Curriculum Design and Delivery Programmes: What are we learning?

1. Curriculum Design and Delivery Programmes: What are we learning? Sarah Knight, JISC For further information: Programme pages: www.jisc.ac.uk/curriculumdesign www.jisc.ac.uk/curriculumdelivery Programme blog: http://jisccdd.jiscinvolve.org/

2. Overview of today’s session • What is the role of technology in curriculum design and delivery? • How can we design more flexible curricula to better meet the requirements of learners and employers? • What are the messages for the next decade of practitioners designing learning for a technology-empowered generation? • Introduction to the JISC Curriculum Design and Delivery Programmes • Emerging findings from the programmes • Introduction to the Design Studio

3. Institutional Approaches to Curriculum Design • Aims • The 12 projects are reviewing course design and validation processes and in particular looking at the ways these are supported and informed by technology in order to transform learning opportunities • Timescales • October 2008 – July 2012 • Expected outputs • New/redesigned programmes, modules and sessions • Guidelines on various aspects of curriculum design • New design tools and environments • Development/integration of technical systems and data processes to support the design processe.g. Data/information diagrams, process diagrams, use cases or other models of the new data processes • Institutional case studies, video case studies, etc • Evidence of institutional transformation

4. Transforming Curriculum Delivery Through Technology • Aims • 15 Projects which aimed to transform the delivery and support of learning across a curriculum area through the effective use of technology, in response to a particular challenge faced by the department(s) or institution(s) involved. • Timescales • November 2008 – October 2010 • Project outputs include: • Guidance for institutions /curriculum • Detailed case studies • Videos, animations and screencasts • Toolkits of resources • How to’s and Getting Started guides on tools

5. Context • Since the call was published in May 2008 • Credit Crunch • Banking Collapse • Recession • Election • Bonfire of the Quangos • Browne Report • CSR and funding changes “The man who adapts his course of action to the nature of the times will succeed and, likewise, the man who sets his course of action out of tune with the times will come to grief.” Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, 1513

6. Curriculum challenges - Design

7. Curriculum challenges - Delivery

8. Where we started from • Partly because of the unique value of the curriculum at accrediting institutions, systems for developing the curriculum are usually concerned with quality and due process rather than flexibility and responsiveness: • ‘One of the most surprising findings from our work is that apart from a few ‘rough edges’ the validation regulations and process are reasonably agile and responsive.WE believe that technology does have a role to play in supporting the creative process of designing new courses and of saving labour, but the validation processes themselves are in reasonable shape – they don’t inhibit change’. Coeducate, Bolton • ‘focus on the products of curriculum design rather than the process of curriculum design distracts activity away from rich team discourse and innovative solutions to curriculum design challenges.’ They concluded that ‘approval practices tend to stifle innovation and require a documentary overhead that is perceived by staff as being disproportionate to its value.’ T-Sparc, BCU

9. Project approaches adapting to current challenges

10. What we are learning – Processes • The Business Case for Curriculum Development - Many issues concern the stage before the detailed design and approval process and the need to look at the rationale and market for new courses: • Cardiff is taking a risk management approach to course approval looking at the level of risk associated with different types of curse and tailoring the approval process accordingly. • The OU has developed a range of 7 different Course Views including pedagogy profile and cost effectiveness (the others are course map, course dimensions, learning outcomes, task swim-lane, and course performance • Staffordshire ENABLE project is questioning its approach to market research prior to course development • The Bolton Coeducate project is seeking to develop a business model based on ‘Open Learning.’

11. What are we learning - Representing the curriculum ‘Many problems with the management of course-related information can be put down to the fact that this is still a document-based rather than a data-based system (and paper-based at most institutions). This gives rise to duplication of effort and of information, lack of version control, poor re-use of relevant information for different purposes, and a tendency for information to be designed for approval rather than any other purpose.’ • BCU is concerned with capturing the ‘lived experience’ of curriculum design • Strathclyde and the Open University are exploring how to represent the curriculum in a way that can be reused to meet the needs of various stakeholders

12. What are we learning - Relationships between design and delivery • The link between design and delivery as viewed in terms of the relationship between approval and review processes has emerged as a key area for further work • ‘An important insight guiding current thinking concerns the relationship between the approval and review processes. Currently, programmes and modules are approved before any delivery has occurred with the result that significant changes from the approval plan are likely during first delivery. The project is exploring a potential new approach to approval and review in which newly-approved courses and classes might be revisited after their first implementation, with data from a planned review fed back and used to update the programme/module descriptions. In this way, delivery and review become an ongoing iterative process in which information from review is fed back to enhance module/programme documentation and to provide a history of delivery and subsequent enhancements. … This might be relevant to all HE institutions that see approval and review as part of a wider enhancement agenda.’ PiP, Strathclyde University

