Research and write about the NAU: National American University Learner’s Experience as it relates to curriculum development in this paper.
In your paper include a discussion on the following:
National American University welcomes students of diverse interests, cultures and abilities and prepares them for careers in technical and professional fields by providing quality higher education in a caring and supportive environment. The university builds learning partnerships with students and other institutions and organizations locally, nationally and internationally through its private, regionally accredited system of campuses and education centers offering courses in traditional, accelerated and distance learning formats. As a comprehensive technical and professional institution of higher learning, the university responds to the changing needs of students, employers, and their communities by providing undergraduate and graduate programs and continuing education opportunities to serve an evolving global society.
In 1941, National American University, then known as National School of Business, opened its doors to students in Rapid City, South Dakota, 20 miles from Mount Rushmore, which was completed that same year. Founder Clarence Jacobson, a local businessman and attorney, began offering business courses to an inaugural class of 13 students.
In 1962, Harold D. Buckingham acquired the school and guided its growth for many years. The seventh of eleven children, Mr. Buckingham grew up in rural western Nebraska. He worked different jobs to finance his college education, including delivering gasoline and kerosene to local residents in a 1926 Model T Ford truck. His goal was to become a teacher, but he was unable to find a teaching position during the depths of the Great Depression. Although he went on to become a successful businessman, Mr. Buckingham remained a passionate advocate for higher learning. He firmly believed that quality educational opportunities and a better quality of life should exist for every person who desired them. Even later in life, Mr. Buckingham did not forget his dream to become a teacher, but remarked, “At 80 years of age, it may be too late!” The Buckingham family continues to be actively involved in the university.
As the institution expanded both academically and geographically, its name evolved throughout the years, from National School of Business, to National College of Business, to National College, and finally to National American University.
Today, National American University is a multi-state institution of higher learning offering associate, bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree programs in traditional, online, and hybrid formats through the university’s
1. The Curriculum Developer is responsible for Researches, writes and develops early childhood Home-Based curriculum Collaborates with the Curriculum Department to develop effective instructional strategies, learning, assessment, evaluation and related research The Curriculum Content Developer provides support to the Curriculum department.
2. Distance education is heavily shaped and constructed by the technology that assists and supports different models of learning, connecting and engaging. Technology assists by making learning accessible and portable. The classroom is wherever and whenever the student and educator choose as appropriate to their needs and lifestyle. In fact, the term ‘distance education’ could be considered a somewhat outdated construct, and equally as a paradox; that is ‘distance’ education, borne prior to the digital era . With the post-industrial approach of ‘on-line’ learning having gained wide use and acceptability. The narrative for educators is thick with terms including student centered, systemic and collaborative learning spaces.the creative interface between pedagogy and technology can be viewed somewhat theatrically, as ‘the technology sets the beat and creates the music, while the pedagogy defines the moves. In terms of teaching and design practices in this era, the ‘moves’ are likely to be the product of collaborative invention from the student experience and this section of the paper will propose a responsive approach to teaching and design of curriculum in distance education environments.
Curriculum design that solicits deeper reflection and engagement from students rests on the cultural learning theories such as constructive learning approaches generating higher levels of student responsibility for learning, assisting them to be better prepared and display a heightened student agency. With this and student engagement strategies in mind, student involvement in the design of discussion topics, assessment criteria, critique of major works, case studies and so forth may provide opportunities for higher order thinking skills to be demonstrated and counteract potential superficial learning. These practices acknowledge the risks that students may be rarely engaged in the knowledge negotiation, refinement or construction phases and therefore guidance or structures for participation should be targeted towards depth of processing. The promotion of interaction and communication needs to be similarly embedded into distance education curriculum through icebreakers, introductions, the educator modelling interaction approaches and providing prompts to those that are not engaging and importantly, provision of information about netiquette. Elements of authentic learning were applied in one study where higher education practitioners experienced online learning from a student perspective following authentic learning guidelines. The use of reality projects, case studies, problem solving and simulated learning opportunities were supported within a protected environment of support, monitoring, discussion boards, feedback and critical reflection opportunities. The study indicated the higher order thinking skills such as critical thinking and problem solving were fostered in this course utilizing authentic learning principles.
Educators may need to consider practices that not only support these elements in learning but identify and acknowledge their presence transparently. Educators are likely to be reflecting on and revising their own previously utilized didactic interaction style in light of this triad, engaging with students in a more personable and informal manner while also recognizing that this process will need to be repeated with each new community of learners. This aspect in itself may need to be considered a particularly important educational practice requiring further research; that is how does the educator facilitate and understand the forming, storming, performing and adjourning phases in an online or distance education environment at the mezzo level while also understanding the cultural aspects of the macro online community of learners. The alignment of learner needs with pedagogy, technology and an engaged community of learners appears to provide the beginnings of a coherent framework for engaged learning to flourish.
