Curriculum Development Support

Recently PCIP approved an investment to support curriculum change initiatives related to "curriculum innovation" across the University of Saskatchewan.  As a result, the GMCTE will have staff capacity to support various curriculum development initiatives being undertaken by programs, departments, and colleges.

Curriculum development support includes a spectrum of activities that potentially involves significantly different levels of engagement and connection between the GMCTE and the academic unit being supported.  This includes:

1. Process coaching: work with organizing team to help design the process and provide behind-the-scenes support
2. Process resource support: provide background resources as requested
3. Process facilitation: work with the entire department to facilitate the process

In each case we check in regularly to keep the project rolling.

Peter Wolf (University of Guelph), a leading curriculum designer in Canada, offers a model for curriculum development that is “faculty-driven, data-informed, and educational developer-supported.”[1] In this model, curriculum development is based on three phases:

• Curriculum Visioning involves the assessment of various kind of data collected in order to match the attributes of the ideal graduate with the program goals;
• Curriculum Development uses curriculum mapping software[2] to match foundational content and program objectives to assess current and future course offerings, sequencing, etc.
• Alignment, Coordination, and Development involves “reviewing the literature and research on one or more program objectives, developing relevant rubrics and exemplars of differing levels of skill development, and developing suggested teaching approaches to foster skill development.”[3]

As can be seen from this brief summary of Wolf’s work, curriculum renewal requires an investment of time, and would be facilitated by having the support of an educational developer/program designer, workshops, and guidelines for curriculum mapping. By developing a systematic and explicit approach to curriculum development, departments/units will be able to identify their strengths and areas for further development.

For more information, contact the Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching Effectiveness, Room 50 Murray Building, c/o Brad Wuetherick, Program Director or to brad.wuetherick@usask.ca.

References:
[1] Wolf, Peter. 2007. “A Model for Facilitation Curriculum Development in Higher Education: A Faculty-Driven, Data-Informed, and Educational Developer-Supported Approach.” New Directions for Teaching and Learning. 112 (Winter). pp: 15-20.
[2] For example, see VUE, an open access curriculum mapping tool developed at Tufts University.  For more information, see http://vue.tufts.edu.
[3] Ibid. p. 18.

Instructional Design Support

What do you need?

• Is your program or college considering a curriculum redesign?
• Do you have a course that is in need of an update?
• Are you a new instructor or faculty member looking for guidance about effective course design?
• Are you looking for new ways to integrate technology in your teaching?

Employing good instructional design can help ensure that:

• your course matches your students' needs
• your learning outcomes are clearly stated, and are measurable
• you are optimally employing a variety of teaching and learning strategies
• your assessment matches your previously established outcomes

What can we do for you?

• You can meet with an instructional designer to assess your project and give you suggestions about a work plan and how to get started
• We can give you information about ID services available on campus, and put you in touch with people that can help
• The Centre’s in-house library has a number of titles about instructional design and course design
• We can locate other resources to help get you started
• The Centre offers various workshops about specific elements of course design, as well as a one-week intensive Course Design/Redesign Institute

For more information, contact the Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching Effectiveness, Room 50 Murray Building, c/o Brad Wuetherick, Program Director or to brad.wuetherick@usask.ca. 

Innovative Curriculum Project Fund

As part of the PCIP-funded Curriculum Innovation Initiative a new project fund is available for academic units to support curriculum innovation projects. The Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching Effectiveness (GMCTE) administers this Curriculum Innovation Fund of approximately $250,000 per year for 2012 to 2016.

Projects supported by the fund should have a curricular focus - changing or developing the content or methods of a collection of courses (major, theme, minor, specialization, certificate, etc.). New or revised curricula should also focus on improving the student experience, with preference given to proposals that address identified institutional priorities - experiential learning, Aboriginal education, internationalization, and innovative uses of learning technologies. This initiative is aimed primarily at programmatic innovation, but in some cases innovations at the level of individual courses within an existing program will be considered.

It is anticipated that academic units will use the resources made available through the Curriculum Innovation Fund to support such things as: release time for faculty leading a curriculum project, support for student assistants involved in curriculum projects, costs associated with online or technology-intensive course development, support for consultants (such as travel costs for visiting scholars) required to inform/contribute to the project, as well as costs associated with data gathering, analysis, and program evaluation.

There will be a two-step process for project approvals. First, academic units wishing to pursue projects will submit an initial pre-proposal of 1-2 pages outlining the project idea.  Pre-proposals may be submitted to the GMCTE at any time. Next, a more comprehensive proposal will be prepared in partnership with staff from the Gwenna Moss Centre. These more detailed, comprehensive proposals will be judged by the Curriculum Innovation Committee, and successful proposals will receive funding to offset direct costs associated with curriculum or program development.

TERMS OF REFERENCE

Proposals must meet the following requirements:

• Strong commitment by the department/college to the initiative (or colleges/departments if an interdisciplinary initiative)
• A plan for implementation of some innovative practice in the curriculum, preferably connected to identified institutional priorities (experiential learning, Aboriginal education, internationalization, and innovative uses of learning technologies)
• A commitment of a lead person or team of people (whether disciplinary or interdisciplinary) to see the project through to implementation
• An expected positive impact on student learning or the student learning experience

The pre-proposal should be no more than 2 pages in length and should include:

• A brief description of the proposed activity, practice or innovation
• An explanation of the level of faculty / staff involvement and a primary contact person
• A rough estimate of the costs (both developmental and ongoing) anticipated with the project
• A summary of the expected impact on students or the student experience
• A preliminary plan for measuring success

The comprehensive project proposal should be no more than 5 pages long and should include:

• A detailed description of the proposed activity, practice or innovation
• An explanation of the level of faculty / staff involvement (ie. who will lead the project?, who will be involved?)
• A description of the expected impact on students or the student experience

• A timeline for the project
• A proposed budget – details about what direct costs would be required from the Curriculum Innovation Fund and what costs would be contributed by the unit.
• A rationale for how the innovation will ultimately sustain itself
• A preliminary program evaluation plan to evaluate the impact of the curriculum change

It is expected that some projects will need no funding and will be able to proceed largely on their own with some GMCTE staff support and consultation.  It is anticipated that funded projects will be eligible to receive between $5000 and $40,000 to offset direct costs in the unit.

SELECTION / FUNDING ALLOCATION PROCESS

Every proposed project that generally meets the requirements above will be supported to some extent, at minimum through advice and consultation with GMCTE staff.  Projects requiring funds to pay direct costs to the academic unit or funds required to pay for services from another unit (eg ITS, eMAP) will be considered for funding allocation.  Funding allocations from the Curriculum Innovation Fund to offset these types of direct costs incurred will be determined as follows:

• Funding allocations up to the value of one 3-cu sessional stipend (approximately $6500) may be authorized by the Director of the University Learning Centre on the basis of a pre-proposal alone
• Proposals for larger amounts of funding must be reviewed/approved by the Curriculum Innovation Committee, chaired by the Vice-Provost Teaching and Learning.
• Membership on this Curriculum Innovation Committee will be established by the VPTL in consultation with the Associate Deans Academic.
• The Curriculum Innovation Committee will meet regularly to consider project proposals and will make timely decisions.
• The Curriculum Innovation Committee will determine a schedule for releasing funds to the unit, appropriate to the budget and project milestones.

All successful projects will be matched with a GMCTE staff curriculum specialist or instructional designer to support the ongoing work of the academic unit identified in the proposal.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

For more information, contact the Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching Effectiveness, Room 50 Murray Building, c/o Brad Wuetherick, Program Director <brad.wuetherick@usask.ca>.