Benefits and Solutions

From Edupedia

1. Creates organized curriculum: What is planned is taught, what is taught is learned, and what is learned is tested. Hence, there is a match among the three functions of curriculum and instruction.
2. Increases student achievement & motivation: Learning expectations are clearly communicated in chunks that can be accomplished. Testing enables frequent feedback and reduces factors that create test anxiety.
3. Saves teacher time: Sharing of competencies, interest and instructional approaches, assignments, test items and supplemental instructional materials through an online service saves instructor preparation time.
4. Empowers open-entry and open-exit: Instructional content will be parsed and packaged so students can enter, leave, and re-enter as their needs and circumstances dictate.
5. Facilitates articulation agreements: The established competencies and test items can be used in schools and colleges to compare and analyze student outcomes for articulation.
6. Mainstreams remediation: Missing or failed content can be identified and addressed at the time it is most needed through individualized approaches.
7. Promotes consistent documentation: An established document format provides a common look that enables students to move quickly to the substance of a course. External reviewers can assimilate content, delivery and assessment of courses without struggling with varying formats.
8. Addresses accreditation standards: Institutional effectiveness questions can be readily answered. The content and assessment processes clearly show how the competencies are linked to Test Items to produce and document expected outcomes.
9. Promotes continuous quality improvement: The structure can be easily accessed to purge, modify, and add new content, instructional materials and assessment measures.
10. Redefines course, program and degree boundaries: With all educational components related to competencies, based upon three hours of learning time for each competency, institutions are given a common standard for creating education materials.
11. State and national standards and competencies: State standards tend to be broad statements that cannot normally be directly taught nor tested. These broad statements can be broken down into competencies - smaller allocations of teaching and learning time. The competencies may come to be seen as standards.
12. Reduces curriculum resource documentation costs: File drawers that are filled with course materials on paper can be replaced by using computer files.
13. Systematizes curriculum revision: The online nature of the system facilitates openness for input and review purposes.
14. Empowers educator oversight: Local institutions can form teams of instructors who review and revise Edupedia courses so that instructors are empowered with the planning responsibility.
15. Promotes faculty delivery technique exchanges: Getting and maintaining interest is one of the most important factors that distinguish an average instructor from an excellent instructor. Creativity is stimulated through modifying instructional ideas. Edupedia makes it easy for instructors to share instructional strategies. This easy-access format is essential for institutions that employ part-time instructors and adjunct faculty.
16. Provides learner constituent content access: All curriculum and instruction documents can be posted on the web for review by students, parents, employers, mentors and even prospective students. All participants in the education process are working from the same content.
17. Allows internal & external institutional networks: Competencies, instructional methods and exam items provides teachers with access to instructional materials developed by instructional specialists.
18. Promotes result-oriented instruction and assessment: Student assessment can be easily and efficiently completed for content proficiency regardless of whether instruction has been given, is being given, or has been completed.
19. Delivers content: Competencies and any combination of the education components can be automatically extracted from Edupedia to formulate documents that can be easily viewed or printed by faculty or students.
20. Automatic PDF creation: Click to create PDF files of Edupedia content, that may then be sent or posted on any web site.
21. Connects students, teachers, administrators, counselors and community leaders: The Internet becomes a conduit for sharing information and interactions among the educational constituents. Links are provided for connections to supporting resources.
22. Drives text and instructional resource development: Textbooks have traditionally driven course content. A generic set of competencies that represents many instructors’ opinions and expertise can become the outline for texts that are electronically disseminated. Continuous updates will be possible, thereby eliminating obsolescence.
23. SIMs: Supplemental Instructional Materials may be extracted and provided as free text books that may be viewed online or printed.
24. Guarantees course section consistency: If common competencies and a test item bank are available to all teachers then common content for courses in a college, state, or nation will evolve. The delivery methods can vary but the expected results should be the consistent.
25. Identifies pace setter instructors: Creative ideas in planning, delivering, or evaluating are easily recognized, captured, and shared. These Pace Setters can infuse their innovations to other instructors.
26. Exploits apprenticeship concepts: Students enrolled in clinical, practicum, externships or apprenticeship external courses secure employment/placement faster when business and industry are given quick access to student preparation standards. Course competencies can serve as the final performance assessment checklist.
27. Balances business and industry involvement: Educational institutions can clearly communicate their intent via competencies. Business and industry leaders can provide specific and targeted feedback. Actually, there is very little difference between a job description element and a set of competencies.
28. Facilitates faculty usage: An instructor can start by downloading and using only the competencies for a course, later add testing, and then begin to use the integrated instructional methods. Teachers can easily change some of the competencies to create their own personal syllabi, test items, and teaching strategies.
29. Enables creative collaboration by educators: Edupedia provides a virtual work place where educators can assemble their own curricula from numerous individual sources. Courses developed with Edupedia will not reduce academic freedom, but will foster a team-developed curriculum.
30. Provides core content that fosters support services development: Links, video, animation, stories, slideshows, historical novellas and educational games can be developed or purchased or linked to third party suppliers.
31. Reforms education: We have a heritage of universal education that is founded upon local control, academic freedom, and the recognition that education is an essential element in free and productive society. This heritage must be preserved. Limited resources, teacher burnout, legislative edicts, global competition, and natural resistance pressures are eroding our educational heritage. Educators, parents, political leaders and business and industry must work together as partners to see that our educational system efficiently and effectively preserves our heritage.