Principles and processes of curriculum design

Principles and Processes of Curriculum Design Principles and Processes of Curriculum Design This EIC guide aims to help you think about the processes of designing or re-designing a course of study. It aims to take you through the stages step by step, but as such can only raise some of the issues in a general sense. If you feel you would like support with your curriculum design please contact the EIC who are happy to give you some one-to-one help. There are also a number of other sources of help, please see the appendix, ‘Where you can get further help with your validation/review’. During the early stage of your course development, you will also participate in a ‘Curriculum and Assessment Enhancement Workshop’ that will help you address these issues, and which will provide you with named Curriculum Enhancement Advisors. As a start, you might like to consider the following ‘Course design questions’. What do you hope to achieve through the delivery of this course? What are the external and University influences on your course? How are Quality Assurance Agency requirements reflected within your course? What is your underpinning model of curriculum design? What are the Aims and Learning Outcomes for your course? How are the delivery and assessment aligned to the learning outcomes? What is your course Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy? Does your course build on students’ prior learning experiences? How will your course support student learning and how are skills, Personal Development Planning and employability built into your curriculum? Does your course provide for, and build upon, a range of student diversity? As these questions indicate, the course as an entirety is far more than the subject content of the course and the modules, although these are without doubt essential and the course team will be well versed in designing these components. It is also essential to plan the processes of learning and teaching (including understanding of studying in HE, assessment and feedback) as well as the content of the course. The curriculum is required to develop a range of academic skills and capabilities for lifelong learning, employability and professional life. Graduate skills, self-awareness, Career Management Skills, work-based learning, and technology-enhanced learning are increasingly important in the curriculum as employers demand graduates who can demonstrate the ability to function in a work-based environment. Such ‘graduateness’ must be identified in the learning, teaching and assessment strategy of a course. Guidance is offered under the heading of each question below. You might also like to refer to the summary diagram, ‘Essential Components of Course Design’ at the end of this guide. 1. What do you hope to achieve through the delivery of this course?
If you are developing a new course you need to think clearly about the philosophy, aims and rationale of your course, how it responds to research and emerging developments in the field and how it fits into the School portfolio and strategy for business and/or professional engagement. A well-articulated course rationale informs the detail and direction of curriculum design, ensuring that the course is more than the sum of the individual modules, rather than appearing fragmented and offering a poor learning experience for the students. Course teams can begin this process by answering the following questions. • What is it that defines a graduate of this course? • What are the primary graduate skills and capabilities that are associated with the • What are the features of such a graduate of the University of Westminster? • What are the Professional Body requirements or implications? • How does this course equip the student to meet the demands of employment? • How is the learning on the course informed by the research in the discipline? Consider the market for the course, and whether you have a clear idea of the size of the market for the course, what the potential students’ aspirations will be, and if you are aiming at a particular employment market. Decide how you can work with employers and professionals to inform your thinking around the development of the field and any issues they find with current graduates; consider whether you can use any of these contacts to develop work-related learning activities. You also need to decide what personal skills and personal attributes you want your graduates to develop. It is important to recognise that in addition to helping students become expert in the academic discipline we are also supporting them in finding a career that suits their interests and aspirations; even if the course is aimed at specific careers some students will chose different options. Thus graduates need to be entrepreneurial in assessing their capabilities and promoting themselves to prospective employers. You will need to plan how students will develop these skills and attributes through the teaching, learning and assessment tasks and processes that you design. These aspects will help you frame the course aims and learning outcomes that will be expressed in your ‘Programme Specification’. This has to be prepared for the Initial Validation Planning Meeting—details of this are to be found in the University’s Quality Assurance and Enhancement Handbook (the Yellow Book). The Curriculum and Assessment Enhancement Workshop, which will involve your course team, and which will be supported by the EIC and other Curriculum Enhancement Advisors will help you address your curriculum design in advance of the planning meeting. If you are revalidating or reviewing a current course you will need to reconsider these issues very carefully as the potential student population, the nature of the subject 2 Please contact Dalene McShane, e-mail you are seeking advice an on any particular aspect of curriculum design or delivery. itself, the employment market and the professional needs may have changed considerably since the initial validation. Equally these revised aims and course learning outcomes will need to be expressed in the Programme Specification. 2. What are the external and University influences on your course?
