The course development process (below) that was used for the creation of the Practicum in Enterprise Security is a good model for development of technical curriculum and capstone courses. Faculty, industry experts and instructional design experts comprise an ideal team.
Click on a phase to see how we carried it out.
Analysis |
| Research needs |
Research was conducted that led to the conclusion that the community college
could play a vital role in preparing students to work in
network security positions within industry. |
| Review relevant work |
The development team researched other existing work regarding job-task analysis
and industry needs. |
| Launch project |
District adminstrators, project partners, and development team members met to
kickoff the project. |
| Identify required knowledge & skills in workplace |
The development team found actual technician job postings and created a list
of required knowledge and skills for those positions. |
| Gather input from industry representatives |
Industry representatives reviewed the course overview and task overview and
gave their feedback. |
Design |
| Assemble development team |
Members of the development team met to discuss the development process for this
project. |
| Devine learning objectives |
Using the list of technician's required knowledge & skills, the most important were identified as course learning objectives. |
| Complete task overview |
A scenario and six major tasks were identified to incorporate the learning objectives
identified above. |
| Review task overviewby industry representatives |
Industry representatives were sent a course overview which included a description
of the scenario (a fictitious company) and the task overview
from above and feedback was collected from them. |
| Complete detailed task descriptions |
The development team completed detailed descriptions of the six major tasks students
will complete in the course. |
Development |
| Begin development on course materials for Tasks 1-2 |
Development began on course materials for the first two tasks for the course,
which would serve as a prototype for the development of
the remaining tasks. |
| Conduct formative evaluation of Tasks 1-2 |
The development team, along with other partners, evaluated the effectiveness
of the first two tasks. |
| Complete Beta test |
After most of the course materials were developed, a beta test was run. |
| Complete development of course materials |
Development completed on the course materials for the remaining tasks. |
| Conduct faculty orientation & training |
The development team developed and delivered an orientation and training for
faculty members and mentors who would be teaching or working
on the course. |
| Pilot course |
A pilot of the course was run on the De Anza campus with both face-to-face meetings
and online course work. |
Implementation & Evaluation |
| Offer course as part of college curriculum |
The course is formally offered to students as part of the IT curriculum of De
Anza College. |
| Data collected from students & mentors in course |
Pre & Post Tests administered to student participants enrolled in the course at De
Anza. Focus group held at end of term. Mentors met with
evaluators for debriefing. |
| Revise course for online delivery |
Create online
version in ETUDES course management system. |
| Revise course for two-term delivery |
Further revisions made based on evaluation results. Split course into two 4-unit
courses with hands-on labs. |
| Offer course at Foothill College |
Offer revised, 4-unit course at Foothill College. |
