Background to call 1 Transforming Curriculum Delivery Through Technology

Joint Information Systems Committee – David Kernohan – eLearning

Background to call 1Transforming Curriculum Delivery

Through Technology

Joint Information Systems Committee

curriculum delivery

“the many ways in which learners are helped to achieve the outcomes offered to them by a curriculum”

teaching as delivery of information

What do we mean by…?


“the many ways in which learners are helped to achieve the outcomes offered to them by a curriculum”

learning

access tolearning

resources

teaching

interactions

access to learning

opportunities

guidanceFeedback

tutoring, coaching, mentoring


A comparison: what is curriculum design?

Source: Sharing the LOAD project workshops

“curriculum design processes take place

before any real learners are enrolled onto a

programme of study”


A curriculum lifecycle

design or develop

instantiate or set up

realise or deliver

review or validate

“processes which take place when

real learners engage with

a designed curriculum”

‘design’ call

‘delivery’ call

“The call is looking for projects to explore how technology can support these processes more effectively… particularly from the perspective of the learners engaged in the curriculum.”


What are these ‘processes’?

They might include:

Teaching, learning support, learning development, access to learning opportunities and resources, dialogues and interactions, advice and guidance, coaching, mentorship, peer learning, feedback and formative assessment, personal development planning, tutoring, coaching…

Any processes which ‘help learners to achieve the outcomes offered to them by a curriculum’


The call is for proposals to:

transform how they deliver and support learning

across a curriculum area

through the effective use of technology

in response to a particular challenge faced by the discipline(s), department(s) or institution(s) involved.


focus

purpose

means

scope

So you need to decide on your project’s:





Which curriculum delivery processes?

Across which curriculum area(s)?

Involving which technologies?

In response to which challenges/opportunities?


Background: what are the challenges facing curriculum delivery?

Leitch Review of Skills and Govt’s World Class Skills plan

Widening participation and learner diversity

New markets, including international students

Demand for work-based learning and CPD

Demand for specific skills e.g. digital literacies, enterprise

Demand for new modes of delivery including blended, multi-site, on-demand

“New curriculum models are emerging which require new kinds of learner support, guidance, goal-setting and feedback … which recognise external stakeholders as key supporters of the learning process, and which assume different kinds of collaboration among learners who may rarely or never be co-located.”


Background: from embedding to enhancement

Tutors have tools for course design… access to information about the materials available, and support to adopt/adapt/improve them. HEFCE e-learning strategy (2005): key measure of success

We want to support you in enhancing the learning experience for students and the teaching experience of staff by building the capacity and capability of your institution to a point where informed use and application of technology to provide a high quality experience has become the norm. Enhancing Learning and Teaching through Technology: a Strategy for Higher Education in Wales (HEFCW 2007)

‘Embedding learning

technology into the curriculum’

‘Enhancing capacity and capability’

It was suggested [as an outcomeof Benchmarking] that the term

e-learning is no longer helpful in the wider context of technology-enabled

learning, teaching and assessment.

Glenaffric Ltd, Benchmarking Phase 2 report


Background: previous and current work

Transforming learning and teaching practice

Transforming technologies

Transforming institutional systems and strategies


Transforming learning and teaching practice…

…might be expressed in terms of:

evidence-supported practice, research-led teaching, active learning, student-centred learning, inquiry-based learning, problem-based learning, retention and progression, enhancing the learning experience, personalised learning…

other specific challenges, issues or ambitions for your curriculum area


Example: JISC e-pedagogy programme

Source: Oxford Brookes Pathfinder Design Intensives

“ The focus here is on understanding learning activity, moving beyond an understanding of e-learning as simply providing content to thinking about technology as central to contemporary teaching and learning processes, and seeing e-learning as part of the range of resources available to the professional practitioner.”

Effective Practice with e-Learning (JISC 2005)


Example: REAP project

Assessment and feedback are critical drivers of student learning

Both deeply affect the quality of student-teacher interaction.

They are the main areas of dissatisfaction in the UK National Student Survey (NSS)

Assessment redesign with technology can result in improved learning, higher student satisfaction and more efficient use of staff time

A focus on the redesign of assessments can be transformative of the entire curriculum


Transforming technologies

Technologies for curriculum delivery might include:

virtual learning environments, personal learning environments, e-assessment systems, e-portfolios, mobile and wireless technologies, gaming environments…

new kinds of access to learning resources, multimedia, creativity tools, collaboration tools, web 2.0 tools and services…

Joined-up use of appropriate technologies to support curriculum goals, not new development


Examples:

See the briefing paper for examples of JISC development work in:

learning objects and learning object repositories

e-portfolios

e-assessment

e-administration

personal learning environments

technology-enhanced learning environments


Technologies themselves as challenges?