If your course has run before, and this is a revalidation or review, you will start by considering the ‘Critical Review’. The details of this are included in the Yellow Book but the main purpose of this is that you consider what was effective in your previous course delivery, what improvements were made since the last review/validation and what further improvements are required. What suggestions have been made by current students and alumni? It is recommended that you undertake this review under the following headings. • Curriculum Design, Content and Organisation This review will be based on a number of sources of evidence, which include: • the reflections of your and your colleagues on the course delivery; • input from students, through informal and formal feedback (aggregated Module Feedback Questionnaire data, Course Questionnaire data, National Student Survey data, focus groups) and from alumni; • the outcomes of any Professional Body review (if appropriate) and feedback from any employers or industry/professional partners; • minor/major modifications made since the last validation/review; and • retention, progression and achievement statistics. If it is a new course, it will be influenced by the experience within your course team of other course delivery. The rationale and market for the course will have been considered at the ‘First Filter’ stage (details in the Yellow book) along with the resourcing and the extent to which the course fits within the School Business Plan. It is important when planning any course to take into account a number of factors that influence the course design, and the demands that it has to meet. A selection of these are listed below to prompt your thinking, but this may not be a fully comprehensive list for some subject areas, and for other subjects some aspects may not be relevant. Some of these are explored in more detail later in this guide. The academic staff in the University, and their specialisms. The wider academic community:
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the academic and research developments in the subject; The University— the internal academic infrastructure:
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The Handbook of Academic Regulations (the Red Book), including the modular regulations. The Quality Assurance and Enhancement Handbook (the Yellow Book). The University Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy. students with disabilities (informed by the Disability Discrimination Act). Parents and guardians: the external perception of the University. Quality Assurance Agency (QAA)—the external academic infrastructure (see section 3); legislation (e.g. various legislation about discrimination). 3. How are Quality Assurance Agency requirements reflected within your course?
The QAA has some specific requirements of all courses, expressed in their academic infrastructure documents. This made up of four components: Items 1 to 3 are effectively met through the requirements of the University Quality Assurance and Enhancement Handbook (the Yellow Book) and the Handbook of Academic Regulations (the Red Book). However, it is important that your course is informed by the subject benchmark statements for your subject. For some courses, more than one subject benchmark statement may need to be addressed. 4. What is your underpinning model of curriculum design?
Although we tend to concentrate on the content of the curriculum when delivering a
course, the processes of learning are equally important, and you must decide not
only what you teach but also how you will teach it, and why you have chosen this
approach. There are many different models of course delivery and brief outline of
some of these is given below.
Traditional or discipline-based: content structured around the organisation of the
subject matter, e.g. chronology, function. Often starts with an introductory survey of
categories of the discipline, the provision divided into units/topics.
Intellectual: examines the subject matter in terms of assumptions held in the
discipline with regard of a particular body of information, attitudes and skills.
Performance or systems-based: identifies roles/ performances/ competencies
/skills to which the student is being educated. Uses sequenced activities as a means
of developing the abilities of the student. This model also culminates in practice in the
professional setting—such as supervised clinical practice.
Cognitive: stresses thinking, reasoning, understanding, meaning-making. Covers
limited content in considerable depth, questions student to develop new levels of
analysis.
Personal relevance/experiential: rooted in student’s experience and current
situation, high level of student selection of content of relevance to own learning
needs. Student designs learning plan/contract based on an analysis of their needs,
interests and aspirations.
Creative/experiential: involves learning and teaching by experience and generally
through the dynamics of a group process, where reflection on one’s own and others’
experiences leads to an understanding of the application of theory within a given context. Socially critical: seeks to construct knowledge within our cultural and historical
frameworks. Students helped to understand where their own views come from.
Content drawn from significant social issues of the day.
