Page 248 - Crisis in Higher Education

Redesigning Curriculum and Pedagogy • 219

10.4 IMPACT OF REDESIGNING CURRICULUM AND
PEDAGOGY ON HIGHER EDUCATION OUTCOMES

The heart of higher education is curriculum content and pedagogy.
Improving these and making the process more efficient should drive costs
lower and improve quality. The following list examines how this element
of the solution impacts the root causes, which are discussed in Chapter 4:

1. Lack of understanding—Who is the customer? (root cause 1):
Redesigning curriculum and pedagogy forces universities to con-
sider the needs of customers, including students, governments, and
other third-party payers.
2. Limited productivity improvements for universities (root cause 4):
Efforts to reduce curriculum length to 120 credit hours, implement
student-centered learning, and increase the use of online learning
should improve productivity and reduce costs.
3. Rapidly growing costs for books and supplies (root cause 5): Changing
how students learn should be done in ways that lower the cost of
textbooks and other learning materials.
4. Eroding standards (root cause 8): Focusing on curriculum as well as
involving potential employers and accreditation agencies helps to main-
tain robust curriculum content and rigorous performance standards.

10.5 SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS

Following is a list of the key recommendations that comprise this element
of the solution.

1. Bachelor’s degrees should be limited to 120 credit hours to lower
tuition costs and enable students to graduate in four years.
2. Universities should engage in effective long-term and short-term
planning to ensure that students do not face closed classes that
prohibit them from graduating in four years.
3. Potential employers work with tenured and professional faculty to
set curriculum content and performance standards so graduates
learn more and are prepared for the job market.