Curriculum information about programmes and study modules
This page describes what information goes into a programme and study module curriculum.
How to update course information in the Curriculum Planner
The Curriculum Planner is a tool for the courses’ responsible teachers to update their course information.
What is the Curriculum Planner?
The Curriculum Planner system is used to collect and update the course description information and to give time and location preferences for teaching for the purposes of timetable planning and space bookings. Teachers and other academic staff are the principal users of the system. Also Learning Services uses the Curriculum Planner.
How to update course information
Course information is updated in the Curriculum Planner system in December-January. The course descriptions are approved as part of the curriculum for two academic years at a time. Also information on the new courses to be established and the courses to be discontinued are entered into the Curriculum Planner.
Updating the course information is the task of the teacher responsible for the course (‘responsible teacher’ in Sisu). For existing courses, the system shows the information of the previous curriculum period, which the teacher can update as necessary. For new courses, it is possible to use an existing course as a template or start writing in an empty template.
What happens after the information has been entered into the system?
When the responsible teacher has updated the course description, the Learning Services of the school will check the critical course information and collect all the course descriptions for the curriculum approval process. As necessary, the descriptions are changed and corrected together with the responsible teacher before the approval process.
The course description information of continuing and new courses is transferred to Sisu. Upon the transfer, Sisu generates new versions of the courses for the new curriculum period. Information on deleted courses will not be transferred into Sisu.
How to update the course description
Go to curriculum.aalto.fi
The language of the Curriculum Planner interface is English. On the frontpage, you will find brief instructions and contact details in case of problems.
On the tab Courses under School select your school or unit. If you prefer, you can search all the courses of a single school or unit by selecting Show courses.
You can search all courses for which you are marked as the responsible teacher by typing your name (first name, last name) under Responsible Teacher and selecting Show courses. You can search courses also by another teacher’s name, but you can edit only your own courses.
You can search for courses also by writing the course code or name in the field Course code or name and by choosing Show courses.
In the listed search results, click on the Course Description icon of the course you want to update. It takes you to the course description page.
By default, the course description status is set to Draft. The information to be put in each field has been explained in detail in the instructions for course description information. You will find a question mark icon beside each field in the Curriculum Planner, taking you to the instructions on filling in the field.
When you are ready to confirm the description, change the description’s status to either Ready – no changes (if no changes were made) or Ready – with updates (if any fields were updated).
A new course can be established in the Curriculum Planner if a decision on establishing one has been made by the programme or department. In other words, the teacher cannot suggest that a new course be established in the Curriculum Planner.
To enter information on a new course into the Curriculum Planner, choose the relevant school and department on the search page. Click Create a new course for this department on the right side of the page, and you will be taken to an empty course description template where you can fill in the requested details.
You can also use an existing course description as a template by opening the existing course’s description page and clicking on the button titled Create a new course based on this one on the top right corner.
When establishing a new course, it will be assigned a temporary course code, which the Learning Services will correct before the course information is confirmed. The schools will give further instructions to the teachers on how to assign codes to new courses in the Curriculum Planner.
You can delete a course in the Curriculum Planner if the programme or department has decided to delete the course from the curriculum. In other words, the teacher cannot suggest that a course be deleted from the Curriculum Planner.
In the search results listed in the Curriculum Planner, open the course description of the course to be deleted and click Delete course at the bottom of the page. At some schools, the Learning Services is responsible for deleting courses as instructed by the teacher or programme.
Updating the time and location preferences
The programme staff should discuss the programme’s teaching arrangements and weekly schedules before entering time and location preferences into the system. This allows us to make timetables that work for the students and thus further the goal of alighment of teaching.
The course time and location preferences and other needs are recorded in the Curriculum Planner. To enter the ‘scheduling side’ of the Planner, click the Show study events button at the top of the page or the calendar icon beside your course description.
Select the relevant implementation and you will enter a page where you see the course information as well as the small groups and the associated teaching methods for each of them. At the top of the page, you see the course code and name and the name of the responsible teacher. These are automatically transferred from the course description page. In addition, you can enter the estimated number of participants for the implementation at the top of the page.
By default, the system shows the teaching times and locations of the current academic year. You will find them by browsing through the small group pages that are divided into separate tabs by teaching method (lectures, exercises, seminar etc.). In the All tab, you can see all the bookings made. They are updated in real time, if a new scheduling suggestion is made for the study event in the Curriculum Planner.
When the Curriculum Planner closes early in the spring, the teaching time and location preferences marked on the Teaching page for the course implementations are transferred to the teaching space booking system Asio, used by Learning Services to make the teaching timetables. The timetable planning is done in April–May in collaboration with the responsible teachers. The final timetable will be published in Sisu at the start of June.
Indicating time and location preferences for teaching
You can indicate your preferences regarding teaching times and places in several ways:
- To check the teaching times, go to the All tab. If no changes are needed and you want to book the same times for the following academic year, select the status of the teaching as Ready - no changes at the top of the page.
- If you only want to make only minor changes (e.g. a different hall or adding one small group), you can leave a comment about this change in the text field at the bottom of the All tab titled Teacher’s comments. Finally, change the status to Ready – with changes.
- If you want to make several changes, you should enter them by small group as instructed below. Move to the tab of the small group in question and make the changes. Finally, change the status to Ready – with changes.
To suggest changes to the timetable, click on Suggest a new timetable at the bottom of the small group page, which opens the time, place and other similar information of the course implementation for comments and changes. Use the Timetable table to fill in your new preferred teaching times or edit the existing rows. The Alltab will show the updated details for all small groups. Please note that any changes made apply only to the small group or teaching method that you are editing at the moment. This means that timetable suggestions concerning lectures and exercises must be made on separate tabs.
| Start Week | Select the week on which your teaching starts (e.g. week number 2). | |
|---|---|---|
| Duration in weeks | Duration of teaching in weeks (e.g. 6). Each period has six teaching weeks and an examination week, which is primarily free from teaching. | |
| Start time ja End time |
The start and end time of a study event (e.g. lecture). Select the days of the week on which you would like your study event to be scheduled (e.g. Tuesdays and Fridays). | |
| Room requirements | Here you can specify any needs you have for the arrangements of this particular small group, such as visual aids or other specific needs (for instance, AspenOne software or a blackboard). | |
| Teacher’s comments | Here you can leave comments that concern either the teaching of the whole small group or a specific study event. Each study event is on a separate line in the system. | |
| Room |
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Other instructions related to this stage
Curriculum information about courses
A course is a part of studies that covers a specific topic, content or competence area. The curriculum defines the course contents, implementation methods and other course information that is valid for the whole curriculum period.
Formulating degree requirements clearly in Sisu
Clearly formulated degree requirements make planning studies easier. This page contains instructions on how to formulate degree requirements clearly.
To the main page Curriculum design at Aalto University
Curriculum design at Aalto University
Aalto University’s curriculum design guidelines and schedule aims at supporting sustainable, future led degree programmes.
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