Learner-created content and learner-generated contexts The ‘web 2.0’ curriculum? Technologies for knowledge

building and sharing New ways of collaborating on curriculum delivery (multi-role

teams, multi-site programmes…) New ways of accessing learning (at work, at home, in the

community) New learning and teaching paradigms?

(immersive worlds, distributed knowledge) On-demand assessment Personalised learning environments

and personal devices


Transforming strategy and systems

Issues that might be addressed by projects could include:

support for part-time, international or work-based students

learners’ use of personal technologies and services

personalised assessment and/or feedback

transferable skills such as information and digital literacies

specific pedagogic approaches

flexible curricula to meet the needs of diverse learners

retention rates

multi-role delivery teams that may not be co-located


Example: SFC/JISC transformation projects (With focused effort and resource) it is possible to make

fundamental changes to institutional structures and strategies, academic frameworks and curriculum processes

Institutional transformation can be achieved through a focus on pedagogic principles – though these need to be very clearly articulated

ICT should support the delivery of powerful, research-based teaching and learning ideas, translated into clearly defined principles for implementation

Application of principles should be tailored to disciplinary and institutional contexts

Assessment and feedback are powerful drivers of change

21/04/23 | XCRI Briefing | Slide 19


Example: ‘Tangible Benefits of e-Learning’ A review of 37 JISC-funded projects found that, used strategically,

e-learning can offer tangible benefits to institutions: Cost savings and resource efficiency: e.g. e-assessment meant marks

for a cohort of 30 could be recorded in 2s rather than 10hrs.

Student achievement: e.g. findings of 10% improvement in student pass rates on implementing appropriate e-learning approaches.

Recruitment and retention: e.g. evidence of attrition rates during first year being lowered with use of e-portfolios

Skills and employability: virtual case studies and opportunities to keep in contact with tutors while on placement are valued by students

Widening participation: many examples of learners accessing educational opportunities through ICT who would otherwise lack the ability to participate.

Special needs: offering courses in a variety of modes allows better support to students with specific needs, currently under-represented in UK HE (untapped market could be worth £796m)


The call is for proposals to:





Projects should seek to explore how technology can enhance all aspects of curriculum delivery, support and assessment in a joined-up way.


Curriculum Delivery



Strategic challenges The Leitch agenda

pressure to deliver work-based learning and high level skills for work

Widening participation more relevant, more accessible curricula

Recruitment and retention

External stakeholders (professional, subject-based, employer, community) requiring new kinds of graduates

requiring new skills e.g. digital literacies, distributed team working

requiring constant updating of skills


Strategic challenges Internationalisation

standardisation agenda: course description, credit transfer (Bolgona) competition

need to share resources more effectively within UK HE

Rising unit costs need for efficiencies in core business processes

New markets foundation degrees, work-based learners, international learners

Learner-defined curricula rise in learner-owned technologies, learner-created content

Educational change towards flexible, learner-defined or enquiry-based curricula


Opportunities to improve process

Improved information flow

Linking the design process with quality exemplars and curriculum resources

Opportunities to share costs/resources e.g. delivering curricula in parallel across different institutions or campuses

Technology-enhanced learning environments to support flexible curriculum delivery and so enable more open curriculum design

Bite-sized, modular curricula based around key competences for employment (perhaps working with sector skills councils??)

Flexible assessment practices and technologies e.g e-portfolios, as standard

Support for decision making in the curriculum design process, eg process based or pedagogy based planning tools (Phoebe, LPP)

Accessible learning design tools interoperable with high-level planning tools (e.g. LAMS, SLeD, ReCourse)

All wd also require investments in staff skills across all roles involved


Background: evidence of the need for change

In too many cases, teaching staff did not appreciate the potential of ICT to change the ways in which they promoted effective learning through classroom activities. Improving Scottish Education: ICT in learning and teaching

‘Need to move staff beyond sticking Word docs on the VLE’

‘Need for more awareness of the underlying pedagogy’ ‘There is often little support within institutions to

fundamentally change learning and teaching’‘Ensuring the right tools are used for the learning context’JISC e-learning programme community consultation, Alt-C 2007


The vision for learning and teaching practice Curriculum delivery practices are efficient and flexible to meet a diversity of

learners’ needs

Learners have access to curriculum resources… in ways that allow them to fit learning into their lives

Staff have access to information about learners’ individual requirements, a range of technologies and services… and support for different pedagogic approaches

Learners have access to appropriate tools to support them in researching information, discussing, constructing and testing knowledge and building skills.

Learners are supported in developing the skills and attributes necessary to become effective, reflective and self-aware lifelong learners

Learners have access to diagnostic and formative as well as summative assessments

The monitoring of progress and provision of appropriately timed feedback meets the needs of learners and staff…

Stakeholders, including employers, are provided with suitable measures of achievement.

Documents

Background to call 1 Transforming Curriculum Delivery Through Technology