Identifying and changing key curriculum design practices  

Viewpoints, University of Ulster: Dr Alan Masson and Catherine O’Donnell

OULDI, Open University: Dr Simon Cross and Rebecca Galley

Introduction

• Short overview from each project

• Activity led examination of how each institution has identified - and then sought to change - curriculum design processes and practices

• Please ask questions in the chat box as we go

• Further opportunity to ask questions and contribute answers to an asynchronous discussion over the next few days

• This session complements the main conference session “What needs to change in curriculum design” at 11.30am 24th November

Viewpoints Project: Background

Institutional priority – promote greater innovation and creativity in course design

To support this – new streamlined course approval and validation processes

Viewpoints Project – provide an “inspiration” layer to the process

Viewpoints Overview

The Viewpoints “approach” uses a card sorting metaphor with the resources providing semi structured prompts and suggestions with a learner centred timeline

The tools use a learner timeline with established principles to help staff consider key interactions of the learning process (i.e. essence)

1.Assessment and Feedback2.Learner Engagement3.Information Skills / Digital Literacy

Inform – Inspire - Plan

Example timeline worksheet

Assessment and Feedback Principles

REAP (http://www.reap.ac.uk/)

1. Clarify good performance.

2. Encourage time and effort on task.

3. Deliver high quality feedback.

4. Provide opportunities to act on feedback.

5. Encourage interaction and dialogue.

6. Develop self-assessment and reflection.

7. Give assessment choice.

8. Encourage positive motivational beliefs.

9. Inform and shape your teaching.

*Implementation ideas for each principle on back of cards.

First Impressions

A (very) quick hands on example of the Viewpoints “method” using some of the Assessment & Feedback Principles

Look at the good practice principle(s) cards and “vote” for one which you think would be particularly important enhance a particular course you have in mind.

A CB

Task 2 – Mapping of principle(s) to the student timeline“Vote” for which of the following would provide the best impact for the use of your chosen principle.

A – induction B – first few weeksC – mid semester D – final phase

In less than two hours………

By students – for students…………

Key findings to date

Information framework benefits

A. Structured use of data – inform / inspire / plan workflow;

B. Curriculum design informed by outputs of robust research and best practices

C. Tactile - encourage experimentation / enquiry;

D. Customisable - promotes creativity;

E. Data “lite” / information rich outputs.

Information Framework Benefits

“It offers a structure and prompts that colleagues might not otherwise consider”

“…it starts with an intuitive structure and ‘allows’ creativity from there – much of the direction is hidden in the

assumptions and design”

“Invaluable in breaking a module up into manageable chunks”

“The cards are brilliant as they identify solutions to problems and help you develop effective teaching practices”

Social Context Benefits

A. Informal environment

B. Shared meanings*

C. Consensus building*

D. Shared vision*

E. Meaningful conversations*

*: facilitated by resources / process

Social Context Benefits

“Allows open/honest discussion and reflection. Brings all staff together”

“Can stimulate discussion, collaborative team working and initiate new ideas for curriculum design. It also prompts

teams to be mindful of the student learner”

“It has allowed a space for creativity to be shown in a group of peers”

“The opportunity the process brings to discuss teaching processes with peers”

“Invaluable in creating a team”

Poll: Which of the following do you believe to be the most important benefit to Curriculum Design in your personal context?

A. Institutional use of formal sets of Principles (i.e. REAP)

B. Better articulated course strategies

C. More “effective” course teams

D. Use of learner relevant language / concepts

E. Strategies and practices described in a shareable format

www.wordle.net

Viewpoints Project Information

Project Staff:• Alan Masson (Director), Catherine O’Donnell, Vilinda Ross,

Karen Virapen, Jill Harrison, Fiona McCloy, James GheelWeb Presence:Blog - http://viewpointsproject.blogspot.com/ Re-usable resources - http://wiki.ulster.ac.uk/display/VPR/Home Slideshare - http://www.slideshare.net/Viewpoints Flickr – http://www.flickr.com/photos/viewpointsproject/collections/ JISC Design Studio – http://jiscdesignstudio.pbworks.com/w/page/29227748/Viewpoints%20project

Open University Learning Design Initiative (OULDI)The Open University Learning Design Initiative (OULDI)

Overarching questions

1. What does a quality design process look like? and what needs to change to get there?

2. In what ways can the efficiency and effectiveness of time spent designing be improved?

Design methods,practices and discipline

Design Communities

Resourcesand representations

Tools for designand representations

Institutional

Process change

FORMAL STRUCTURES INFORMAL STRUCTURES

1

2

3

4

5

Project aims

How do we identify the need to change?

