The quality of educational institutions and the outcomes they produce can be directly linked to the effective implementation of certain key process areas: learning, teaching, curriculum design, and assessment.

Curriculum design is an especially important process because the type of curriculum used along with its quality significantly influences the manner in which students learn and the way faculty teach and students succeed.  

Traditional curricula is written to support traditional methods of instruction. Using this type of curricula makes it more difficult for faculty who teach utilizing student-centered, active learning approaches to achieve the “process outcomes” they desire.

By integrating learning theory into the course design process, curricula can be created which support Process Education approaches, thereby creating learning environments which challenge students to develop essential learning skills as well as master content.