Kenzie UX Certificate Program Relaunch

Initial Curriculum Design and Curriculum Development

Before I was brought on, the team went through an initial curriculum design phase where the overall UX Certificate program was mapped out, in compliance with SNHU’s accreditation standards. The program was broken into 3 12-week terms, each of which had 3 4-week courses. Program-level objectives were set, as well as a week-by-week plan of what UX concepts would be covered each week, what specific objectives they achieved, and which program-level objectives these mapped to. This new program map set out to address the business needs and student paint points mentioned above.

The other UX SME (lead instructor) and the 2 facilitators (instructional support staff) worked to build content for the first term. The SME and one of the facilitators later left the company, while the other facilitator’s time was largely redirected.

Further Curriculum Design and Curriculum Development

I joined the team as the new lead SME/instructor, and was charged with leading the development of the remaining 2 terms (24 weeks) of curriculum.

Before developing content, I revisited the initial curriculum design. I reviewed the curriculum map, and made edits where appropriate based on my knowledge and industry experience. I filled in gaps where key concepts were missing, reordered concepts to create a sequence that was most logical for students, and updated objectives to encompass outcomes that would be beneficial for students to achieve to best prepare them for the industry. I worked very closely with the existing team to ensure that any changes still aligned with the overall vision of the program, and were within the accepted threshold of change to maintain accreditation with SNHU.

For each week, I reviewed the existing learning content from the legacy Kenzie program (if any), and then developed and provided the following:

• Detailed learning content for (on average) 4-5 UX concepts.

• Appropriate visuals that I designed or sourced to illustrate complex ideas and otherwise support comprehension of the concepts.

• Real-world examples and applications of the concepts, to move content from theoretical to realistic.

• Practice activities for students to familiarize themselves with individual concepts.

• A larger project which allowed students to put learnings from all of the concepts into practice in a realistic UX design exercise.

• Graded and ungraded discussion questions to encourage students to reflect of the concepts, demonstrate true understanding, and engage with their peers.

• Links to related external resources, which students could access to further their learning.

While creating the projects, I kept most to one week in length to avoid student burnout and promote engagement. However, I also created several multi-week projects with weekly incremental deliverables, that allowed students to experience how the concepts and skills built on each other in a realistic design project. This included a capstone 4-week group project in which they worked with a stakeholder external to the program. This approach provided students with multiple projects that demonstrated a variety of UX design skills, which would be appropriate for inclusion in a portfolio. I also created 8 weeks of content that focused on preparing students for establishing careers in the UX industry.

Throughout this process I worked with the remaining facilitator, who provided insights based on his history with the Kenzie program, or that otherwise supported the consistency and accuracy of the curriculum.

Instructional Design

I worked very closely with the Instructional Design team who built out the content I provided within the Learning Management System (LMS), presenting it in a way that was most beneficial for students, in order to promote their learning and engagement. I co-developed rubrics for the various types of assessments, ensuring that they adhered to best practices and also accurately accounted for the relevant criteria and outcomes I wanted students to achieve. I reviewed, updated, and signed-off on all content (concepts, assignments, resources, etc.) before it was published.