The PALET Motherboard

The PALET motherboard has been developed to provide a visual snapshot of some of the key links that exist between the PALET Project and a number of other projects and strategic initiatives underway at Cardiff University and in the wider HE environment. It is important that the project links with, feeds into and feeds from these initiatives to allow PALET to achieve maximum value and to ensure that the outputs are sustainable and can be further developed after the life of the project.

To download a Powerpoint slide of the motherboard, please visit THIS LINK.

Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine.

It has been a while since the last blog post - and there have been a number of development and changes with the PALET Project to report, which are summarised below:  

From one Lloyd to Another

In May of this year, David Lloyd (Senior Assistant Registrar) took over from Andy Lloyd (no relation!) as Project Manager of PALET. Andy has taken on a new role here at Cardiff, managing a cross-institutional Project concerned with Assessment Matters. Fortunately, Andy has not been physically relocated and the Project Team are able to draw upon the knowledge, experience and learning gained through his management of PALET to date. We are also fortunate that David has been involved in PALET from Project initiation – both at an operational level and a strategic level through his membership on the Project Steering Group.

Technical Options

The team from Information Services have been working on an options analysis paper, analysing the requirements gathered by PALET to date and exploring the most appropriate technical solutions. It has now been agreed that the formal programme approval process will be managed by SITS Process Manager. Technical options are still being explored for the delivery of the "knowledgebase" and the facility for online support, guidance and dialogue, but it is looking likely that the tool 'Connections' within the University's Modern Working Environment will be able to deliver what we want.

Project Scope

Having read the overview of the Interim Reports submitted by all of the design projects, changing project scope seems to be a common challenge for many. There has been ongoing debate about precisely what might realistically be achieved with the time and resource allocated to PALET. I.e. whether the new process will accommodate the design of only New Programmes (around 5% of programme level developments) or whether it might be extended to deal with major changes to existing programmes (around 95% of programme level developments).

Now that the technical solution has been agreed, it appears that it will be feasible to design a process that can accommodate major changes to existing programmes as well as entirely new programmes. This is good news, as it means that PALET will have a much larger impact across the Institution than previously thought.

Defining the Detail

It is within the context described above that the Project Team have been working to develop the detail of a New Process. There are also a number of wider University initiatives/discussions with which PALET must align, particularly those around the areas of Portfolio Planning and Programme Information.

The Project Team are still in the process of developing the detail of the New Process, and intend to present it to the University’s Academic Standards and Quality Committee later this year for consideration. Watch this space…

JISC Programme Meeting: Brass tacks: Key challenges in delivering a flexible curriculum

Last Wednesday, Andy and I travelled to Birmingham to attend the JISC Programme Meeting for all of the JISC funded Curriculum Design projects. The meeting started with a general update from the JISC about the activities that the organisation will be focussing on over the next few years, to name a few - technology enhanced assessment and feedback, learning and digital literacies and learner achievement and learner data. Next, each cluster group (A, B and C) gave a short report back on the work of the clusters and progress with individual projects. 

The first main agenda item for the day was concerned with 'Managing Course Related Information' and included presentations from several projects, including OULDI (Open University) and PiP (Strathclyde University). I was struck by just how many projects were facing almost identical challenges, despite the core focus of the projects being different. It seems that the other projects have also opened a "Pandara's box" of challenges, in seeking to revise and enhance different aspects of Programme Approval/Curriculum Design.

I was interested in the representation of different 'course views', being developed as part of the OULDI Project. The idea seemed to be that five course 'views' (listed below), can be used to interrogate, and represent a programme of study: 1. Design Decision Tool; 2. Course Map; 3. Pedagogy Profile 4. Cost Effectiveness; 5. Course Performance. The project is aiming for better articulated courses, which are more cost effective. In defining the detail of the new approval process designed by PALET, we are starting to consider our reporting requirements at various stages of the process. It might be useful for us to consider developing these requirements in a similar way - i.e. the reports generated during the process being a different 'representation' or 'view' of the programme, dependent on the information needs of the stakeholders involved at each point.

The presentation given by the Principles in Pattern (Strathclyde) Project Team, could have easily been about PALET. The team have been exploring very similar challenges to us, with regards to their current programme approval process: little standardisation, the same information presented in different ways depending on the School/Directorate, no version control when developing programme information, a focus on what will be taught rather than on learning opportunities - all things that were identified during the review undertaken through PALET. In fact, if comments on the twitter feed (#jisccdd) were anything to go by, these challenges seemed to chime with most of the institutions present. It will be interesting to see how the projects unfold and work to address similar challenges in their own, and often very different contexts.

