One of the basic foundations of education is curriculum. This is some sort of listing of all the things that a student or a learner must learn during a specific period of time. Today, because of the founding of online education or online schooling, questions such as “is there any difference between the curriculum of actual face to face education process to that of online education?” is raised. Many speculations made but the true answer is yes. There are definitely differences among the curriculums used to these two methods of attaining education.

In one regard, there is a difference – online learning experiences must teach the skills necessary for the student to interact successfully in the online environment. Until those skills are so embedded in all educational experience, they must be explicitly embedded within the curriculum for content taught online. One of the greatest challenges for online learning is determining when students have mastered the curriculum. Regardless of whether the course is conventional or online, assessment and curriculum must be considered together. Experienced online teachers at the college level point to the importance of the syllabus and online course description. Clearly written learning outcomes, assessment tasks accompanied by carefully designed rubrics are instructive as well as serving to inform students of expectations. There should be a match between the outcomes described in the curriculum, the course description provided to students, and the rubrics (also provided to students) accompanying the assessments and projects.

Regardless of whether it is formalized or online education, we must remember that curriculum is one basic component of education that we must all pay attention to. It is then important for us to deal with this curriculum first before anything else because without it, our purposes in education will be jeopardized.