Viewpoints Steering Group meeting

Viewpoints had its first official steering group meeting today.

Attendees included Viewpoints Director, Dr Alan Masson and Viewpoints staff, Critical Friend Peter Bullen, Ulster University Pro-Vice Chancellor (Teaching and Learning) Professor Denise McAlister, along with other key Ulster staff and attendees from outside the University. Professor Mark Stubbs from Manchester Metropolitan University chaired the group.

The meeting began by discussing possibilities for faculty membership, with Denise suggesting that we work with each Faculty Co-Ordinator to nominate a member of each faculty to work with us.

Discussions then moved into the work schedule over the life of the project – and staff briefly summarized tool developments so far, describing progress on the Student Profiler, Assessment and Feedback tool and the Information Skills tool.

The group also discussed potential accessibility of the potential tools. Suggestions included having specialized user groups for testing, creating an accessible version of the tools as a facilitated workshop, or creating an alternative paper-based version of the tools. It was agreed to investigate this issue further, looking at the work done by TechDis (in particular their work with Xerte).

After a brief discussion on national developments in curriculum design, the steering group meeting was concluded with an agreement to meet regularly every six months for the duration of the project.

Poster Presentation at ALT-C 2009

Dr Alan Masson presented a poster about the Viewpoints project at ALT-C 2009 today.

This annual Association for Learning Technology conference is being hosted in Manchester from 8-10th September, with the theme ‘In dreams begin responsibility’.

The poster was presented as part of a workshop session entitled ‘Representing and supporting curriculum design at task, module and programme levels’ delivered by the Curriculum Design Programme Cluster Group ‘C’. This group consisted of Alan Masson (University of Ulster), Catherine Owen (University of Strathclyde), Simon Cross (Open University) and was facilitated by Peter Bullen (critical friend to the project cluster).

The workshop session used an interactive poster approach to give participants an overview of the work of the three projects to date. Participants were encouraged to engage with each poster, adding post-it notes and questions about the different project approaches. This stimulated conversations about curriculum design representations whilst considering the challenges for developing these for different audiences. Participants were also encouraged to consider how work done by each project could apply to their own particular context.

The Viewpoints poster illustrates our tool framework of ‘inform’, ‘inspire’ and ‘plan’ which helps academics to create student-centred curriculum design. The poster highlights various key elements of the project, including the emphasis on the student experience, the five different strands of the tool, delivery methods, possible applications, different tool perspectives (Module View and Course View), tool outputs and expected benefits and challenges.

Viewpoints Poster


The poster session provoked a great deal of debate and interest in the Viewpoints project, providing a useful opportunity for wider dissemination and feedback.

Further information on ALT-C 2009:
Keynote speakers and invited speakers sessions are available online via at http://elluminate.alt.ac.uk/ (select ‘Recordings’ for 8th - 10th September).
ALT Twitter channel available at: http://twitter.com/A_L_T.

Feedback on the Information Skills tool

The Information Skills tool is now at the initial development stage and is now ready for market testing and feedback, so that Viewpoints can develop further versions.

Today Karen Virapen met with Colette McKenna, User Services Librarian, and the team of Sub-Librarians from the University of Ulster. It's important that we get detailed feedback from librarians about the tool at this early stage, as they work closely with academics and students in delivering information skills training.

All the librarians have been invited to an online social network area in Ning, where they can comment on tool prototypes and feed back on any aspects of the design or content.

We hope that collaboration with the library will prove useful in developing useful resources for the Information Skills tool, that will eventually help module co-ordinators and course directors plan their courses.

Progress to date: tool overviews

Instructional Technologists Karen Virapen and Fiona Doherty presented their tool walkthroughs to the Viewpoints team today. Colette Murphy from Staff Development and Vilinda Ross from Access and Distributed Learning also attended the meeting to give their feedback.

The aim of the meeting was to showcase the work done on the Assessment and Feedback tool and the Information Skills tool to date. Both tools are at the stage of wireframe development, where actions and user choices are drawn out, screen by screen, to show how the tool might function.

Based on the feedback from today, the team will make refinements to the prototype tools , and once the data implications have been considered, make some decisions on possible technologies to use in creating the tools.

Assessment & Feedback Reflective Tool

View more presentations from Viewpoints Project.

Information Skills presentation, 30th July

View more presentations from Viewpoints Project.

Initial market testing of the Assessment & Feedback Reflective Tool

Fiona Doherty has been meeting with academic staff from across various faculties to carry out some initial market testing of the Assessment & Feedback Reflective Tool. This involves showing a mock-up screenshot of the Assessment & Feedback Reflective Tool and interviewing staff to get their feedback on it.


The staff provide their views on: the tool concept, how to use the tool, potential issues, and the possible application in their own practice – processes such as new course design, revalidation and evidence for staff probation.

This initial market testing has helped to prove the validity of the tool. The feedback will help refine the tool - moving it forward to the wire-framing phase and the development of the tool prototype.

Professor David Boud visits Ulster

The Centre for Higher Education Practice organised a series of useful events with visiting Professor David Boud this week.

Professor David Boud has been involved in research and teaching development in adult, higher and professional education for over 30 years and has contributed extensively to the literature.

The events this week included:

• Assessment of group work – Case study presentations from Ulster staff
• Research Day – Pedagogic research and getting published
• Assessment Futures – Website resource providing ideas, strategies, examples and support relating to key assessment elements.

The assessment sessions were of particular interest to the Viewpoints project, as David Boud’s literature has informed the REAP principles which are being used in the Assessment & Feedback Reflective Tool. The Assessment Futures resource takes a similar approach to the proposed Assessment and Feedback tool – by beginning with assessment elements and using ideas and examples to encourage reflection and help to enhance practice.

Visit to the University of Strathclyde

Alan Masson and Fiona Doherty spent today with the Principles in Patterns (PiP) project at the University of Strathclyde. This provided the opportunity to follow up on identified synergies established at the initial cluster CAMEL event in April - giving us the chance to share ideas and practice and allowing for discussion and debate around both projects.

The day began with David Nicols and Catherine Owen briefing us on the REAP change model. They explained how the REAP project supported academic staff by embedding the REAP principles into successful curriculum designs, resulting in measurable improvements and institutional change. In the afternoon Fiona Doherty updated the PiP team on how the Viewpoints project is proposing to make use of the REAP principles and techniques in the Assessment & Feedback Reflective Tool and how all proposed tools will work together at the curriculum design level.

Alan Masson also briefed the team on the various tools developed by the Ulster CETL Institutional E-Learning Services (CIES) including the Hybrid Learning Model, Practice Exchange Repository and the E-Learning Tools & Technologies Database.

We also met up with Sheila MacNeill, Assistant Director, JISC CETIS, to update her on the progress of the Viewpoints project. We discussed many aspects such as: project outputs, base line approach, evaluation process, the projects unique selling point and preferred data schemas. Sheila has posted details of this meeting at: http://prod.cetis.ac.uk/projects/viewpoints

Many thanks to the PiP team, in particular Catherine Owen, for organising and hosting the meeting.