Problem-based: identifies one or more specific ‘problems’ to be addressed, teaches
through letting students identify the questions to be answered and the information
needed to resolve the ‘problem’. It eventually gets to a systematic approach but not
sequentially. It places an emphasis on the process of understanding issues through
active inquiry.
Based on Toohey (1999) and Fry, Ketteridge & Marshall (2003) Of course these are not mutually exclusive models and frequently any one course has a mixture of curriculum types. However, it is essential to address the principles of how you will deliver the course, and how you are helping the students to learn, in addition to its division into modules and their detailed content. Amongst these considerations you should also address whether there are any staff development needs which should be met in order to deliver the course effectively. These might be individual or collective and could include aspects of subject-based development or of learning, teaching and assessment approaches. 5. What are the Aims and Learning Outcomes for your course?
You will be expected to express the aims and learning outcomes for your course,
which will be part of the Programme Specification, prepared, in draft, for the Initial
Validation Planning meeting. The aims describe what the course aspires to achieve,
what you hope the students will be able to develop into, and consideration of the
employment markets for which you are equipping the students, and these inform the
course learning outcomes. These are statements that express the expected
achievement of your students. The learning outcomes of the course must include the
knowledge and skills (both subject specific and generic) which the students studying
the course will acquire. These course learning outcomes will then be reflected in the
learning outcomes of each module, which will be more specific, and which reflect the
threshold level of achievement (i.e. what the student who passes the module must
have demonstrated). The learning outcomes for any module should be informed by
and be in-line with the learning outcomes for the course.
You may find it easier to start by determining the aims and learning outcomes across
the level 6 modules which should achieve the overall course aims and learning
outcomes. Level 5 will develop what is needed to underpin these, and level 4 will
work from the make up of the entry group to what they need to succeed at level 5. In
this way the essential skills and attributes can be a developmental focus throughout
the course. Plan the course aims and outcomes first and then develop those for the
modules. The development of course and module learning outcomes should be a
collaborative process conducted by the course team. Learning outcomes are likely to be developed through a number of iterative cycles in order to fully consider the following questions: Do the course learning outcomes express what the learner will achieve? Do they describe the achievement of the learner who will pass the course/module? Do the learning outcomes adequately describe the level of work at which the student must be operating? Levels relate to the way in which students are expected to show progression in intellectual development as they move through the course. They must fit with the QAA National Qualifications Framework and any Professional Body requirements; the SEEC level descriptors are a useful guide to level. Do the learning outcomes for any one module show progression from any prerequisite modules at a lower level? Do the learning outcomes include any subject-related skills that the student will be acquiring, and those to support study in HE? How are skills and employability expressed in the learning outcomes for the modules which contribute to the course? How is the development of Career Management Skills expressed? How are Personal Development Planning processes provided for the students? How will the students extend their use of technology as part of the learning process? 6. How are the delivery and assessment aligned to the learning outcomes?
The learning outcomes of the module represent the threshold level of achievement;
what the student must demonstrate in order to pass the module. Performance above
this level is reflected in the grade that a student receives.
In order to demonstrate that the learning outcomes have been met, the assessment
methods used need to be capable of measuring/showing the achievement of those
learning outcomes. This is the principle of constructive alignment (see Biggs,
2007).
The delivery of the module should also be aligned to ensure that it is appropriate to
help the student acquire and demonstrate the learning outcomes through the
assessment. You need to consider carefully whether this is the case for each
module; often you find that if the assessment is not appropriate for measuring the
learning outcomes it is because the learning outcomes need some revision, or that
7 To be found at and the Academic Registrar’s web pages. the assessment criteria are putting the wrong emphasis on what is required, or that you are assessing the students’ ability to undertake some task but without having offered sufficient opportunities for them to practice this during the module delivery. Sometimes it is simply that the assessment task is not appropriate and you should think of an alternative method. In designing a module you need to ensure that all of the learning outcomes can be assessed. However, this does not require separate assessments for each learning outcome and ideally a single assessment will measure a number of learning outcomes. Constructive alignment is an important principle which should underpin your Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy for the course, and for its component modules. 7. What is your course Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy?
