Course Design Document and Course Curriculum

The Course design document or design document (as it is popularly known) is created at the end of the Design phase of ADDIE model. It is the final document that comes at the end of the Design phase activities. A course curriculum is also a final document of the Design phase and is often used alone or in conjunction with the course design document. The elements of a course curriculum are same as that of a design document but in more detail. Therefore, as we will learn about design document, we will also understand about course curriculum.

What is a Design Document or Course Curriculum?

If you are an Instructional designer or working in an eLearning industry, you know about ADDIE model. It’s covered in many posts on my website; however, for the sake of this topic, let us quickly revisit the ADDIE model and we will see at which stage we create a design document.

A design document helps you get a clear understanding about your training in terms of your target audience, learning objectives, and main deliverables. It includes an overview of instructional design strategies, training content development and delivery methods, and evaluation and feedback elements that will be used in your training.

In a design document, you outline the course structure, terminal and enabling objectives, content development tools, visualization and animation suggestions for each topic, levels and types of assessments for each topic and training feedback or survey method to be used.

Purpose of the Design Document or Course Curriculum

The design document and / or course curriculum is the final document of the Design phase and is used to get approval from the client or stakeholders on your proposed training strategy before you and your team start with the training development.

The instructional design document and /or course curriculum is also used as a reference/guide document for the ID team to have the complete knowledge of the course development process.

Elements of a Design Document or Course Curriculum

The design document or a course curriculum consists of the following points that would guide the instructional designer and the team through the rest of the phases of training content development , implementation, and evaluation.

• Purpose and Overview of the Course
• Target audience
• Goals and Terminal objectives of the course
• Course Structure
  • Chapters in the Course
  • Enabling objectives per chapter
  • Lessons or topics in each chapter
  • Content per Lesson or Topic
  • Assessment types per Lesson or Topic
  • Visualization suggestion per page or screen
  • Time per screen
  • Supplementary training documents
• Content Development Strategy
  • Storyboarding
  • Content development tools (MS Applications, Content recording and editing tools)
  • Audio and Videos to be integrated with the content
  • Sound recording (Voice-over artists or AI tools)
  • Content translation and localization
• SMEs or Consultants of the course
  • Functional consultants
  • Language review consultants or editors
  • Course Quality reviewers and auditors
• Training Delivery Methods
  • Training delivery environment or platform
  • Training delivery tools
• Training Logistics
  • Training program manager
  • Training implementation manager
  • Training program media or advertising advisor
• Training Program Feedback
  • Feedback forms or Survey forms
  • Collection of feedback
  • Feedback Implementation

Format of a Design Document or Course Curriculum

A design document does not have any set format. Based on your training requirements and the learning elements you wish to include in your training program, you can decide on the format. You can either create a table or a bullet list and you use MS Word or MS Excel as per your convenience. You can also use ready-to-use templates available online to create a design document.

Many instructional designers prefer to create their design document in the form of a lesson plan, while some also develop a course curriculum to support it. If the scope of your training is not too large, a lesson plan alone can serve as the design document. However, if the scope of your training is extensive, you may choose to create a detailed course curriculum that includes all the elements of a design document.