Curriculum Design

Brief

Fidgetech is a nonprofit in Portland, Oregon, that provides career exploration and workplace training to connect autistic young adults with meaningful jobs in the tech industry. To further their mission of service, Fidgetech wanted to develop certificate programs in Digital Design and Video Production to prepare students for skilled creative technology jobs in the Portland area.

A detailed curriculum for each program was required for Fidgetech to obtain licensure as a private career school from the Higher Education Coordinating Commission of the state of Oregon.

Learning Solution

Starting from a brief overview of each program and course, I researched and wrote:

• 14 core abilities – Overarching nontechnical skills required for professional success

• 15 program standards – Action statements describing the level or quality of performance of a category of technical skills

• 47 competencies – Individual, application-based technical skills associated with standards

• 185 performance standards – Observable evidence of given performance level under given conditions for each competency

• 46 performance assessment plans – Descriptions of evaluation activity with rubrics for each performance standard

• 428 learning objectives – Discrete knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to demonstrate mastery of each performance standard

With feedback from a board member working in the industry, I used these documents to build out for each of 20 courses:

• Learning plan – Lists competencies, core abilities, learning objectives, and performance standards for each course, plus learning activities and performance assessments

• Syllabus – Lists course overview and objectives, policies, daily schedule of in-class and out-of-class activities, and course projects (performance assessments)

Results

The Digital Design and Video Production career certificate programs were approved by the state to be launched in fall 2024.