by
Imed Bouchrika, Phd
Effective teaching and learning is the ultimate goal of the curriculum management process. As such, digitizing the management of curriculum through the use of curriculum management software facilitates the continuous improvement of teaching and learning. It also makes educational institutions more agile in the age of digital transformation.
Curriculum mapping, content and structure analysis, student assessment program evaluation, and the process of research, review, and revision are just some of the core elements of curriculum management. Automating these workflows by employing technology significantly helps in the improvement of the teaching and learning process.
This article provides a list of the best curriculum management software, including the unique features of each platform. In this way, you can better explore the options available on the market and pinpoint which one meets your unique requirements. Most of the vendors on this list offer quote-based pricing so you can be sure that you can get plans according to your preferences and budget.
School curriculum is considered to be of high quality when the instructional materials and assessments are aligned with standards. The ineffective use of curriculum resources, however, is a major concern in curriculum management according to 57% of teachers (Technology and Learning, 2020).
Source: Technology and Learning
The manual preparation of the course curriculum demands time from teachers, which could be allotted to provide personalized and custom learning to students. Teachers also spend a significant amount of time looking for relevant resources. Recent data reveals that teachers spend an average of five hours per week searching for resources. Meanwhile, they spend up to nine hours weekly for curriculum development (Learning Counsel, 2021).
To add to this workload, teachers have to ensure that all instructional materials are aligned with the specific standards of their districts. On average, there are 300 to 500 learning standards for each grade level in a typical school district in the United States. This number can be higher for larger school districts, making it harder for educators to keep up with requirements (Learning Counsel, 2021).
Curriculum management software provides solutions to the above-mentioned challenges. By automating the process of curriculum mapping, content and structure analysis, student assessment, and program evaluation, teachers are provided with the support that they need. Consequently, teaching and learning approaches are improved as more time is given to the individual needs of students. Curriculum management software also allows teachers to be involved in the design and selection of instructional materials.
For instance, many teachers today believe that topics such as citizenship (38%), environmental sustainability (38%), physical health (35%), and computational thinking (35%) should be incorporated into modern curricula (School Education Gateway, 2021).
Source: School Education Gateway
Curriculum management platforms facilitate the collaboration of teachers in designing a curriculum and ensure that all instructional materials are aligned with specific state standards, a factor that 73.3% of teachers deem extremely important (EdReports, 2021). In addition, curriculum management software integrates lesson planning tools that automatically provide relevant resources.
High-quality and aligned instructional materials are important because they ensure the growth and quality of learning of every student. It can help teachers meet their priorities when it comes to the students’ learning experience. These include the creation of student engagement materials, games, family engagement materials, and more (Cuprack, 2021). The features of curriculum management software such as the automated selection of target standards and resources, the instant iteration of curriculum to match student demand and pathways, learning outcome validation, and curriculum analytics empower teachers and learners.
Source: Curriculum Associates
Kuali Curriculum is a software solution for curriculum management that offers transparent and easy-to-use workflows. It gives your team the ability to highlight dependencies, which ensures that students are not missing specific requirements for course completion. Kuali Curriculum also enables you to view and track all curriculum information in a single dashboard.
Creatrix Campus is a curriculum management system that facilitates outcomes-based curriculum mapping through streamlined planning, designing, and execution. It helps faculty members to work towards continuous improvement by creating, managing, maintaining courses, measuring learning outcomes, and demonstrating the competencies of the student. Creatrix Campus has an intuitive curriculum approval process that lets you connect your curriculum to learning outcomes while streamlining the collaboration and approval process.
Courseleaf CIM is a curriculum inventory management software that takes the entire curriculum process online, making it easy to regularly create relevant content. It has dynamic forms that facilitate intelligent workflow, enabling processes to move forward without manual intervention. The custom forms are designed to align with campus policies. The content is also pre-populated with data from the system of record, which allows for the quick identification of new courses and modification of existing ones.
