Skip to main content
Students having class with book and tablets, in outside auditorium.

How Academic Data Can Inform Curriculum Development

Unlocking the Full Potential of PEA: See how Program Economic Analysis can help you explore opportunities for curricular development.

This edition of the Program Economic Analysis (PEA) use case series explores how your PEA data can inform curriculum development.

Let’s start by acknowledging an important truth: Your accreditor expects your faculty to fully participate in the curriculum development process, which should be taken seriously.

Language From the Higher Learning Commission (HLC): “Faculty participate substantially in oversight of the curriculum offered—its development, vetting, and implementation…”1
Specific Criterion From the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC): “The institution…places primary responsibility for the content, quality, and effectiveness of the curriculum with its faculty.”2
Language From the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE): “An accredited institution possesses and demonstrates…student learning experiences that are designed, delivered, and assessed by faculty (full-time or part-time) and/or other appropriate professionals.”3

This doesn’t mean every new or reimagined program must be built from the ground up with entirely new courses. In turn, accreditors also require you to demonstrate responsible use of institutional resources and sustainable course schedules, which are significant drivers of financial health.

We recommend you use a combination of PEA’s Course Trends and Course Instructor dashboards to explore your ideal opportunities for curricular development.

For instance, are you revising your general education (gen ed) curriculum? Follow these steps:

  1. Offered Courses – Identify all courses offered in your gen ed curriculum. 
  2. In Course Trends – Look for courses with enrollment well under your target for several years in a row. This is probably present in courses that routinely enroll fewer than 10 students. 
  3. In Course Instructor – Identify full-time faculty who routinely teach fewer student credit hours than expected. Look at part-time faculty separately. 
  4. Cross-Reference Those Lists – If you have under-enrolled courses taught by full-time faculty you’d like to retain, those courses should be required in the general education curriculum (not just offered). If you have low-enrolled courses routinely taught by adjuncts, consider whether you should offer those courses. 

With a more demand-driven approach, you could eliminate low-enrolled courses from the requirements and reassign faculty to teach larger sections of in-demand courses. However, that is not always feasible or desirable. 

Either way, class sizes will increase. We’ve noticed that offering many courses in the gen ed curriculum is easy. However, more options for students often means more expenses for the institution. Perhaps more importantly, those offerings aren’t always driven by student interest or serving learning outcomes. 

As a matter of process, your gen ed curriculum should likely be more prescriptive. This approach fills seats and standardizes your pedagogical approach.

The process above can also be deployed when you’re launching new programs. Are you considering launching a new M.B.A. in human resources, a new certificate in marketing, or a new bachelor’s degree in social justice? Use your PEA dashboards to find courses in your psychology program that can cross-serve without adding sections. 

For more information, read the other articles in this series, “Strategies to Analyze & Plan for Faculty Line Replacements” and “Discount Rate Review.”


Want to learn more about using PEA for curriculum development? Contact us for more insight into how PEA can help you unlock the full value of your institution’s academic program data.

  • 1“Criteria for Accreditation, Policy Number: CRRT.B.10.010,” hlcommission.org, 2024.
  • 2“Accrediting Standards,” sacscoc.org, 2024.
  • 3“Standards for Accreditation and Requirements of Affiliation – Fourteenth Edition,” msche.org, 2024.

Related FORsights

Like what you see?
Subscribe to receive tailored insights directly to your inbox.