This work presents a novel and pragmatic approach to Curriculum Development by combining theoretical knowledge with expertise in the form of practical rules within a Knowledge-Based System. As a broad generalisation, the literature on Curriculum Development tends to focus on theoretical issues and fails to address the practical needs of course designers in engineering, particularly in countries with developing educational systems. The main achievements of the present research are: " demonstration that Knowledge-Based Systems can be successfully applied to Curriculum Development. Reports of Verification and Validation by experts and end-users are presented. " an innovative approach to Curriculum Development by providing course designers in engineering with sound advice concerning their specific needs (by combining built in expertise with their own data as input from the keyboard) in the subdomains of Introduction to Curriculum Development, Methods of Curriculum Content Identification, Course Structure, Learning Outcomes and Student Assessment. This approach has led to the representation of expertise through practical and numerical rules which has never been published. "a framework for building Knowledge-Based System which incorporates a novel strategy for knowledge acquisition using several experts. This was the result of devising the concepts of Boundaries, Limits, Inputs and Outputs which ensured that the size and integration of the knowledge base were kept under control and prevented the conflict of expertise. " an element for training in Curriculum Development by developing an Explanation Network which provides the end-user with concepts and principles relevant to the curriculum theory. This vehicle for training, which comes in addition to the advice given in the main consultation, is also a novel feature in the development of Knowledge-Based Systems. Indeed the research has shown that there is scope for acquiring expertise on Curriculum Development yet a wide variety of techniques of knowledge elicitation were needed to acquire specific rules from the Curriculum Development experts. The research also has demonstrated that these rules can be implemented in a portable, standalone system. The work concludes with a reflective discussion about the major findings of this research which underpins the recommendations about the use and dissemination of this Knowledge-Based ystem.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:386200 |
| Date | January 1994 |
| Creators | Borges, Mario Neto |
| Publisher | University of Huddersfield |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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