The course teaching, learning and assessment strategy should represent an
integrated whole, which describes how the learning on the course will be delivered
and assessed.
Learning and Teaching Approaches
The strategy should be more than just a list of the teaching techniques that will be
used on the course; it should address what you do to help the students learn. It
should explain how your teaching will support student learning and why you will be
using certain approaches to deliver student-centred, active learning. Justify your use
of particular sizes and lengths of modules. How can you use the double or year-long
modules to enhance the students’ learning experiences? Can you give more time to
student-based activity; can some student learning activities be conducted/facilitated
online? Can you include more formative assessment, self appraisal and feedback?
How are these aspects going to help students learn in depth; how will they aid the
students’ understanding of their own approaches to learning? Consider how you will
structure the students’ out-of-class study time, and explain the extent to which you
are using technology-enhanced learning in the delivery of the learning. For each
module consider how the learning time will be used (remember every credit represent
10 hours of total notional student learning time); decide how much time will be spent
in class, how much in preparing for and undertaking assessments, how much in
engaging with technology-enhanced learning activities, how much as private reading
time. Make sure the students understand these expectations.
You might consider the following questions.
How does your approach fit with the University’s Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy? What techniques are you using in order to develop active, student-centred learning? How are you supporting students in understanding the demands of Higher Education? How will you support students in becoming self-managed independent learners? How are you helping students acquire the necessary study skills, including IT and information skills? How will your students make best use of the library services, its resources and staff? How are you embedding graduate attributes and what elements of work-related activity are included into the course? What use will you make of employer input and will you be using any learning in the workplace? How are you embedding Career Management Skills and Personal Development Planning into the curriculum? How will you build on students’ prior learning; will the Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL) be a significant part of the provision? How will you draw on the diversity of your students’ cultural, intellectual and vocational backgrounds, as resources for learning? Will you be using Blackboard, wikis or blogs or classroom based technologies in your teaching, if so why and how? How will you ensure that your teaching is informed and enriched by up-to-date research, and how will you help students develop inquiry and research-based approaches to their learning? How will you provide feedback to students on their learning and development? How will you support the learning of students with disabilities; are there adjustments to the curriculum to make it more inclusive, so that all students can learn effectively? How will you evaluate your own practice?
You might wish to modify your approaches to teaching and learning support as the
students progress through the levels of study by varying the level of class contact,
the structuring provided for out-of-class study, the amount of independent work you
require from students. It will be important to address first year students’ needs to be
motivated to participate in their studies, to understand the requirements of studying in
HE, to get a sense of personal belonging to the course and University and in
developing their self-awareness and independence as learners; this will need a
different approach to supporting students’ more independent approach at level 6.
Assessment Approaches
Again, the strategy must be much more than a list of assessment methods and what
their weighting is, although this information is vital for students. The assessment for a
course should be designed with reference to the course overall, not just developing
the assessment separately for each module. It is important that over the course the
students are presented with a range of different assessment tasks; this will cater for
9 See the forthcoming EIC guide to linking teaching and research 10 See EIC guides: ; Learning from Feedback; students with different learning styles and will also provide a safeguard against students becoming bored if they encounter the same approaches too often or over-repetition of assessment of the same subject-based skills. It will also be less disadvantageous for some students with disabilities who may suffer from difficulties if all the assessment is undertaken in the same way. It is also important to ensure that over the course students are required to develop (and hence to be assessed in) a range of employability and Career Management Skills. This needs to be mapped over all the modules in the course or, where there are many routes through a course, at least across the core modules. It is important to design the assessment strategy to meet the course learning outcomes first as this informs the assessment approaches for each of the modules. It is very important in designing the assessment for a course that the students are not overloaded. Too much assessment can induce panic and stress and result in the students adopting poor study habits, resulting in a superficial approach and surface learning. In developing approaches to assessment you should also consider how long it will take the students (on average to complete the work). Do your assessment requirements fit with the ten notional hours of study (including class contact time) per credit? Do the students understand how much time