What needs to change in curriculum design?
Changing approaches to curriculum design involves changing individual and team ‘cultures’. Four projects (OULDI, Viewpoints, PiP, TSparc) from the
JISC curriculum design programme have sought to construct new information, workflow and social environments that change the practices and culture of curriculum design. They are doing this by:
- Providing frameworks for Curriculum Design (i.e. decision making frameworks)
- Encouraging and supporting collaboration, reflection and dialogue
- Prompting ideas for Curriculum Design
- Identifying, developing and using catalysts for change (e.g. approval processes and information prompts)
- Promoting a shared curriculum design language
The session is an opportunity to learn more about the projects and the key issues and to discuss the relevance of the work to other institutions in the sector. (Please note: as well as this session in the main conference week, there are two further sessions in the
Activity Week which complement this session).
Presenters
Simon Cross
Simon Cross works in the Institute of Educational Technology at The Open University. Alongside his role as project manager for the OULDI (Open University Learning Design Institute) JISC curriculum design project, he is also currently working as research associate for the EU funded openED project, lead investigator for an institutional Adaptive Learning and Student Choice project, and on developing design benchmarks and workshop materials. Simon has presented papers and blogged about learning and curriculum design, in particular: visual representations of learning, defining the design problem space and process structures, and staff perceptions and practices of curriculum design. In the four years since joining the OU, Simon has also worked on a number of small development projects with faculty module teams and taught as an Associate Lecturer. His broader interests reflect his background in geography and education and include constructs of social space, the role of benchmark indicators in quality enhancement, and the benefits of sharing visual representations with students to help them plan their own learning.
Alan Masson
Dr Alan Masson is Head of Technology Facilitated Learning at the University of Ulster with responsibility for the development and delivery of innovative tools and support services to enhance the teaching and learning experience of staff and students. Alan hasan established track record of successfully leading a number of JISC funded projects, in particular the Curriculum Design Viewpoints Project, Digital Repositories TrustDR Project and DiVLE 4i Project and is an invited member of the JISC Learning and Teaching Experts group.
Jim Everett
Jim has been working in universities and colleges for over 15 years, developing and promoting online and technology enhanced learning across a wide range of subject areas and academic levels. He has managed content development projects and developed courses for online delivery and has recently been involved in writing a series of professional development qualifications in online learning for the Scottish Qualifications Authority. Alongside the technology enhanced learning developments Jim has also been involved in the development of data-enhanced websites and management systems. These developments have focused on creating effective and accessible solutions that are both practical and sustainable. His research interests centre on online learning and he is particularly interested in the tools and skills students and staff need to make the most of the online environment to support learning. He is also very interested in the development and application of international standards and specifications for all aspects of online learning.
Paul Bartholomew
Paul Bartholomew is the Head of Curriculum Design and Academic Staff Development at Birmingham City University. He is also the Academic Lead / Project Manager for his institution's JISC-funded T-SPARC (Technology-Supported Processes for Agile and Responsive Curricula) project. He has recently led the development of Master's (MEd) degrees in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education and Academic Practice in Higher Education. On these programmes he teaches modules relating to innovation, assessment and research and evaluation.
His teaching career began in the field of diagnostic radiography and in subsequent years he was involved in supporting the Health Sciences and Practice Subject Centre of the HEA with its e-learning agenda. He is a member of JISC's Learning and Teaching Practice Experts Group and was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship in 2004 for his work in integrating technology into curricula to enhance opportunities for student dialogue. His research interest is in the field of co-located computer-supported collaborative learning but he has also written book chapters on institutional approaches to curriculum design and on institutional approaches to supporting teaching innovation. He has pioneered the concept of 'Woven Learning' and has run workshops on this approach to learning design for other institutions, both in the UK and overseas
Facilitator
Peter Bullen
Prof. Peter Bullen is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Hertfordshire and a Critical Friend to a number of Universities involved in JISC and HEA supported projects. Until very recently Peter was the Director of the Blended Learning Unit, CETL and Ford Professor of Automotive Engineering at the University of Hertfordshire, having previously been Head of the School of Aerospace, Automotive and Design Engineering. Peter first became involved with e-learning in the mid nineties, when developing and running a masters programme for employees of the automotive industry. This led to a University wide appointment concerned with the development of learning and teaching using the University’s managed learning environment. In recent years he has been involved in the HEA E-learning benchmarking and Pathfinder projects and JISC projects on technology enhanced learning and learner experiences, jointly editing and contributing to the recent book; ‘Transforming Higher Education Through Technology-Enhanced Learning’. Peter has published widely in the areas of blended learning, engineering education and engineering and was made an Elluminate hero in 2009.
Peter is supported as a facilitator by Rebecca Galley (OU); Catherine O’Donnell (UU), George Macgregor (SU) and Oliver Jenkins (BCU).
