Baun ·describes.

For the second issue, teacher should be free to give to his course the form he wishes. I follow this: For each unity, I give first a conceptual introduction, which is followed by a technical development. Textbook of course plays a vital role. To update the course is easy with todays technology.

The issues I face are:

New priorities of the government cascaded down to the department through the Commission on Higher Education,

Availability of facilities, books and equipment necessary to comply with the new priorities

Capability of the faculty members to comply with the new priorities

Budgetary implications to the students

The Department initiates teaching programs, but must be favorably indorsed by the Academic Council and approved by the Board of Regents

Our best practices so far are

Team teaching

Faculty outsourcing (part timers)

Retooling

When I was in the University of Delhi, the courses would be rarely revised--sometimes not even in 15 to 20 years. That shows carelessness or lack of accountability of people concerned in many public systems.

But in my present institution, faculty has the total freedom to design a course. The only thing is that we have to present the proposed course before the faculty council for discussion and approval. There, we have faculty members from all other functional areas. They may point out the duplication or clashes that may be there in the proposed course with an existing course that the targeted audience is already being taught by a faculty member from another area. For example, Balanced Score Card is taught in many functional areas of management. So, attempt is made that there is no duplication.

I like this system; it helps us update the contents as and when needed. The system is based on trust and not the desire to control.

My introductive topic is: what is naturaal and what is artificial. We look at both the kind of object and phenomenas as REAL? But if I'll ask to you: let me know if i-phone is real just like an apple.... what is your answer?

REALITY of a computer is an artifact? What about the reality of artifacts?

And then wenstart with linear and nonlinear analisys

Few most important things which comes into mind is that,

1. It is relevant or not???

2. Is it updated according to current research scenario???

3. Can students understand it without much difficulties???

4. Does it contains practical and experimental knowledge or only theoretical knowledge???

5. Is it interesting for students or not???

...

Regards,

Nitish

The synergy and interaction between university and industry leads to a new school programs. Feedback to the demands of the market is unavoidable!

Good point Ljubomir Jacić. We regularly interact with our industrial advisory board members to make sure that what we are doing is relevant for them.

Tha is really a great point in this context @Ljubomir. I am happy to have interactions/collaborations with pioneers in the industry where I am working and we introduce curriculum depending up on the current interest. As a result we have lot of job opportunities in the industry immediately after graduation.

Dear All,

It depends on the subjects. I have created some of my subjects like Biological control, Crop protection Ecology or Cultural Entomology. I have formed them using the best English, German, French textbooks and the most recent articles and studies.

I update continually the teaching material according to the most current studies I can reach.

Generally, I do not teach an official textbook but the permanently updated teaching material.

There is a national accreditation committee which accredits new subjects and courses but they do not control the updates.

What is the basis of updating? The most current but proved scientific facts of zoology, ecology, biological control, toxicology necessary for the understanding and practising of crop protection and sustainable agriculture.

I stress that the main point of view is sustainability!

When teaching, major emphasis is put on case stories because students should understand and believe in the natural rules and phenomena determining the success of their future work.

I would like if the students were able to apply natural rules in their everyday activity.

I teach Computer Programming, Computational Numerical Methods, Artificial Intelligence, Operating Systems more than 20 years, so I must improvement every year my courses, according with the IT and Computer Science progress and also the students feedback.The students must be able to apply the theoretical notions in problems and technical applications Also we have a board of education committee at university level, local level and national who evaluate our activities annual.

Updating a university teaching course is a must; otherwise it will render obsolete!

My personal experience imply that one important factor in this regard is the relevence to students' needs. The information you afford should not only satisfy students' academic needs but also their future needs when applying for a job; thus, the information should observe practicality.