they should be putting into each assessment task? This should be made clear to the students. Students also frequently complain that assessments on a course are too bunched, all falling within a short timescale at the end of a semester or year. This needs to be looked at across the range of modules. Also think carefully for each module whether there are learning outcomes which can be assessed early in the module, this will help to avoid some of the bunching towards the end of the course. Another approach is to have a staged process, where some of the learning outcomes might be met by an initial part of the assessment (e.g. plan or model) which then forms part of the summative assessment as well as being formative. For the assessment aspects of the strategy you need to decide on the methods which you will use. There are many different assessment methods, and you may have become ‘stuck in a rut’ only using those methods with which you are most familiar or which have become ‘traditional’ for your subject. However, there is nothing wrong with using tried and tested methods, as long as you have done this as a considered decision. Think about how you are going to include formative elements into the assessment strategy to help the students learn and so that they can identity what they need to do in future to improve their performance. Consider the following questions. Are the modules’ assessment methods capable of demonstrating the learning outcomes? If the answer is ‘no’ it may be that you need to revisit your learning outcomes, or change your assessment methods. Have you identified the assessment criteria that will enable you to judge the performance of the students in meeting the learning outcomes? Are you using a variety of assessment methods? Do the methods measure skills as well as knowledge? Do the methods help the student to learn in a deep and active manner? Will the assessment method help to motivate the student to learn? Can you use any alternative methods that are more effective in use of staff time? Can you use technology-enhanced learning approaches to assess, or support the assessment process, effectively and efficiently? Are you sure your methods are not overloading the students? How can you maximise the use of peer and self-assessment to engender reflection, self-awareness and feedback? Have you decided whether an average pass mark over all your assessment elements is adequate, or whether you want to have a threshold level of performance for each individual element? Do your assessment methods present difficulties for students with any particular type of disability?
As part of the Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy for the course you
should state how you will provide the students with formative assessment and
feedback. Formative assessment can from an important part of the students’
learning experience, as well as providing practice in assessment methods with which
they may not have been familiar with in their previous studies.
Students do not always understand the range of formative feedback they receive so it
is important to help students understand that this may be a mixture of face-to-face
oral, electronic or written feedback, which may be to a group or individual. Set out in
your course document how this is achieved. Students also need to be supported in
understanding how feedback on one piece of work will support their learning and
hence lead to successful achievement in other parts of the course. Try to build your
formative feedback into your learning and teaching methods, give students time to
absorb their feedback in class, and make use of self and peer-assessment as a way
of getting students to engage with the assessment requirements.
Develop the Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy for the course as a whole;
only when you have a clear view of all these elements of the course design should
you proceed to the detailed work on the design of the modules.
You can then design the detailed learning approaches to each module and the
assessment methods, weighting and rationale and criteria for each module.
Express the assessment methods that you have chosen, and explain how they (both
course work and examinations if chosen) are appropriate for measuring that the
learning outcomes of that module have been achieved. This assessment rationale is
included within the module documentation.
You will also need to include assessment criteria for each module in the module pro-
forma. The best approach to this is to express these as threshold criteria. These are
more detailed statements that expand on the learning outcomes to show what the
student must do to pass the module. Whereas there might be five learning outcomes
one would expect to see these elaborated into about ten assessment criteria
statements. They relate specifically to the learning outcomes and the content of the
module. Later you will want to develop graded criteria for each element of assessment
which helps your students know what a good level of performance is, and to
understand that critical pass/fail boundary. These will also help you greatly with your
marking.
8. Does your course build on students’ prior learning experiences?
There are two elements to this question. Firstly, you will need to take account of the
knowledge and skills your students have and how you can build on this in your
teaching. The danger is that students can get ‘lost’ in the first year if we pitch our
teaching at too demanding a level; or that they can become disaffected if they feel that
they are covering material which they have already encountered. Given the mixed
nature of our intake this needs to be considered in terms of supporting learning of
mixed first year groups and the techniques we might adopt to do this. However, we
must also recognise that the students themselves represent a powerful resource for
learning and we can draw on their diverse backgrounds to enrich the learning
experience.