Many of the projects funded under the programme also seem to be involved in some sort of process mapping at the moment. There was a general consensus that it might be useful to work across cluster groups/across the programme to share practice, to avoid reinventing the wheel. We'll see if and how this will be taken forward...

Final comment: A one day meeting just wasn't long enough!

The CAMEL Trail: SEDA Conference 2010

After a gruelling 5.5 hour train journey last week, Andy and I arrived in Leeds, ready to present with the rest of Curriculum Design Cluster B, at the SEDA Conference. The conference aimed to explore and debate the issues around ‘Communities of Learning’.

Our Cluster Group ran a session called ‘The CAMEL Trail’, which aimed to share the collaborative and supportive ‘CAMEL’ approach that we have adopted, the activities and themes that we have explored as a group, and how each project has gained from being part of a CAMEL community. Through the session, we aimed to explore the benefits of using the CAMEL approach and shared top tips that session participants may be able to apply to their own contexts.

We started the presentation with an introduction to the CAMEL model and how it has been adopted by our cluster group. We outlined the themes that have been focussed upon during face to face meetings, the activities that have been run, the tangible outputs that have been achieved and the benefits of adopting the approach and working collaboratively.

Following this initial introduction, a wider open group discussion took place, exploring the benefits and pitfalls of the approach in more detail. Discussion started around the funding required to help facilitate such collaboration. JISC (funders of the Curriculum Design and Delivery projects) have allocated funding specifically for CAMEL Cluster meetings. The host institution receives a set amount of funding to contribute towards the costs of running a CAMEL meeting. Participants at the SEDA session were interested to find out, ‘what’s in it for the funders?’. Marianne Shepherd, Co-ordinator of the JISC Design and Delivery Programmes advised that JISC had found the CAMEL approach useful in providing projects with another layer of support (i.e. peer support), an opportunity to build upon commonalities between projects so as not to reinvent the wheel, and had also resulted in programme level outcomes (e.g. Dissemination at Conferences, journal articles etc).

During the session, we discussed other approaches and models to facilitate collaboration and support across the HE sector – for example the Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETLs), amongst others. There was a general feeling that there is a need on a national level, for a more consistent approach towards the management and co-ordination of support networks. Also, it was felt that more emphasis needs to be placed on the coordination and sharing of project and outcomes, both at a University level and on a wider scale. It was felt that a Central Educational Development Unit (or equivalent) would be the most appropriate and useful place to share outcomes within a University.

It was suggested that given the nature of the Curriculum Design projects, it may be useful to host a CAMEL event aimed at the Pro-Vice Chancellors from the institutions in the cluster… now there’s food for thought…..!

I attended a couple of interesting sessions during the rest of the Conference, including a workshop exploring the Student Experience of Final Year Students and a talk from the soon-to-be President of the National Union of Students (NUS), Aaron Porter.

"No CAMEL route is long, with good company" – Turkish Proverb

It’s nearing the Easter break and there is no doubt I’m wishing away the time until Good Friday – but, I’m feeling refreshed, enthusiastic and excited about the PALET Project once again. I can only draw one conclusion - I must have been to a CAMEL meeting! Andy (Lloyd) and I spent Wednesday/Thursday of last week meeting with staff from four other institutions, all working on similar projects to PALET under the ‘Institutional Approaches to Curriculum Design’ programme, funded by JISC. We take it in turns to host, and this time it was the turn of colleagues from the University of Greenwich. We had a busy agenda for the two days, including the following:

Generic customisable process template (Day 1)

As a cluster, we discussed the potential for the development of a shared and customisable curriculum design and approval process map. We spent time exploring the key questions around the curriculum design and development process, looked briefly at the current practice in project institutions and finally discussed the potential development of a common model. The cluster then began to consider whether the high level model developed by PALET, could be adopted as a common model across institutions. It was felt that if the cluster could agree a common model, then it might be possible to begin collaborating and sharing resources – for instance common and customisable templates, guidance notes, business case development tools etc. We agreed to explore this further offline, and other projects will soon be offering their comments on how well the PALET model fits with their own institutions – should be interesting.

Evaluation Update (Day 1)

The session explored the various approaches that are being used by the projects – which range from completely independent through to entirely embedded. The cluster discussed evaluation methods – both the evaluation of the more tangible outcomes emerging from projects, and also the importance of evaluating more intangible elements, for instance stakeholder engagement.

