Development of an Extended Constructive Alignment Model for Redesigning Courses to Fit Disrupted Contexts

Nowadays engineers are required to solve unprecedented, complex and context-related problems. To address this challenge, many universities have reformed their education systems to more efficient and innovative ones. However, due to the global Covid-19 crisis, universities are challenged to ensure the continuity of education without compromising the attained quality of learning they have invested in. Therefore, adapting engineering education systems to the probable lasting Covid-19 context is of critical importance today. Besides, the existing course-models (suitable for a normal context) cannot be equally efficient when delivered in their original format in the new constrained context. Thus, educational institutions need to envision new structures for their learning; particularly, new delivery patterns to complement traditional physical classrooms. Hence, to ensure continuity of quality education, emphasis should be placed on the consolidation of best practices in learning by taking into account the present disrupted contexts of both students and schools. In this regard, this work proposes an extended constructive alignment vision that integrates context outcomes as a new pillar into the methodology, to which has to be aligned, the intended learning outcomes, the teaching and learning activities and the appropriate assessment methods. The context outcomes, as key parameters of school and student connectivity for instance, are obtained by using a collection of human-centered design exploration tools. Consequently, an instructional design process is proposed based on this vision. Thereby, to illustrate the redesign of courses to fit disrupted contexts, the transformation of an existing course on Product Design for engineering students is documented following the proposed process. Finally, to continue building the future skilled engineering workforce in period of education disruption, the proposed approach is intended to help educators navigate world shifts by adapting their courses to changing contexts without compromising the quality of education.