In the following years of study this issue should be dealt with by prudent use of pre-
requisites, these should be deployed when it is essential that the students has the
knowledge and skills acquired in the first module in order to successfully undertake the
following module.
Secondly, there is the incorporation of mechanisms for the Accreditation of Prior
Learning (APL) within the course. This includes the Accreditation of Prior Certificated
Learning (APCL) and of Experiential Learning (APEL). The mechanisms in general are
described within the Academic Regulations (the Red Book), but you will need to
customise them for your course. Be aware that some Professional Bodies have their
own view of the acceptability of either APCL or APEL, and in these cases the
Professional Body requirements take precedence over the University policy.
9. How will your course support student learning and how are skills and
employability built into your curriculum?
There are many elements of study which are additional to the subject content of the curriculum, and which must be included in the course design. These include the students’ understanding of the transition to Higher Education and the new learning approaches they will encounter. They may require help with developing the independent study skills they will need. This will be met in part through the course induction process, but will be more successful if they are also embedded alongside the subject specific learning. 12 See EIC guide How to incorporate your skills policy in your validation or review document and the CaSE, ISLS and EIC Skills in the Curriculum—A Guide Additionally, these skills and self-awareness will be developed through Personal Development Planning (PDP) processes. All courses must provide students with the opportunity to undertake this, and the self-awareness (the ability of a student to reflect on their learning, including the formative feedback they have received in assessment) is an essential element of engendering graduates with an independent approach to lifelong learning, and in developing a graduate profile as part of their ‘Career Management Skills’ (CMS). Examples of CMS delivery can be provided by CaSE. PDP and CMS are expected elements of all courses, and this in turn links to the inclusion within the subject delivery of work-related and work-based elements of learning. There is also a new career planning resource for University of Westminster undergraduates and recent graduates, MyCareer , which will be help to you in introducing these elements into the curriculum. You need to address in your course design how these employability elements will be included, and embedded alongside the subject content, and how you approach this should link back to the initial aims and target audience for your course. The increased use of Blackboard and other technologies (incorporated in the Technology-Enhanced Learning Strategy) is also important as a way of supporting students’ learning, and encouraging active participation by students. You will need to articulate how these tools are used within your course, how much will you use Blackboard, or other technologies in providing information, as an assessment tool or in stimulating active learning? How much will you use these for remote delivery and how will this change the nature of your face-to-face contact? Can you use these mechanisms to support the social aspects of students’ learning and experience at the University? Remember that in terms of supporting student learning the library offers a powerful resource which must be considered in your curriculum design. Talk to your local librarian and about the support which can be provided, for example: How can you build on the students’ easy access to both physical and electronic resources (the University has over 5,000 e-books and 20,000 e-journals)? How can you make use of e-readings (scanned extracts of essential course readings from books or journals, made available to students via Blackboard)? Can you help students by directing them to past exam papers available via Blackboard? Can you utilise the direct linking to library resources from Blackboard or other web page? 15 The Technology-Enhanced Learning Strategy is currently undergoing approval, a draft may be obtained from the Director of On-line Learning 16 If the book or journal you want to recommend for your teaching is not available online, you can request a scanned extract as an ‘e-reading’. You will also need to be clear about your provision for Personal Tutoring. All Schools have policies on this and you should ensure that you are working within your School’s policy to provide the support for students. 10. Does your course provide for a range of student diversity?