Cluster Dissemination (Day 2)

The Cluster is due to present at the SEDA Conference in May, the theme of which is ‘Communities of Learning’. Our cluster is presenting on the ‘CAMEL’ model, our experiences of working in this way and the potential benefits and pitfalls that it can bring.  For more information, please visit the SEDA website.

Student Engagement (Day 2)

We had a useful session exploring how each of the institutions had engaged with/intended to engage with students in their projects. Several of the projects reported that the students at their institution felt over-surveyed, and were making use of data that had been collected for other purposes instead. Birmingham City University (T-SPARC) described a strategy to embed students in the programme development/approval process, through a method of “co-creation”, facilitated by payments of £10 per hour to students. We were all very interested to hear more about this, and agreed that student engagement should feature on the agenda for the next CAMEL meeting in Birmingham.

Quality Assurance / Quality Enhancement Session (Day 2)

Day 2 of the CAMEL meeting was rounded off nicely by a session with Peter Findlay, Assistant Director at QAA for Higher Education. Peter summarised how the QAA works at the moment, and gave an indication of the potential changes on the horizon (e.g. a greater focus on the quality of student learning experiences, more meaningful student involvement in quality processes and clearer information to be made available to students about the pathways open to them and what is expected of them.)

The session was of particular interest to us at Cardiff, as it focussed on how the QAA might respond to significant changes to quality process, which of course is fundamental to the PALET Project. Peter stressed that the QAA welcomes institutions that are looking to enhance and develop their processes and that most QAA requirements are more negotiable than is commonly believed (as long as the HEI has a clear rationale!) He indicated that the QAA will accept a degree of risk in a process, as long as quality standards and the quality of the student learning experience are not harmed.

Peter advised that the work of our cluster group is of great interest to the QAA, and has the potential to be very influential, as it clearly addresses significant aspects of the QAA agenda. Peter agreed to provide feedback on the high level process map developed by PALET, and we’re looking forward to working with him, and the QAA, as the project progresses.

Social Activities

A valuable part of each CAMEL event is the social activities, which offer a good opportunity for cluster members to reflect upon the sessions of the previous day, continue informal discussion about projects and build good relationship and mutual trust between project teams. Our hosts from Greenwich took us for an early evening walk to the point where East meets West at the Greenwich Meridian Line at the Royal Observatory of Greenwich. This was followed by an evening at the Trafalgar Tavern on the banks of the Thames, and once popular with the likes of Charles Dickens and William Thackery. The cluster also enjoyed a session to reflect upon the activities and outcomes of the CAMEL, whilst spinning around on a capsule of the London Eye - Andy and I were unable to attend (a good job as we’re both petrified of heights!).

All in all, a very successful and positive CAMEL – I look forward to the next one hosted by Birmingham City University later this year.

Lean: Doing right things righter

It's exactly one year since I started work here at Cardiff University, as a Project Officer for the PALET Project, which will pilot a more agile and flexible process for the development and approval of new programmes of study at Cardiff University. As the project title might suggest (Programme Approval Lean Electronic Toolset), from the outset, PALET has utlised Lean Thinking methodology for process improvements.

Christine Stewart (Director of LEAN) and her team have been heavily involved in PALET to date, and we've really benefited from the experience and LEAN expertise. I have recently attended the LEAN Skills for Managers Training, which aims to equip managers with the ability to apply lean thinking in their part of the organisation. Over a period of 16 weeks, we have learnt various skills, tools and techniques that have helped us all undertake a small LEAN project of our own. The training has included sessions on the following; Current state mapping, data collection, future state mapping and implementation. The last training session is scheduled for Thursday, during which we'll be focussing on the evaluation and review of process improvements. 

I have found the course invaluable and I'm sure that the knowledge of Lean principles, tools and techniques will continue to be of use for the remaining two years of the PALET Project, and beyond. On reflection, perhaps earlier exposure to more of the detail behind the principles of Lean and the different tools available might have been useful. I wonder if perhaps a session on Lean could be included as part of the induction package to the University... just a thought!

 Right, on with trying to do the right things righter...

"Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work." [Peter Drucker]

  And I guess the hard work starts now, following the approval of the new high-level model for new programme approval by the University's Academic Standards and Quality Committee on 13^th January 2010.  The paper received by the Committee set out the model below, reported on the next stages to be undertaken by the Project, and identified the issues that have arisen from the work conducted to date.

