Update on the Curriculum Programmes

1. Update on the Curriculum Programmes Helen BeethamMarianne Sheppard

2. Institutional Approaches to Curriculum Design • Aims • review institutional curriculum processes and enhance thru use of technology • Timescales • October 2008 – July 2012 • Baseline reviews + interim reports + project videos • 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 • Institutional case studies, video case studies, etc 217/03/10 | slide 2

3. Transforming Curriculum Delivery Through Technology • Aims • transform the delivery and support of learning across a curriculum area through the effective use of technology • Timescales • November 2008 – October 2010 • Expected outputs • Descriptions / models of new practice • Rationale for new practice • Detailed case studies and evaluation reports • Guidance for institutions and/orsubject teams 317/03/10 | slide 3

4. Institutional transformation Curriculum transformation Learning (personal transformation) TECHNOLOGIES P R A C T I C E S

5. Curriculum/institution challenges

6. Curriculum/Learning challenges

7. The 'real' challenges... Breaking out of the innovation corrale Crossing institutional badlands and borderlands Winning over the sherriffs, the townsfolk, AND the outlaws Redefining roles and rewards (the brokeback mountain scenario) The empty bank

8. Challenges from curriculum design programme • Curriculum information and its representation to users • Lack of coherent management of course-related information: • Different requirements, separate systems, low user confidence, poor version control, lack of clarity about ownership/responsibility • A document-based system focused on validation as a gateway • Curriculum design practice (L&T practice) including: • Limited expertise in developing 'non-standard' approaches, e.g. open, skills-based curriculum • Little experience in developing curriculum from needs of workplace, community, or e.g. market analysis • Continuing poor fit between best learning aspirations and enacted models of TLA • Staff time, reward and confidence to innovate • Ownership of the curriculum? ‘The critical requirement of satisfying the approval process means that documentation is written with that committee in mind, and the utility of this information for other users is compromised. Many potential users, including design teams and students, would value visual and multimedia representations of the curriculum in addition to text.’ ‘the majority believed the prevalence of e-learning technologies is making the process of creating courses more complex, with around half believing that new pedagogic approaches were required, and more than half indicating a need for support, confidence building and better tools for integrating technology effectively into the curriculum.’ 817/03/10 | slide 8

9. Challenges from curriculum design • Institutional processes and practices including: • Need for more agile approval process to support changing requirements of students, employers and other stakeholders • Approval, validation and review processes are complex, and lacking in clarity and transparency, making it difficult for staff to engage with them • Approval process should be capturing more information about educational principles and/or about conformance with university/faculty educational mission • Different discipline areas have different processes and requirements for curriculum design • Committee processes create bottlenecks and problems around timings e.g. evidence of enrolment being delays by a year because of the approval process being held up. • (Examples view multimedia baseline reviews from Cardiff and BCU) ‘the aspirations expressed in institutional learning and teaching (and other) strategies are not always effectively articulated through the design and approval process.’ ‘There is considerable duplication of effort in the production of course-related documentation, and much of the information captured is not re-used efficiently to support other operational processes, e.g. those involved in delivery and learning support.’ 917/03/10 | slide 9

10. “Responsive, flexible and agile curricula” • Interviews with stakeholders → clearer definitions, e.g.: • streamlined documentation and information processes • better integrated institutional systems • more transparent processes with more user-friendly modes of communication/representation • greater involvement by students • ongoing partnerships and dialogue with other stakeholders • more opportunities for students to choose elements of their learning • more modular system (design view)? • more holistic view of the learning pathway that crosses individual units of learning (learner view)? • more variation in the system – richer ecology of curriculum models and practices 1017/03/10 | slide 10

11. Institutional transformation Curriculum transformation Learning (personal transformation) TECHNOLOGIES P R A C T I C E S

12. Transformational technologies • Immersive worlds • Second Life, virtual patients • Assessment technologies • audio and SMS feedback, diagnostic tests, assignment handling • Personal and social technologies • e-portfolios, learning maps, social tools, mobile and wireless • Technology enhanced learning environments • VLE’s, video conferencing, mash-ups, interactive surfaces • Learning design tools • Phoebe, Xerte, semantic web, Cloudworks • e-Resources • E-books, podcasts, oers 1217/03/10 | slide 12

13. Emergent findings • Learner voice: listening to learners has interesting/unforeseen repercussions • Stakeholder engagement demands creativity, e.g. learners as researchers, ‘Curriculopoly’ for staff • Metrics of transformation: stories about change, cost-benefit analyses • Multiple connections across the two programmes • Retention and progression key issues across the board • Staff confidence and expertise critical: perceptions of and skills for transformation; new staff; new career paths • Technical intervention can be a trojan horse for rethinking educational ends and means, e.g. in support and preparation for f2f learning, feedback, use of content • Need to identify which technology practices are efficient and effective for staff and for learners 1317/03/10 | slide 13

14. The Design Studio

15. Inward focus Formative Supportive Work in progress Loose collection A hybrid and evolving enterprise... External focus Summative Communicative Outcome Structured toolkit?