What exactly is ‘learning design’?

• a methodology (self-discipline or process dictated)

• a role or stage in a process

• an object or artefact

• a support to decisions on resource

• a means to promote new pedagogic approaches and tools

• an aspiration

• an interpretation suitable for reuse

How can we capture the formal and informal process?

The advent of elearning is making the process of creating courses more complex:

A: Agree

B: Agree Somewhat

C: Neither agree nor disagree

D: Disagree somewhat

E: Disagree

Survey

Results

The advent of elearning is making the process of creating courses more complex

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

No response Agree Agreesomew hat

Neither agreenor disagree

Disagreesomew hat

Disagree

%

Teaching (23)

Non-Teaching (26)

Survey

It is becoming harder to understand how all the parts/components of planned learning and teaching fit together

A: Agree

B: Agree Somewhat

C: Neither agree nor disagree

D: Disagree somewhat

E: Disagree

Results

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

No response Agree Agreesomew hat

Neither agreenor disagree

Disagreesomew hat

Disagree

%

Teaching (23)

Non-Teaching (26)

It is becoming harder to understand how all the parts/components of planned learning and teaching fit together

OULDI visualisation tools

• CompendiumLD

• Icon sets (SVG and sticker sheets)

• Excel spreadsheets

• Paper templates

“Drawing the diagram really helps me think about all the elements and features. Once familiar with method, it informs my mental imagining of a design even if a

diagram is not actually drawn… It helps me think about what instructions are required, what resources are required, and how to bridge gaps…”

OULDI representations

Four views:

•Module/ course Map

•Learning Outcomes view

•Pedagogy profile

•Design sequence/ ‘Swimlane’

Pedagogical features card sort

Conceptual tools and frameworks

• Primarily drawn from the OULDI-JISC work but also include related useful tools and resources produced by others working in the learning design field

• All of the tools have been rigorously tried and tested across a variety of learning and teaching contexts

• All of the tools are openly available in the Learning Design Toolbox in Cloudworks

Con

cept

ual t

ools

and

fram

ewor

ks

Con

cept

ual t

ools

and

fram

ewor

ks

Design communities

When asked what they think would most help improve their practice, practitioners often say they want examples from others and access to a network of practitioners to share and discuss ideas

“Thank you for running a whole day event. I think we needed this time to really become familiar with the

motivation and nature of the course and to develop close cross-

curricular links with other colleagues, a secondary but

immensely valuable side product”

Take the virtual field trip

Who, what, where, when?

Links to all the tools introduced today, including the four views and CompendiumLD, have been added to the asynchronous discussion space under the thread:

‘Who, what, where, when?’

You can visit the discussion thread after this session and review the tools. Consider for each:

– Who is it useful for?

– What level of expertise is required?

– When in the process might it be used?

Where is the most potential for improvement in your institution?

A: Staff design practices

B: Staff support and development

C: Monitoring and feedback

D: Institutional policies

E: Other

Useful links and further reading

Project blog http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/OULDI/

Design Studio http://jiscdesignstudio.pbworks.com/w/search?q=ouldi

Cloudworks http://cloudworks.ac.uk/

Simon Cross s.j.cross@open.ac.uk

Rebecca Galley r.galley@open.ac.uk

Cross, S. and Conole, G. (2008), Learn about learning design, Learn about guides series, The Open University: Milton Keynes, available http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/OULDI/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Learn-about-learning-design_v7.doc

Conole, G. (forthcoming). Designing for learning in an open world. New York: Springer.

Questions

Next steps: Asynchronous activity

• Links to all the activities and resources introduced in this session will be added to the asynchronous space and any questions we haven’t answered will be added there. We hope that you will also be able to contribute answers...!

• In particular we would like to explore:

‘What are the key issues in curriculum design processes and practices, how do we know and how can we overcome

barriers to change?’

• Please join us