13. What are we learning – Assessment and feedback • This was a major focus of many of the Curriculum Delivery projects and is now becoming a significant issue for many of the Design projects • Ulster Viewpoints project has developed a set of Assessment and Feedback cards for staff to be informed, inspired and to help them plan their assessment and feedback strategy, focusing on the student experience and based on REAP principles

14. What we are learning – assessment and feedback ‘We need to ensure that students are not frightened off by the assessment. Part time work based students have many competing demands on their time and if they perceive the PLC assessment as being an immense and daunting task it is likely that they may consider dropping out of the module. To minimise this we are making the students aware that much of the module assessment is done through engaging in the activities and reflections as they study the component units.’PC3 Project, Leeds Metropolitan University • City University has identified a need to support staff writing programme specifications to ensure that assessment criteria are clear and compatible with the learning outcomes

15. What are we learning about – student engagement • Learners are of course the main beneficiaries of the project outcomes and projects are endeavouring to gain a learner perspective on their activities in a range of ways • The PREDICT project is analysing the range of student data collected for other purposes and ensuring that this is used to maximum effect in the project • BCU has recently launched a major university initiative in partnership with its Students’ Union seeking to engage students in co-creation of the curriculum. • The Student Academic Partners (SAP) scheme, allows for the employment of student partners to work with academic staff to develop or evaluate aspects of learning and teaching http://www2.bcu.ac.uk/celt/forming-learning-partnerships/sap .

16. What are we learning about – student engagement • Greenwich has undertaken World Café type sessions with students at their induction to inform the work of the UG-Flex project. • Leeds Met are using a ‘Where am I now?’ profiles at the start of the course is helping the university identify what support students require with their access to technology. • Viewpoints project has developed a set of Learner Engagement cards to help module co-ordinators, course directors and course teams to consider and plan the learning interactions undertaken by their students during their course/module .

17. Technologies and Standards in Curriculum Design

18. Technologies in use in Curriculum Delivery

19. Not just about new technologies • The much criticised VLE plays a significant role in many of the project innovations • 7 out of 15 projects are using Moodle to support their activities, and have reported that the modular and flexible nature of this software has been significant in their choice. • It is highly valued by students as a portal to both their learning and support functions, including assessment and feedback handling. ‘Remote students found the VLE to be a valued link to the institution when they were away on placements (MoRSE project) with VLEs offering reliable (mostly always available) and secure places for staff, students and others (such as industrial partners) to share information – both in terms of content and discourse’’

20. Not just about new technologies • Projects are genuinely focused on pedagogy and on solving real problems, rather than finding a technology solution then seeking the problem to which they can apply it. • There is clear evidence of the importance of the good relationships between IT departments and projects in terms of developing and supporting system integrations and the deployment of technologies to allow the pedagogical innovations to take place. • Projects have listened to their stakeholders and finding sustainable ways to support and enhance their learning experience

21. Emerging findings from Curriculum Delivery • Importance of the learner voice • Commitment to listening to learners, with interesting results – Exeter Integrate Project and Kingston KUBE project • Strong stakeholder engagement • Priority for all projects, particularly teaching staff, but also learners, managers and employers eg Oxford, Cascade Project stakeholder engagement plan • Innovative approaches, e.g. ‘learners as researchers’, ‘Curriculopoly’ game for staff from Kingston College KUBE Project • ‘change happens one conversation at a time’ • Impact of changes to administrative activities with big wins – timetabling, assignment handling type activities (not necessarily directly curriculum related) – very positive student responses and significant impact on time saving and cost efficiencies

22. Emerging findings from Curriculum Delivery • Strong focus on personal transformation of learners • project efforts emphasising  reflective learning, peer interaction, and collaboration (mentoring, assessment, knowledge and content sharing), flexible learning and professional learning (theory into practice). • Balancing efficiencies and effectiveness   • adopting approaches that impact on the most students – eg – generic skills content impacting learners across subject disciplines – learning literacies

23. www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/curriculum https://jiscdesignstudio.pbworks.com

26. Further information Programme pages: www.jisc.ac.uk/curriculumdesign www.jisc.ac.uk/curriculumdelivery Programme blog: http://jisccdd.jiscinvolve.org/ Additional links: http://www.netvibes.com/circlejisc http://twitter.com/circlespace http://www.youtube.com/jisccdd http://www.circlespace.net