At first glance this doesn't appear to offer a significantly quicker or leaner process.  Indeed, the inclusion of a stage focussed on the business case is an addition.  Schools did however feel it is important that this stage is included, and for the business case to be considered separately from the academic content.  Everyone we consulted with also agreed that there is a need for a more collaborative approach to be taken and for relevant support and guidance to be made available from appropriate directorates at different points in the process.  This will enable the process to be managed more efficiently by and within schools.  Other time savings will be made by reducing the volume of information required to support a new proposal and by ensuring the information collected can be re-used to support a programme's operation, by reducing the number of approval points to one, and by ensuring that information has to be entered once only.

So, what happens next - well - apart from further revision to the Project Plan, supporting implementation of new programme information templates, revising the Project's Evaluation Strategy, liaising with JISC and the other projects in our cluster, and looking at ways of disseminating outcomes from the Project - the main task for the Project will be to define all the precise steps in each part of the new process, and to engage and consult with stakeholders to find the best solution for everybody.  This will enable a technical specification for the IT based toolset to be developed in detail (all we all know that the 'devil' is always in the detail).

Thoughts or comments welcome

Andy

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda!

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda!

It's been a while since the last blog entry, mainly because we've all been so busy. Since the 'aspriational state' workshop (see previous blog post) we have held a number of workshops with attendees from 14 schools and a number of relevant directorates. A futher 'open' session was held to allow a wider range of schools to engage with and acquire 'ownership' of this. 

Attendees at the workshops and open session discussed the 'aspirational state' developed in the initial workshop and suggested ideas for enhancing the redesigned process further. A visual representation of the new process is now being developed, which will be circulated widely to all schools and directorates for comment. The Academic Standards and Quality Committee are due to discuss the high level redesigned process on 13 January 2010.  Whilst holding a series of workshops for key project stakeholders to design the new process has been rather time consuming, we believe it has been invaluable. School representatives in particular, really seem to have engaged with the project and have been genuinely keen to lead in the design of the new process to ensure that it meets their needs.

Among other things, the project team have also been working on drafting a detailed project plan for the next stages of the project. We had a meeting with the School of Nursing and Midwifery Studies (SONMS - one of the pilot schools), who were supportive of the plan and its timescales and keen to get more involved with the project.

Enough for now - I'm getting cravings for cold turkey and a cheese board...

The new Programme Approval Process: A Somali Pirate Speedboat...?????

Monday of last week, we held the all important workshop, at which participants worked towards designing the future state of the Programme Approval Process at Cardiff University. After a few ice-breakers, participants were asked to list the real-world constraints that could hinder a perfect process - for instance QAA/Professional body requirements, University culture and 28 different Schools. Constraints aside, participants were then asked to design a 'ship' to represent their aspirations of a new programme approval process for Cardiff University.   

Each group explained the reasoning behind their ship design. Common themes throughout the four ships were: Manoeverable, simple, advanced navigation system, streamlined, futureproofed, supportive crew, Ship captain keeping an eye on the horizon....

Two participants kindly offered (were coerced...!) to talk us through their ships - please view the below video:

Next, participants took the key messages from the "Art Attack" boat session, and started to develop a high level map of what the Programme Approval Process might look like in the future - using brown paper and post-it notes in true LEAN style! So, by the end of the workshop, we had an 'aspirational' high level map of what a new process would look like in an ideal world. Three more workshops are planned for November, at which participants will start to thrash out some of the detail, adding flesh to the bones of the high level aspirational map. As you can see - busy times aboard the good ship PALET - roll on Christmas :)

"No CAMEL route is long, with good company" - Turkish Proverb

Last week, Cardiff played host to the third CAMEL meeting of Design Cluster B*. The meeting took place in the impressive Committee Rooms of the Glamorgan Building - people seemed very impressed - and perhaps more impressed that a scene from Dr Who was filmed in the ladies loo...!

The meeting began with a summary update from all visiting projects. This was followed by a 'calzon quitao' session, during which we (Andy and I) highlighted key challenges and difficulties that had arisen during the life of the PALET project and accepted constructive criticism, advice and support from other cluster projects.

The first workshop session of the Camel meeting was run by Katya Hosking, the Inclusive Curriculum Officer at Cardiff University, and focussed building inclusivity into curriculum design. The interactive session was well received and seemed to provide food for thought for many project teams. Feedback on the session was captured via twitter and included;

"E&D session gave genuine food for thought."

