Teaching Planning Methods Through Modules

Abstract

Most academic planning programs offer planning methods through traditional threecredit courses in their core planning curricula, a format that our students, faculty, and alumni have questioned. The methods courses tend to get overloaded through incremental additions of material over time. Semester-long courses do not offer flexibility to students who need more in-depth coverage of some techniques. In addition, the match between faculty expertise in methods and the required methods offering is not ideal. The search for an alternative format of offering planning methods has led to the use of five-week, onecredit modules as a part of the core requirements. With the modules, the methods curriculum is now more diverse, more rigorous, and more practical than it was before. A survey of U.S. graduate planning programs suggests that the module approach to teaching planning methods is appropriate and effective for many particular methods. This discussion is intended to provide background and experience with methods modules.