Coursedog is a curriculum management platform that integrates academic and event scheduling, curriculum and catalog management, and course demand projections and analytics. Using a single, bi-directional integration with SIS, Coursedog executes student-centric, cost-efficient schedules while integrating academic scheduling. This end-to-end solution delivers actionable course demand projections that support operational excellence. Coursedog integrates with communication platforms as well as SSO providers like SAML, Shibboleth, and CAS.
Atlas curriculum management software helps schools initiate, re-design, and continually refine and improve curriculum development processes in a single unified system. By offering a seamless and integrated experience, the Atlas curriculum planning platform lets schools manage different types of curriculum design for the same course. It also provides unit planner templates that are designed to evolve with your curriculum development.
Akari is a platform for curriculum management that gathers insights and digital assets while streamlining processes. It empowers academics, supports institutional sustainability, and facilitates learner success. Using the Akari curriculum planning software, you can design an outcomes-based curriculum and keep learning objectives aligned with learning competencies.
Chalk is a curriculum management software designed to manage a unified system for creating digital curricula and lesson planning. It enables academics to engage and collaborate for daily professional development and supports a hybrid course delivery method. Chalk tools include robust visual curriculum analytics with specific academic standards that show how teacher instruction and student learning are progressing. The Chalk analytics tool also identifies specific areas of the curriculum that are effective and promotes continuous improvement in curriculum plans.
CourseLoop Curriculum Management is a software solution that increases the efficiency of workflows by providing dynamic workflows. By giving users total visibility and control of the curriculum process, a collaborative and cohesive workflow is achieved while at the same time eliminating redundant tasks. CourseLoop Curriculum Management is purpose-built to streamline and integrate the various processes involved in designing a curriculum, which results in reduced administrative overhead. This also provides maximum visibility for a collaborative and efficient experience.
Watermark Curriculum Strategy is a curriculum management software solution for higher education that facilitates collaboration. Using an intuitive curriculum management workflow, Watermark connects the curriculum to an outcomes-based education strategy. It streamlines catalog creation and curriculum development, while the system provides real-time updates to ensure that the online catalog is always accurate. Using student feedback and data, Watermark Curriculum Strategy continually improves curriculum content towards improving the teaching and learning strategy.
The edInsight Curriculum Management System (CMS) is an easy-to-use online tool for managing curriculum design and delivery. It has a flexible configuration that oversees all the stages of the curriculum lifecycle and enables districts to follow any curriculum methodology. You can also configure edInsight CMS based on your unique curriculum procedures. It provides access to a resource library of best practices that is also integrated with the lesson planner and curriculum tools.
DreamClass school management software includes a class management feature that helps build, organize, and modify curriculum structure online. It supports all relevant administrative processes by creating a representation of the classes, courses, or training subjects offered by the institution. Aside from curriculum management, DreamClass also includes tools for the management of admissions, students, attendance, financials, teacher, academics, and schedules. It also includes a student and teacher portal. Subscription for the Basic Plan starts at $29 per month, paid yearly, for up to 40 students.
Top Hat is a curriculum management software that empowers educators and students through its dynamic software. It delivers personalized, equitable, and meaningful learning in every course. This all-in-one teaching and learning platform provides intuitive learning tools and interactive textbooks. Moreover, it identifies which tools and methods are most effective for specific groups of learners. This platform also captures data from quizzes, polls, assignments, tests, and attendance, and translates these data into actionable insights. Top Hat Pro starts at $30 per student while the Top Hat Basic is free. Professors can subscribe to Top Hat for free.
Kiddom Education Platform is an all-in-one curriculum management software that provides a high-quality digital curriculum, instruction, and assessment platform for teaching and learning. It partnered with the highest-quality curriculum providers to be able to offer the best platforms for the learning community. The partners of Kiddom Education are highly rated by EdReports, and give access to a top-rated curriculum that increases learner engagement and reduces teacher workload. Pricing for Kiddom depends on the format chosen, curriculum publisher, and additional features.
