Constructive alignment

A journey, not a destination

Abstract

This paper presents a new take on constructive alignment that follows an active, conversationalist approach to curriculum design. It introduces a practical tool that can be used iteratively to achieve constructive alignment. Ensuring constructive alignment is an important yet complex task, which often educators find challenging to master due to time and the complexities involved. The simplicity of the proposed tool addresses this and has considerable potential to be applied at scale across the higher education sector to develop new curriculum and to facilitate continuous improvement of existing curricula. By repositioning the educator to be an integral part of constructive alignment, it recognises that while constructing alignment, the educator is in fact constructing a deeper understanding of what the learning narrative can be. Understanding the synergies of various elements interacting in a course will not only empower the educator to develop meaningful learning experiences but also allow them to help learners understand similar connections.  It also presents a tremendous opportunity for technology companies to streamline their grading tools so that the attainment of individual outcomes necessary to satisfy constructive alignment principles can be explicitly and automatically captured.