A coordination protocol for higher education degrees

Abstract

When a higher education institution creates a new curriculum for a given degree, the design process itself ensures a correct balance and coordination among the subjects in the degree, not only about the contents and learning outcomes of each subject, but also in the learning weight of all the subjects in each semester. However, it is common that, as time goes on, the degree evolves. This evolution may be produced, for example, in order to cope with scientific or technological advances, or simply because teachers may favor the contents, methodologies, assessment techniques, etc., which they know best. The problem is that this evolution is normally carried out in the context of each individual subject, which progressively makes the entire curriculum to lose its initial balance. This paper introduces a coordination protocol designed to regain the balance among the subjects in a degree, while this degree is being taught.