The Center for Academic Innovation (CAI) aims to promote teaching and learning at OTC by spotlighting innovative faculty, departments, and programs. Development Spotlights highlight the collaborative instructional development process at the course and program levels. Through assistance with curriculum mapping, learning experience design, assessment design, and curation & creation of instructional materials, CAI supports faculty with the development of student-centered programs and meaningful learning experiences.
Development Spotlights
Development Goals and Progress
In preparation for seeking national accreditation, the Early Childhood Development (ECD) program partnered with the Center for Academic Innovation (CAI) to begin a self-study process. During initial meetings, ECD Department Chair Marilyn Madden made sure all ECD faculty understood they would be integral to the programmatic redesign. In subsequent meetings, the department worked together to revise program and course objectives to align with the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) standards.
Once their objectives were revised, the department split into workgroups to create learning objectives and assessments for each individual course. One component of NAEYC accreditation was the development of key assessments in five different courses. While each workgroup developed these key assessments, they also built rich instructor-created course content. Ultimately, this content and assessments would provide essential data that would drive decision-making in future iterations of the program’s courses.
In 2020, ECD earned its full NAEYC accreditation, making them the only nationally accredited program in the state. They continue to work with CAI to refine scaffolding concepts, collect key assessment data, and fine-tune instruction to ensure student success.
Explore Further
If you would like to hear more from ECD about their development experience, email Marilyn Madden at maddenma@otc.edu