Supporting Curriculum Design - Workshop 2

The second workshop in the 'Supporting Curriculum Design' programme of activity took place on 24 January 2012. The workshop was facilitated by staff from the Learning and Teaching Support Team and members of the JISC funded Digidol Project Team. In the below video, Dr Sarah Williamson (Head of Learning and Teaching Support) gives an overview of the second workshop.

Supporting Curriculum Design

In line with the new Education Strategy for Cardiff University, the PALET Project has recently launched a new series of staff development workshops titled ‘Supporting Curriculum Design’, which brings together staff involved in developing curriculum in an Academic Session to work together as a ‘cohort’. Staff from a range of discipline areas signed up to participate in the programme of activity and the first in the series of three workshops was held on 6 December. In the below video, Dr Sarah Williamson (Head of Learning and Teaching Support) gives an overview of the first workshop.

Alongside the Supporting Curriculum Design programme of workshops, we are exploring whether it is possible to create a system of ‘cohort electronic networking’ to link academics in individual and in different Schools, and between academics and education and quality assurance support staff, to continue collaborating between workshop sessions and have rich conversations about curriculum design. We have set up a ‘Community’ area in ‘Lotus Connections’ to support peer discussion and collaboration and to build up a ‘knowledgebase’ of curriculum design resources and guidance.

Students As Partners

Last week, Sarah Ingram (Academic and University Affairs officer, Cardiff Students’ Union) and I attended the second ‘Students as Partners’ meeting, held as part of the Higher Education Academy ‘Future Directions’ work. The meeting was attended by staff from almost all institutions across Wales, who were accompanied by a range of current and incoming Student Union Officers.

The Student Union Officers described the current levels of engagement between staff and students at their University.  The group also discussed the plans for the future, to ensure more opportunities for partnership working between staff and students. There were some good examples of how some institutions already work in partnership with students, but it was recognised that ensuring a consistent approach to partnership working across the whole institution was challenging.

Three projects/reports were then discussed as examples of good practice – links below:

1. Birmingham City University – Students as Academic Partners;

2. HEA on Student Engagement;

3. Exeter University – Students as Change Agents;

We then broke into smaller groups for the rest of the meeting, to the definition of ‘Students as Partners’ and what we can do to establish more opportunities for partnership working going forward. We discussed the usefulness of working with members of student societies to gain discipline specific student views and also the importance of providing the appropriate training and knowledge to students to enable them to work in partnership with staff and feel enabled to make decisions.

Working with Students as Partners is a key to the new Education Strategy at the University. As we move forward with PALET, we are seeking to ensure that we work more closely with students to explore ways in which they can become more involved in the design and review of the curriculum.

For more information about the HEA Wales Students as Partners work, please visit wiki page for the group at:http://studentsaspartners.wikispaces.com/Meetings

PALET SpicyNodes - Communicating the Project Scope

We have been exploring ways to document and communicate the broadened remit of the PALET project and clearly define the scope of the different workpackages/sub-projects that now fall under the PALET umbrella. In an attempt to do this, we have developed a 'SpicyNodes' map, which you will find below. This is a starter for ten and we intend to build upon this - but we thought we would share it sooner rather than later to communicate what the project is working on. Comments welcome!

Video Blogging - Introduction

Stephen Griffiths (PALET Project Manager) gives and introduction to the series of PALET Video Blogs that will be made available in the near future.

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.

"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

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 :)

"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.

Review of the Approval Process - and the results of the Cardiff jury are ...

Firstly, many thanks to all the staff across the University who have engaged positively with the project, particularly those who have attended the workshops and one-to-one interviews with Georgia to help review the University's Programme Approval Procedure.  I hope you'll find it to be time well spent.

The results of this exercise are now in, and are being filtered into reports for both the JISC and the University's Academic Standards and Quality Committee (ASQC).  The outcomes emerging from this review are not that surprising - the three issues that emerged most strongly being around the business case developed to support a new programme, a wish to be able to re-use approval documents for different audiences, and a frustration with the length of time it takes to approve a new programme.

The exercise has also been really valuable in helping staff feel that their thoughts and input are properly valued.  The participatory design approach is one that we intend to maintain, and I hope that staff will simlarily be able to join us, especially when it comes to the redesign of the process.  But first, the initial report, a draft of which will be circulated for comment in the next couple of weeks, needs to be considered by ASQC.  This will aim to both set out the outcomes from the consultation, and the questions and issues identified that now need to be addressed.

My feeling is that we are now entering a crucial stage for the project, and that the way the Committee responds to this report will have a significant influence on the direction of the project.  More to follow, so watch this space ...

Andy

"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!

Always plan ahead... It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark...

So it's April 2009 - six months after the PALET project began. The last few months have been primarily devoted to project PLANNING - developing a detailed project plan, a communications plan and an evaluation strategy. The final drafts of all of the project planning documentation will be submitted to the JISC on 30 April 2009.