"Great session from on inclusive curriculum design at Cardiff"

"Rethinking notion of "disability" and inclusion in light of #dcb09 session this pm will include this as one of our principles for predict"

 Day one concluded with a picturesque, sunset boat trip around Cardiff Bay. (This sounds very peaceful and relaxing, but ended up involving a huge panic when Taffs Mead ferry port couldn't be found...!) We continued discussions over dinner at Mimosa and came up with some great ideas for joint dissemination (*Watch this space!*).

 A 9am start on day two, and straight into another workshop session focussed on evaluation. Professor Peter Chatterton facilitated the session, at which we explored the different approaches projects were taking to evaluation. The meeting finished with further discussion of potential joint dissemination opportunities. And to round of a successful camel meeting, we found out that our proposal to run a symposium session at the SEDA Conference next year has been accepted.

Personally, as the host, I found it difficult to relax and enjoy the meeting at first - I was more concerned whether everyone else was enjoyed the sessions. Once I realised that everyone was engaging well with the inclusive curriculum workshop, I was able to enjoy the session myself. So, we're looking forward to the next Camel Cluster meeting in March, at which we'll experience sights and sounds of Greenwich...

* Cardiff University, Cambridge University, Birmingham City University, City University London, Greenwich University.

Sunset over Cardiff Bay

Progress and a Welsh Camel

We've had a busy couple of weeks following ALT-C with the PALET Project Management Team and PALET Project Steering Group meeting within one week of each other. Both meetings were good and reinforced to me the genuine senior level support and enthusiasm for the project - particularly now we've completed the baseline review of the current process and are moving into the design of the future. 

Programme Redesign 

The next stage of the PALET Project is for a new Programme Approval Process to be designed. As we are using a 'participatory design' model, we want the users of the process to lead in its design. An aspirational state workshop is scheduled for the start of November, during which colleagues from SONMS, two other Schools (TBC) and University Directorates will address the issues raised by the baseline report and focus upon what a new process would look like in an ideal world, with no constraints - what the LEAN team call 'an aspirational state'.

Once completed, the aspirational state map will be used as the basis for a further series of consultative workshops with all other Schools during November, during which academic and administrative staff from all Schools will build upon this to design the 'future state' of the process. The PALET Project Team will consider the outcomes of the workshops and produce a visual representation of a possible 'Future State', that will be presented to ASQC for consideration in January 2010.

 
Programme Information Templates 

A workshop was held last month, with representatives from a number of schools to work towards redesigning the templates used to gather programme information. Since then, we've reviewed the outcomes of this workshop and come up with a redesigned programme specification template and module description template. We have attempted to design the templates and associated guidance, to encourage people to write the information for a student audience. Whilst we're aware that further programme related information will need to be collected throughout the programme approval process (for the purposes of validation, populating other fields in SIMS etc.), the two templates have been structured to capture programme and module related information that would be of interest to the student. The new templates will be submitted to the Academic Standards and Quality Committee for approval at the end of October.

Andy and I are attending the JISC 'Designing for Delivery and Delivering the Design' Programme Meeting in Manchester next Tuesday/Wednesday (will Manchester have even more to answer for...??!). This is a cross programme meeting to provide an opportunity from the Design and Delivery programmes to network and identify synergies. I'm absolutely sure that they'll be more tweeting than talking - the twitter tag is #jisccdd for those of you who are interested to follow.

We're also preparing to host the next Cluster CAMEL meeting here at Cardiff, where we'll be focussing on themes such as Equality and Diversity and Project Evaluation. I'm looking forward to it... but finding it hard to visualise what a Welsh Camel might look like... 

"Oh Manchester, so much to answer for" - reflections from Alt-C

The Alt-C conference (8-10 September 2009 at Manchester University) proved to be an excellent opportunity both to reflect on where the PALET project is currently, and to develop ideas and explore new themes relevant to the project.  In particular, it served as a timely reminder that the project needs to engage more fully with the ways in which new curricula are actually designed.  The challenge remains to find ways through which the full range of internal stakeholders can properly engage with these issues, and ensure that the redesigned process fully captures the discussions and decisions that appear to now take place outside of the current approval process.

