DETAILED PLANNING

DETAILED PLANNING

You realise that your team will need to receive intensive VLE training for the programme to be effective. They aren’t keen. OPTION 2 Spend time producing a persuasive demonstration for the team and show examples from your discipline OPTION 1 Give in to the team, and reduce the VLE activity considerably, even though this will be less flexible for students - 2 + 6 0 1

You need to use a lot of new technology. Your team is enthusiastic but inexperienced, and it's difficult to get everyone together. OPTION 2 Provide everyone with manuals so that they can get on in their own time OPTION 1 Organise two days of intensive training at the end of term + 4 0 1 0

The planning department tell you that your innovative plans look impossible in terms of timetabling and you’ll need to rethink. OPTION 2 Refuse to compromise on the innovative aspects and work with the timetablers to come up with a solution OPTION 1 Revert to a traditional one hour lecture/two hour seminar format 0 + 6 0 1

Your student representatives provide a one page summary providing suggestions on how the new provision improve on existing provision. OPTION 2 Consider every suggestion and implement everything that is feasible OPTION 1 Implement anything that is easy, or you were going to do anyway 0 + 8 0 1

Student consultation appears to be sparse and the outcomes are uninformative. OPTION 2 Take time to get to know the student reps and develop a through consultation strategy OPTION 1 Decide that is good enough and get on with other things - 4 + 2 0 1

You have an early meeting with timetablers to discuss the potential impact of the programme design on the faculty and explain the outcomes in the strategic approval form. OPTION 2 Schedule regular follow-up meetings OPTION 1 Assume that everything is now agreed and will work 0 + 4 0 1

You need to form a team to get the documentation together. OPTION 2 Lead from the front, producing all the documentation and circulating for comment at regular intervals OPTION 1 Form a core group, including students, schedule all meetings and set up a blog + 8 + 4 2 0

There is no slot when all members of the course team can meet regularly during the process and yet they all want to be involved at all stages. OPTION 2 Set up a regular monthly meeting anyway, people will come if they want to OPTION 1 Set up a wiki and a regular weekly email newsletter to keep people in touch + 6 + 6 1 0

The new course is going to be very different. OPTION 2 Work in small task-focused teams to ensure consistency OPTION 1 Divide the work and delegate each chunk to an individual with a deadline for completion + 4 + 6 0 1

At the first planning meeting, the course outline is agreed. It’s going to be very similar to the last version. OPTION 2 Divide up the whole documentation OPTION 1 Agree to write the documentation and leave each unit leader to write their own outline 0 + 4 0 1

There are lots of reasons why the course should be radically different from previous versions. OPTION 2 Have an away day to agree on course structure, assessment and feedback strategy and technology use and share out tasks OPTION 1 Ask everyone on the team to send in their ideas and then write a plan + 10 + 6 0 2

One of your unit leaders has filled half the spaces in the online form with rubbish and forgotten to go back and sort it out before signing the unit as complete. She's now gone on study leave for six weeks. OPTION 2 Wait for her to come back OPTION 1 Fill it in yourself - 4 + 8 0 1

Two people on the team have missed every deadline so far and the documents need to be signed off now. OPTION 2 Complain to the head of department OPTION 1 Write their sections yourself 0 + 6 0 0

In several units, the assessments do not align with the learning outcomes and activities. OPTION 2 Rewrite all of the unit outcomes and assessments OPTION 1 Leave it and hope the reviewers don't notice - 4 + 6 -1 0

The team refuses to use a shared file system and, as a result, there are multiple versions of documentation. OPTION 2 Collect all the documentation together and sort it out yourself OPTION 1 Insist that all team members put the correct version onto a shared system - 6 - 2 0 1

The university decides that all units must be 30 credits rather than the 20 credits you had been working to. OPTION 2 Quickly shift the learning outcomes around so that it looks like a set of coherent new units OPTION 1 Completely review the course units and create a set of coherent new units - 2 - 6 1 0

Two unit leaders have developed units that are broadly identical in an area they both want to teach. OPTION 2 Insist that they work together to create a single core unit covering that area OPTION 1 Leave both units available but make them optional 0 + 4 0 1

A team member has created a new optional unit in an area that is of little interest to anyone but them. OPTION 2 Point out that the new unit does not fit well within the course, and risk upsetting your colleague OPTION 1 Accept the unit to keep them happy, recognising that it will probably never run 0 + 4 0 1

At the last minute realise that the unit credits do not add up to a complete programme. OPTION 2 Thoroughly investigate why the problem has arisen and resolve it OPTION 1 Fudge it by changing the credits on some of the units so that it adds up - 4 + 2 0 1

A change in legislation means that one of the units needs to be completely revised to keep it up to date. OPTION 2 Completely revise the unit OPTION 1 Leave it as it is and hope nobody notices - 4 + 4 -1 1

DETAILED PLANNING