PlanbookEdu is a web-based curriculum management software that allows educators to collaborate on a single platform for the creation of lesson plans as well as for lesson content design and analysis. Educators only need a web browser and internet connection to be able to work with colleagues, administrators, or substitutes. PlanbookEdu also allows users to set role-based access. It seamlessly integrates with Google Apps for Education and offers a unified solution to schools that are already using Google for document management, calendar, and email. PlanbookEdu offers a free plan with limited features while the Premium plan starts at $25 per year.
OnCourse Curriculum Builder is a curriculum management platform that takes interactivity, teacher engagement, and integration to new heights. It combines online curriculum and lesson planning to develop an exceptional fusion that educators will find very useful in curriculum engagement and standards-alignment. You can also create dynamic curriculum maps to ensure that all benchmarks are met throughout the school year. OnCourse keeps your school up-to-date with Common Core and other relevant standards.
Embarc Curriculum Mapping and Management Solution is a platform that links learning objectives with the process of lesson development, delivery, assessment, and refinement. It facilitates this workflow across teachers, classrooms, and grade levels in K-12 school districts. Embarc sees to it that lessons are aligned with the rigorous curriculum to guarantee systematic growth. By reducing duplication of effort, Embarc also improves workflow efficiency.
Curriculum Trak is a curriculum management software solution that offers tools for unit and lesson planning. Primarily used by teachers and school administrators, Curriculum Trak is a platform designed by faith-based educators to provide the specific requirements of faith-based schools. It enables schools to review, refine, and reflect on curricular decisions and connects you to a network of instructors that offer similar pedagogical principles, tools, and resources. The clear and intuitive tools of Curriculum Trak make instruction efficient and focused, while at the same time providing relevant training and support.
Worktribe is a cloud-based curriculum management platform for collaborative curriculum development. It is intuitive, and the system architecture follows clear and structured workflows for agile curriculum development, including modification and validation. Worktribe makes it easy to track document editions by automatically capturing revisions and gives users access to version history. This clear activity log also ensures accountability and provides an audit trail. Worktribe enables higher education institutions to easily adapt and modify curricula based on changing demands.
Moodle, though more popularly known as a learning management platform, is also an open-source curriculum management software. The Moodle system can be expanded to function as a hub for academic collaboration and curriculum management. Within Moodle, you can create and organize courses based on your curriculum and incorporate educational standards. Moodle can also be configured to generate data on student access and performance on the site.
Eduphoria Forethought is a curriculum management software solution that features dynamic curriculum mapping tools. It seamlessly integrates curriculum content, instructions, and activities across a school district into the lesson planning process. Eduphoria Forethought allows educators to adjust instruction and flow of content to meet the changing demands of learners. During the planning process, Eduphoria Forethought gives easy access to scope and sequence to establish common conversation across teams and ensure unified instructional focus. Differentiation at the classroom level is guaranteed as teachers are given complete control of their planners.
Curriculum management software is essential for schools to quickly adapt to the ever-changing education landscape. The best curriculum management software provides all the tools that can help in improving learning and teaching approaches, resources, tools, and processes. At the same time, it also offers the flexibility that institutions need to keep their identity and uniqueness as educators and learning centers.
At the core of every curriculum management software is the mechanism to improve current and future academic offerings. From curriculum mapping to program evaluation, we have seen that each platform on our list offers features for collaboration and tools for effective facilitation of feedback.
While some curriculum management tools are specialized such as the curriculum management software for faith-based schools, as well as the platforms designed for higher education, all the solutions provide tools for streamlining processes and improving collaboration. Learning in the 21st century requires agility and adaptability. Having curriculum management software ensures that your institution will have this capability.
The push to accelerate the digital transformation of educational institutions is happening at a brisker pace and at different fronts. Institutions are spoiled for alternatives to various digital applications, having sophisticated tools ranging from the best school accounting software to the leading facilities management solutions at their disposal.
Students, meanwhile, can pick from any number of applications to help with their academic pursuits. For example, writing papers can be a challenging task for many, but with academic writing software tools around, it becomes largely manageable.
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by Imed Bouchrika, Phd
by Imed Bouchrika, Phd
by Imed Bouchrika, Phd