Overall the conference was both useful and informative; it included some great keynotes, and parallel sessions that inevitably ranged in quality, a number of which demonstrated the unfortunate consequences that arise from implementation of projects that have not fully engaged different stakeholder groups.  The PALET project itself was involved in two presentations, one led by the JISC Advisory Services team, which introduced attendees to the web-based "Design Studio", as well as to the projects themselves.  The other, "Herding Cats? Engaging stakeholders in complex institutional change projects", was delivered by the projects in our cluster, led by Prof. Stephen Brown, critical friend to the cluster.  Judging by the feedback we received this proved to be a very successful session, participants being invited to discuss a series of "top tips" for stakeholder involvement that have been identified by the projects on their experiences to date.  Short video clips from the session are below:

Overall, it was really useful and valuable to catch up with colleagues working in the cluster, as well as with staff from other projects and from the JISC.  In fact, it was in some ways more like a "programme meeting", albeit one that had the added benefit of a whole range of contributions from other participants at the conference.  It also demonstrated how far the cluster has developed as an identifiable "community of practice".  I really hope we can continue to positively support each other as we move forward, the next Camel meeting being in Cardiff next month.  I just hope everyone remembers to bring their brollies.  And BTW, it rained in Manchester as well "plus ca change,

Andy

Programme Info Update and a conference at the Rovers Return

Is it me, or do four day weeks feel even longer?! Anyway, this week, we have spent some time looking at the information gathered at the ‘Programme Information Workshop’ that took place last Monday. The participants of the workshop were split into four groups to represent four key audiences of the programme specification and the module descriptions:

1. Prospective Student
2. Entrant/New Student
3. Graduate
4. Employer/Professional Bodies

Following this, the four groups reconvened and started to identify which bits of information about a programme, should be found within the programme specification and module descriptions. The information gathered at the workshop will be looked at further next week and eventually, and hopefully, very soon, new templates will be developed. These will then be circulated for comment, so watch your inboxes…

In project dissemination news… Andy and I are off to the ALT Conference in Manchester next week where we are presenting at two symposium sessions. The first session is titled ‘Herding cats? Engaging stakeholders in complex institutional change projects’, and is being run by the five institutions in Design Cluster B (Cardiff, Cambridge, Birmingham City, City University, Greenwich). The second session is titled, ‘Curriculum challenges: ‘big words that make us so unhappy’’ – it’s a session looking at both Curriculum Design and Delivery Programmes, which will try to identify the outcomes/dissemination that the community wants around these themes.
 http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2009/index.html

The World of Wordle

Although it may sound like it, 'Wordle' is not a magical town in Middle Earth, neighbouring Mordor - it's a clever little tool that we have stumbled across and have decided to start using as part of our project communications. The Word Cloud below was particaruly easy to create. It was a matter of copying and pasting the aims and objectives of the PALET project into Wordle, which generated the below Word Cloud - giving greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. We think it quite a smart way to communicate what the project is about, in a single snapshot. For a clearer version, please click here.

"Information is a source of learning. But unless it is organized, processed, and available to the right people in a format for decision making, it is a burden, not a benefit" - William Pollard

Normally, I take two weeks annual leave - find myself worrying slightly about the amount of things will have happened/moved on in my absence - then returning to find out in fact, nothing has changed. However, after sunning myself in Sardinia for two weeks, I returned to find significant developments had taken place. 

Since it began in September 2008, the PALET project has been looking at the range of documentation used within the formal Programme Approval Process - e.g. programme specifications, programme regulations, module descriptions etc. It has become apparent that often similar information can also be found in the prospectus, website, in Blackboard and on the Univeristy's Student Information Management System (SIMS). The School's then have the onourous task of keeping the different sources of information upto date and consistent - quite a job!

So, the Academic Standards and Quality Committee (ASQC) at Cardiff University, has just approved a proposal to streamline the documentation - ensuring that the different versions of similar information are upto date and consistent. It was agreed that the programme specification will be revised and expanded, different elements of which can be made available to applicants, new entrants and graduates. In addition to this, a standard template detailing the programme structure will be developed and the module description template will be updated.

The PALET project has already established good links with a number of staff in academic Schools and has a number of workshops and interviews already scheduled. So, it has been agreed that the above will be taken forward by the good ship PALET, so as not to place any additional or unecessary administrative work in Schools. We are already using a participatory design approach in the PALET project, encouraging the users of the programme approval process to get actively involved in the design of a new process. We will adopt the same approach to review and revise the programme information templates, to ensure that what is developed genuinely meets the user's requirements.

So, all aboard the good ship PALET, and full steam ahead!