Content Eliciting

The main problem most curriculum designers or instructional designers face after finishing the needs analysis is the content eliciting as you will find a lot of content that achieve the learning objectives so what can we do?!!

Here are some procedures you should follow during content eliciting 

MATERIALS BLUEPRINT (initial copy of what to be done) 

This blueprint might at first be very unclear and tentative, yet as time passes and even more information becomes available, its outlines will become increasingly discernable and precise. Such a blueprint might eventually form part of a teacher's, manual that can be used to describe the program and its curriculum or to orient new teachers to the program in question.

To review briefly, situation factors might include implications from the broader political, social, and educational contexts in which the program will operate, as well as the particular circumstances relating to the kind of institution or setting in which the curriculum will be carried out. Other important factors might include the characteristics of the teachers, learners, and administrators.

The second aspect of materials blueprint is the instructional blueprint To begin with, any document describing the instructional blueprint should probably include a brief section detailing whatever background information the teachers should know. At a minimum, this background probably should include an overall introductory description of the program and of any umbrella institutions of which it is a part, as well as a short history of the program and associated institutions.

After the background section, , an overall curriculum description would be appropriate. This should probably include discussion of the overall syllabuses that   serve to organize the curriculum (for instance, into skills areas, functional units, structures, and so forth), as well as a review of the dominant approaches in the program.

The next logical step might be a description of the program's needs presented in terms of its teachers and students. To begin, it might prove useful to describe the typical teacher in terms of background, training, or other interesting characteristics. Next, it might make sense to list the situation and language needs of the learners as determined in the needs analysis. A description of the situation needs might be as simple as a table showing the students' ages, number, and other characteristics, or it might be a quite detailed prose description.

The next logical step in a blueprint for the systematic development of materials is some sort or description of the types of instructional materials (for instance, textbooks, readers, and workbooks) that are envisioned. The materials can then be described in terms of units of analysis that were used in developing the syllabuses involved.

With regard to teaching, such a blueprint might include a discussion of the dominant techniques that are likely to be employed in presenting the language to the students (based on whatever consensus has been reached among the teachers on approaches and syllabuses). In addition, information about the different types of exercises that will likely be used to help the students practice the language may also prove useful. The point of discussing techniques and exercises should not be to limit the number and types of each, but rather to serve as a guide to how they are related to each other and as an indication of the general form they might follow. Other ideas for techniques and exercises, regardless of the sources, should always be welcomed and considered.

Finally, an effective blueprint  for  materials development must include some form of evaluation component. This component might take the form of detailed plans for studying the effectiveness of the materials, or discussion processes that will be instituted to constantly revise and upgrade materials, or both.

In short, the there are three tools that can serve as a framework for thinking through all the essential parts of such a project so that needless expenditure of effort can be avoided and so that the energies involved can be focused on efficiently producing materials that maximally fit and serve the program involved. Units of analysis, scope and sequence charts, and Gantt diagrams, all of which can be very useful tools in materials development projects.

SCOPE AND SEQUENCE CHARTS

Closely related to syllabus design is the question of deciding what kind of organizational framework to adopt for developing materials.

The syllabus itself is not a learning program, but it can be turned into one. For example, a syllabus for a beginning conversation course might specify that greetings and introductions are among the functions to be covered. Will they be taught together or separately? How much rime; will be spent on these two items as opposed to other items in the syllabus? How often will they appear in the course?

This scope and sequence chart turns out to be more transparent and easier to interpret because it captures and delineates the repetitive elements of the curriculum in an efficient manner that minimizes redundancy.

GANTT DIAGRAMS

One useful technique for representing the different steps involved in large-scale materials development and implementation projects is the Gantt diagram. A Gantt diagram is a two-axis figure with time divisions labeled across the horizontal axis and task divisions down the vertical axis. (A list of curriculum activities will be shown in the lecture)

The information which is given in Gantt diagram is useful for providing an overview that can be understood at a glance. It shows all the tasks involved and the time frames

in which each task must be begun and completed. Not only can such a diagram be a useful tool for explaining a curriculum development project to outsiders, but it also help to keep the insiders on schedule.

 I hope this helps