#DCB09 poster presentation to ALT-C 2010

1. TECHNOLOGY– BASED SOLUTIONS
FOR ENHANCED CURRICULUM DESIGN
IN HIGHER EDUCATION
A JOURNEY OF INVOLVEMENT, INFLUENCE AND CHANGE
Five HEIs with some striking differences in Institutional distinctiveness has resulted in
background, philosophy, specialisms, image, different degrees of emphasis & engagement in curriculum
aspirations and — of course — students, have found design and a range of technologies and possible solutions.
enormous value in sharing the practice, ideas, More significant is the emergence of common issues,
experiences and outcomes of their separate socio- concerns & priorities and of complementary
technical institutional change projects. outcomes and shared lessons learned.
Read on to find out more about significant drivers, approaches, outcomes and reflections on institutional
approaches to curriculum design that have emerged from the five projects so far:
DRIVERS OUTCOMES
 Enhancing the quality of the student experience;  ”Staff now actually discuss curriculum design in terms
of content and philosophy and don‟t just focus on the
approval event and the paperwork”;
 Promoting innovation & flexibility in
teaching & programme design;  Student-facing versions of module/
programme specifications are in
 Desire for a more streamlined
development;
programme design and approval process;
 Students are being employed to develop
 Desire for more consistent and effective use of
curriculum in collaboration with staff;
programme information;
 Projects are at various stages of developing &
 Anticipated demographic shift / changing markets;
testing appropriate technical solutions to support
 Government cuts / funding squeeze; curriculum design and approval;
 Requirement to be more demand driven;  „Scope creep‟ has emerged whereby some
 JISC funding opportunity. OUR COMMON GOAL: projects have become associated with solving
related—and occasionally entirely unrelated—
issues.

BETTER COURSES
THROUGH
BETTER DESIGN
APPROACHES LESSONS LEARNED
 Stakeholder consultation and collaboration  It is very important for institutions to
informing and driving change; acknowledge that engaging staff from all the required
areas is a significant challenge, taking time and effort;
 Mapping of current processes;  Technology-driven solutions are not always the most
appropriate nor does it follow that they will have the
 Use of „Lean Principles‟ and
biggest impact;
participatory design to review
processes;  Raising & managing expectations in
the context of scope creep is proba-
 Re-engineering based on detailed specifications
bly an inevitable consequence of
gathered from stakeholders;
approaches driven by stakeholder
 Promoting innovation, flexibility and responsiveness consultation and collaboration;
in teaching and programme design;
 Development of bespoke tools, both technology  “Selling the pain” of inaction can been an effective
enhanced and non-technology related; approach; another is a “snowballing approach”
 Piloting/Re-engineering a range of open source and whereby the process of rethinking curriculum design
proprietary software, including SharePoint, Maharaja, can encourage increased engagement levels more
Wombat, Kuala Student, Twitter, Banner [Student]. generally.
Projects: T-SPARC—PALET—Course Tools—PREDICT—UG-Flex Each project is at the mid-way point of the four year
JISC funded programme, „Institutional Approaches to
Curriculum Design‟.
FURTHER DETAILS: http://www.netvibes.com/dcb09#DCB_09
ALT-C 2010 Poster: 0048:A rich and strange journey of involvement, influence and change in five HEIs
http://jisccdd.jiscinvolve.org/wp/