3. The most diverse group in the United States is our youngest children, and they will make the nation more diverse as they age. Almost 9 million young people ages 5 to 17 speak a language other than English in their home and 2.6 million of them have difficulty speaking English. For our Children's Class of 2000, we could estimate that almost one-half million are being raised in families that speak no English at home, and that at least 125,000 will need special attention in preschool and kindergarten to learn to speak and read English.
About one-third of our black and Hispanic children are being raised in poverty while 10% of non-Hispanic whites live in poverty. However, the largest number of poor children are white while the highest percentage of poor children are black and Hispanic. Of the 14 million children ages birth to 18 living in poverty in 2000, 9 million were white and 4 million were black. Four million Hispanics were living in poverty, but were included in both white and black totals, as Hispanics are not a "race."
Regardless of race, the children in married couple families are much less likely to be poor while 29% of white children and 52% of black and Hispanic children who live with a single mother are likely to be poor. Almost half of these single mothers are working, usually at very low-wage jobs.
However, many schools do not have the opportunity to work with children at such a young age. Thus, they must start work closing the achievement gap in later years. Burris documented changes in schooling practice that closed the achievement gap between black and Latino students and white and Asian students in middle and high school in the diverse School District in New York. The district instituted accelerated learning by gradually eliminating remedial classes and offering all students rigorous classes in mathematics, global history, International Baccalaureate English, and history—classes previously offered only to the highest achievers.Today, as in the past, teachers are being challenged to broaden their repertoire of teaching strategies to meet the needs and strengths of students from a tremendous diversity of backgrounds and cultures. These learners—African Americans, American Indians, Asian Americans, Hispanics, and many others—face societal discrimination, live in conditions of poverty, or both. The ways in which we teach these young people exert a powerful influence on their linguistic, social, cognitive, and general educational development.
4. A syllabus is more than just a checklist or collection of policies and procedures. In fact, approaching it as akin to a “contract” — while that’s a popular analogy in higher education — is not the way to create an effective syllabus. We should aim to do more than badger our students with arbitrary dictates that suggest we fully expect them to misbehave. The course syllabus is, in most cases, the first contact that students will have with both us and the course. We don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. The syllabus sets the tone for the course. Rather than emphasize what they can’t do, an effective syllabus is a promise that, as a result of our course, students will be able to do a number of things either for the first time or at least better than they could before.
Perhaps no area of the syllabus has changed more in recent years than the section on how students use technology in our courses. When I became a college teacher, in 1998, the only reference to technology on my syllabus was a requirement that final drafts of essays and research papers be typed or word-processed. Now, however, there’s a whole section of my syllabus devoted to how to handle email communication and use our learning-management system, how to create accounts for the course-blogging platform, and how to access online readings.
5. What is now known about learning provides important guidelines for uses of technology that can help students and teachers develop the competencies needed for the twenty-first century. The new technologies provide opportunities for creating learning environments that extend the possibilities of “old” —but still useful—technologies—books; blackboards; and linear, one-way communication media, such as radio and television shows—as well as offering new possibilities. Technologies do not guarantee effective learning, however. Inappropriate uses of technology can hinder learning— for example, if students spend most of their time picking fonts and colors for multimedia reports instead of planning, writing, and revising their ideas. And everyone knows how much time students can waste surfing the Internet. Yet many aspects of technology make it easier to create environments that fit the principles of learning discussed throughout this volume.
An important use of technology is its capacity to create new opportunities for curriculum and instruction by bringing real-world problems into the classroom for students to explore and solve; see Box 9.1. Technology can help to create an active environment in which students not only solve problems, but also find their own problems. This approach to learning is very different from the typical school classrooms, in which students spend most of their time learning facts from a lecture or text and doing the problems at the end of the chapter.
Good educational software and teacher-support tools, developed with a full understanding of principles of learning, have not yet become the norm. Software developers are generally driven more by the game and play market than by the learning potential of their products. The software publishing industry, learning experts, and education policy planners, in partnership, need to take on the challenge of exploiting the promise of computer-based technologies for improving learning. Much remains to be learned about using technology’s potential: to make this happen, learning research will need to become the constant companion of software development.
Research and write about the NAU: National American University Learner’s Experience as it relates to curriculum...