Welcome to Scenario-Based Curriculum Development

During this tutorial, you will make substantial progress towards development of a learn-by-doing course employing the Scenario-Based Curriculum Model (SCC).

In an SCC, your students are placed in a fictional scenario, or story, in which they assume real-world roles and perform tasks associated with those roles. Coached by faculty members (you) and provided with task-specific learning resources, students learn the targeted knowledge and skills just in time, as they are relevant to the students’ work.

Through this experience, the students not only acquire usable knowledge and skills but also learn their applicability conditions, thus facilitating transfer to future real-world situations.

Visit the Resources page to:

• Read a white paper on SCC’s
• Read about assumptions underlying the pedagogical approach
• Read a summary of some relevant cognitive science theory

The workshop comprises seven tasks. The first task, with three interrelated deliverables, is assigned as pre-work to ensure that you have amassed adequate “raw material” to make rapid progress during the workshop.

Task 0: Pre-workshop deliverables

• Learning Objectives for your course
• A scenario in which learning will be situated
• Prerequisite student skills and knowledge

The bulk of the workshop is devoted to identifying the tasks students will accomplish during your course and developing all of the materials for a representative task (which will serve as a model for later development of the remaining tasks). You will also create material to introduce students to the course and to this style of pedagogy.

Task 1: Create a task table for developing the scenario

Task 2: Generate raw material for a representative student task and then write the task material

Task 3: Collaboratively edit and revise task material

Task 4: Develop “Front Matter” for the course

The final three tasks are optional. The first requires a reasonable level of technical sophistication and may require significant time. The latter two simply involve copying and adapting existing material and, thus, can reasonably be accomplished after the workshop.

Task 5: Publish on the Web (Optional step for tech savvy students)

Task 6: Write a Mentor Guide (Optional step for fast-moving students)

Task 7: Develop orientation materials for course students (Optional step for fast-moving students).

The pace of the workshop depends upon the participants. Select the Schedule tab above to view our proposed schedule.

Ray Bareiss, Ph.D.
Director of Educational Programs, Carnegie Mellon University-West

Sukhjit Singh
Business & Computer Information Systems Faculty, De Anza College

Updated: September 25, 2006