JISC

e-Learning online conference 09 programme

Presentation and associated materials

• Download the synopsis (PDF, enabled for commenting)
• More details about SRC and the questions it has raised are available at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=isx72v5aBRM. This has audio, but you can also download the original PPT file, without audio. (2Mb)
• Within the project, pilots have been selected to explore different aspects of engaging employers and professional bodies. The strong reflective practitioner culture in physiotherapy has enabled considerable progress to be made within the first year on a high level skills map, created in consultation with employers and professional bodies, and reinforced with learners through an electronic portfolio and personal tutor support. Senior learning and teaching fellow, Claire Hamshire, provides more detail: www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8fwVl4ddLo
• SRC is working with a network of employers and industry bodies to develop a mature high level skills framework, reviewing job roles to identify recurrent skills and validating the emergent framework with employers. A focal point for engagement has been a "ProDevDay" organised by MMU and Manchester Digital in which students and course leaders had the opportunity to meet with employers. View a video of the event.
• In order to embed these examples of good practice on a wider scale, both the SRC project and its sister projects within the JISC Curriculum Design and Delivery Programme, have identified the need for systems support for skill mapping and agile, integrated curriculum approval and modification workflows. This presentation from the University of South Queensland in Australia highlights what could be possible: www.usq.edu.au/extrafiles/ltsu/CPMS_JISC
  

Abstract

The Supporting Responsive Curricula Project is a four-year project led by Manchester Metropolitan University which is piloting agile, demand-led curriculum design processes that promote flexible delivery and enhance learner employability. The Supporting Responsive Curricula project is one of a group of projects supported by the JISC Curriculum Design and Delivery programmes.

This session will focus on the challenges of trying to develop and change curricula to meet the needs of employers and professional bodies and will look at issues such as:

• What do we mean by responsive curricula?
• How can we find out what employers want from graduates?
• What do professional bodies want and how can we engage with them?
• What about sectors such as digital marketing where there aren’t long established professional bodies to promote common requirements?
• If we can work out what is needed in our curricula to make it more responsive, can our quality assurance systems be agile enough to accommodate this in commercially-driven timeframes?
• What about conflicts between professional body accreditation requirements and institution quality assurance requirements?
• And if we can develop these agile responsive curricula, how can our students demonstrate to employers that they have gained the skills required?

The session will be delivered by Professor Mark Stubbs and Peter Bird, the project leaders for the Supporting Responsive Curricula project at Manchester Metropolitan University and will draw on experiences gained both within the project and other initiatives in UK Higher Education.

Presenters

Mark Stubbs

Professor Mark Stubbs is Head of Learning and Research Technologies at Manchester Metropolitan University, where he works closely with Library and ICT Services colleagues to provide, arrange and recommend learning technologies for staff and students.

Mark joined academia from management consultancy in 1992 and has taught, designed and led undergraduate and postgraduate business and IT courses. He is currently supervising two PhD students: one developing a multi-perspective method for MLE evaluation, the other interpreting mobile learning innovation. His own action-research PhD was in the area of encouraging collaboration across organisational boundaries, which proved extremely useful when coordinating the JISC's eXchanging Curriculum Information (XCRI) project. Mark continues to support XCRI's development as a national and international standard by chairing a Special Interest Group for the Government's Information Standards Board for Education, Schools and Children's Services, representing the UK in CEN workshops and technical committees on learning technologies, and working with vendor consortia such as the Rome Student Systems and Standards Group (R3SG).

Mark has been involved in a number of JISC projects and is currently Principal Investigator on MMU's Supporting Responsive Curricula (SRC) project, funded by the JISC's Curriculum Design and Delivery Programme. SRC is pioneering ways to articulate the high level skills and competences required by employers and professional bodies (particularly in the Digital Creative sector), and working with quality assurance and course team colleagues to innovate curriculum in response. The project is also exploring ways for students to plan their development and showcase their talents in ways that employers understand and value.

Peter Bird

Peter is a senior IT executive with over 25 years experience gained in the telecom and IT sectors. In 1999 he was part of a management team who bought out the majority of the National Computing Centre to form the NCC Group Plc. In 2003 Peter left the business when the NCC Group was sold to a new management team and subsequently floated on the London stock exchange.

Since leaving the NCC Group, Peter has been pursuing his interests in both the Higher Education and Voluntary Sector. As well as being a board member of a number of charitable organizations, Peter is working on a PhD in Mobile Learning and works with Manchester Metropolitan University on a number of projects. He is currently project managing MMU's JISC sponsored "Supporting Responsive Curricula" programme. This is a project which runs over four years and aims to make the curriculum more responsive to student, professional body and employer needs.

Facilitator

Tony Toole 

Tony Toole is Managing Director of e-College.ac Ltd, an educational consultancy company that specialises in online learning research, development and implementation.

Tony has considerable experience of UK Higher and Further Education having been Head of School of Electronics at Swansea Metropolitan University and Dean of Faculty of Engineering at Coleg Sir Gâr before becoming Director of Online Services at Coleg Sir Gâr in 2000. In the latter role, Tony successfully managed a succession of large-scale e-learning research and development projects, involving collaboration between institutions across Wales, the UK and Europe. A key focus of all the projects has been on lifelong and work-based learners and the ways that online learning can provide the accessibility and flexibility they need to participate.

Tony left Coleg Sir Gâr in 2007 to run his own consultancy company and is currently managing online learning research and development projects for the Welsh Assembly Government, JISC and the European Commission. Of particular interest at present is the impact of Web 2.0 technologies and Open Educational Resources on the future delivery of both distance and campus-based learning.

Tony is a member of the JISC Learning and Teaching Committee, a Board Member of JISC-CETIS and a member of the JISC Learning and Teaching Practice Experts Group. He is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Glamorgan and at Swansea Metropolitan University, working with both institutions in their development and delivery of online learning.