All courses will recruit a range of students who differ in many ways. This will include learning styles, background knowledge, levels of motivation to study, prior experience and other issues. Hence any course needs to include elements of variety and to build on, and draw from, student knowledge, experience and interests as a routine part of the delivery. There are some particular groups of students who need consideration. We recruit from a wide range of backgrounds, some of whom may be very unfamiliar with the ethos of studying in HE. Take this into account in planning your first year of study; you will need to help them adjust to HE methods of learning. Similarly you may be recruiting mature students who have been away from academic work for a considerable period of time and will need appropriate support in re-engaging with study. Think about students with disabilities, and whether there are any aspects of the curriculum which might cause them difficulties. Given that we are required to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to support students with disabilities can any of these be built into the course at the design stage, often provisions which are supportive for students with disabilities are also helpful for all other students. An ‘inclusive curriculum’ is one that has provision for such students built in so that all students receive the same course delivery. Students from overseas may find aspects of the course somewhat alien, and they may be very unfamiliar with our approaches to learning. If you are recruiting from such groups you should consider how you can you help them adjust to the UK style of learning and teaching. 20 Guidance on developing an inclusive approach to the curriculum will shortly be available from the In Summary
In designing a programme, take into account the key principles as defined by Fry, Ketteridge & Marshall (2003): Begin where the students are … match course content to knowledge and skills of the intake … students need to be pushed and stretched but the starting point needs to reflect their current level of understanding. Make skills development integral to the curriculum. Do not assume that skills already exist. Make space for skills to be acquired in a risk-free environment. Pay attention to learning processes and not simply content or products. Design in the steps that students need … Demonstrate valuing of different cultures by building on students’ own experiences wherever possible. Knowledge and values cannot be taken for granted as higher education becomes more internationalised. Be on the lookout for cultural assumptions reflected in the curriculum and allow alternative ‘voices’ to be heard. Avoid content and assessment overload which is liable to produce a surface approach to learning. Curriculum and Course Design—Sources

Biggs, J (2007)
Teaching for Quality Learning at University. (3rd ed.) SRHE/OUP A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. Enhancing Academic Practice. (2nd ed.) Kogan Page Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: the Reflective Designing Courses for Higher Education. SRHE/OU Designing and Delivering Modules. Oxford Centre of Staff and Learning Development. Essential Components of Course Design—The Diagram
Appendix: Where you can get further help with your course validation or review?

There are many sources of help with the validation/review process and your
curriculum design, both within your School and the University as a whole.
Within your School you can get support from:

An experienced Course Leader, who has already been through the process. Your School Learning and Teaching Coordinator: The additional Principal Lecturers in Learning and Teaching in your School: Within the University, you can get support from:

guidance on validation and review, and for the Handbook of Academic Regulations and the Quality Assurance and Enhancement Handbook. Your Campus Quality Manager and CASG Chair, who can also advise on the validation and review process. The Educational Initiative Centre, 3rd floor, M Block, Marylebone Road. Website: elp with curriculum design and developing your learning, teaching and assessment strategies. This includes the following material that may in particular help you: - The Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy The Centre for Excellence in Professional Learning from the Workplace who can support the development of employer engagement and work placements, website: www.wmin.ac.uk/page-5818 There is a wide range of expertise and support in accessing information from both within the University and via the web. This includes how to help students access e-books and e-re); the stored exam papers (a Librarian’ viralso help with citations by Refworks bibliographic software, improving the quality of referencing and helping avoid accidental plagiarism ). You can obtain support from a named liaison librarian Prof. Gunter Saunders, the Director of On-Line Learning, and the On-Line Learning Support Officers: - Rob … who can support developments in Technology-Enhanced Learning, The Academic Writing Centre who will advise on ways in which you can help your students to develop their writing: CaSE, support in developing employability and Career Management Skills See Skills in the Curriculum—A Guide produced by CaSE, ISLS and EIC. The Disability Services team, for helping developing an inclusive curriculum The Marketing, Communications and Development Team and in particular Sharon Mason.
Externally the following sources will be useful:
The Quality Assurance Agency, in particular the academic infrastructure: - www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/default.asp The Higher Education Academy, wethe Subject Networks and the resource area: The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education in Scotland; Enhancement theme publicationsenhancementthemes.asp The Southern England Consortium for Credit Accumulation and Transfer (SEEC), in particular the FE/HE Level Descriptors The Staff and Educational Development Association Papers (reference copies available in the EIC library, room M317, Marylebone Campus):

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