Curriculum Technology Curates Content

Actively Curating CT2Learn

Since the inception of the CT2Learn Evolved Learning System (ELS) two years ago, Curriculum Technology has been actively curating content for inclusion into the ELS digital platform to make available for our school, corporate, and professional customers. This has been a natural progression from our longer-term experience in writing, creating, or producing custom content for specialized applications.

A multi-step process

Applying many of the methods used in our custom curriculum process, CT has developed an effective process for content curation that involves an instructional design and platform management team working through a multiple step process. Briefly, some of the steps include:

1. Research and identify possible content. This process is directed towards specific outcomes but almost always results in acquisition of additional related content.
2. Parse out potential content that could be useful for academic or professional purposes to that which is not. Most of what is found is not used.
3. Review content for source/author authority or level of expertise
4. Analyze individual content items for topical applicability, academic and/or professional level, determine if good fit for ELS
5. If content is a good fit, determine copyright, sharing rules (i.e. Creative Commons licensing), and ability to use or link from ELS
6. Manage loading or linking of content into ELS, course, or LMS, including developing description, content permissions or licensing, and any necessary updating to related documents in system (i.e. course lesson outlines)
7. Go back to (1) and begin again
8. Ongoing: monitor existing content and links in the ELS to maintain site integrity, currency, and overall user experience

21^st century curricula commonly utilize curated content. While it’s not a simple process, with the right team, appropriate training and monitoring, and a long-term commitment to the process, it is an exceptionally effective way to bring fresh, current, interesting and dynamic content into your coursework.