JISC Innovating e-Learning 2011 conference

Today the Viewpoints project delivered an online session entitled What needs to change in curriculum design? at the JISC Innovating e-Learning 2011 conference along with presenters: from the Open University, Strathclyde University, Birmingham City University and University of Hertfordshire.

Dr Alan Masson presented and Catherine O'Donnell facilitated on behalf of Viewpoints.

Further details will be added soon.

JISC Innovating e-Learning 2011 Conference

Earlier this week Dr Alan Masson faciliated by Catherine O'Donnell and Simon Cross faciliated by Rebecca Galley delivered a session during the Activity week http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearningpedagogy/elpconference11/Activity%20Week.aspx prior to the JISC Innovating e-Learning 2011 Conference along with colleagues from the Open University.

The session was called 'Examining the process of how institutions identify and then seek to change the curriculum design processes and practices.' (This session complements the main conference session on curriculum design¹).

Seda Conference, Nov 2011

Yesterday Dr Alan Masson and Catherine O'Donnell along with Helen Beethem from the JISC Developing Digital Literacies Programme delivered a Viewpoints Information skills workshop at the 16th Annual SEDA Conference 2011 <http://www.seda.ac.uk/index.php?p=14_2&e=419&x=1>.

Slides are available via Slideshare.

Seda nov11

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Information Skills Scenarios

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Photographs taken during the session are available via Flickr

The Student's Union Perspective

The Student's Union Perspective



As part of the Viewpoints project outputs, the Student Engagement Manager, from the Student's Union, University of Ulster was interviewed by Dr Vilinda Ross about her experience with the Viewpoints process.

Assessment and Feedback Workshop: Week 7 PGCHEP

Today Dr Alan Masson and Catherine O'Donnell delivered a Vewpoints Assessment and Feedback workshop on week 7 of the Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education Practice. Colleagues Dr Vilinda Ross (Jordanstown), Dr Clare Carter (Coleraine) and Roisin Curran (Maggee) facilitated.

Photographs of the session are available via Flickr.

Assessment and Feedback Workshop

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Scenarios for the Pg CHEP

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JISC Programme meeting

Dr Alan Masson and Catherine O'Donnell attended the JISC Programme meeting at Nottingham 11th/12th October 2011 <http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearning/curriculumdesign/progmtgoct11.aspx>

They also attend a cross cluster meeting the following day.

Update to Information Skills cards

The Information Skills cards have just been updated – this new version is version 4.0.

This current (beta) edit is designed to reflect the recent changes in the SCONUL Seven Pillars of Information Literacy, as documented online on the SCONUL website.

All the cards have been changed to reflect both the updated Information Literacy Pillars and the supporting information in the Core Model publication, which explains each of the Pillars.

The cards have also been updated with the International Information Literacy logo, as recommended by the SCONUL Working Group on Information Literacy.

The updated cards can be viewed and downloaded from our Viewpoints online Slideshare area.

The cards are not yet final – they have been sent out for consultation by University of Ulster Library staff. Once all comments and edits from them have been collated and incorporated, we will upload a final printable set of the updated Information Skills cards to the Viewpoints Resources website.

Information Skills printable cards (version 4 - updated)

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Assessment in Higher Education Conference

Catherine O'Donnell and Jill Harrison today presented a Viewpoints poster at the third Assessment in Higher Education Conference – University of Cumbria.

Cumbria Study of Higher Education Network hosted this conference in collaboration with Northumbria University Centre for Excellence in Assessment for Learning and BERA Higher Education SIG. The theme was assessment practice.

School of Computing and Mathematics workshop

Today Catherine O'Donnell and Dr Vilinda Ross delivered a Viewpoints workshop to academics from the School of Computing and Mathematics, at the School of Computing Away Day.
The workshop was held on Belfast Campus.

Staff were organised into small teams and considered one of the following key objectives: Retention, Graduate Qualities, Employability, Entrepreneurship, Study Skills, Assessment and Feedback, Currency of the Curriculum and Year 1 Transition.

All four Viewpoints themes (Assessment and Feedback, Information Skills, Creativity in the Curriculum, and Learner Engagement) were used during the course of this workshop.

Photos of the session can now be viewed on Flickr.



The presentation for this session is available to view on Slideshare:

Course Level Revalidation workshop, School of Computing and Mathematics, 20/06/11

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School of Creative Arts workshop

Today Dr Alan Masson from Viewpoints and Dr Vicky Davies from Staff Development delivered an Assessment and Feedback workshop to academics from the School of Creative Arts who are preparing for revalidation. The workshop took place in Magee Campus.

Photographs of the outputs of this session can be viewed on Flickr.

Sixth International Blended Learning Conference (BLU)

Viewpoints were involved in a joint workshop entitled ‘Sustaining and embedding innovations to achieve institutional enhancement in learning and teaching’ at the University of Hertfordshire on the 15th and 16th June 2011. Catherine O’Donnell represented the Viewpoints project at this event.

The workshop began with a short overview of the key success factors for sustaining and embedding projects. The teams then split into two sub-groups for the discussion element.

Each sub-group presented information about their project. This provided participants with an opportunity to learn more about the projects and their relevance to their own institutions.

Sub-groups then took part in discussions about the barriers and enablers aligned with the chapter headings in the Good Practice Guide to Sustaining and Embedding Innovations.

A copy of the presentation delivered at this joint workshop can be found on Slideshare.

Blended Learning Conference: Sustaining and embedding innovations to achieve institutional enhancement in learning and teaching

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Train the Trainer Workshop

Yesterday Alan Masson and Catherine O'Donnell delivered a ‘train the trainer’ workshop to key educational support staff from City and Greenwich Universities in London to facilitate the embedding of project outputs into relevant teaching and learning processes within the respective institutions.

The presentation can be viewed on slideshare and photographs of the outputs can be viewed on flickr.

HEA Seminar: Encouraging creative and innovative “Viewpoints” in Curriculum Design

Yesterday the Viewpoints team delivered a seminar as part of the Higher Education Academy’s Northern Ireland Seminar Series. The programme from the day can be found on slideshare. The aim of the seminar was to introduce the Viewpoints Project and demonstrate how course teams can be assisted to incorporate pedagogic best practice research into their teaching and learning plans and be encouraged to be more creative and innovative in their designs.

The morning session began by Eddie Gulc from the Higher Education Academy welcoming everyone to the event, followed by Alan Masson introducing the Viewpoints Project. The participants then had an opportunity to try a taster workshop lead by Catherine O'Donnell. Research findings and experiences to date were shared with the participants.

Alan introduced the afternoon session and set the Viewpoints workshop in context. Catherine O'Donnell introduced the Viewpoints handbook and and offered guidelines, tips and lessons learnt. There was an opportunity for the participants to discuss how they could embed the Viewpoints approach into their own institutions. The day finished with a question and answer session.

Host institutions are required to produce a briefing paper within two months of delivering their seminar to stimulate discussion, share practice and support the sector’s access to relevant research/evaluation evidence. The briefing paper will summarise the key issues presented at the seminar, including the implications of research/evaluation evidence for practice.

The presentations from the day to can be found on slideshare. The scenarios used can also be found on slideshare.

Some photographs from the day can be found on flickr:

Outputs from the day can be found on flickr:

Viewpoints resources available for download

Viewpoints now have a Resources section available on the website.

Here, you can browse and download our curriculum design resources, which can help academics plan and enhance their curriculum design.

Our resources include a series of reflective tools (timelines and printable prompt cards) to inspire ideas on creating effective curriculum designs.

The resources section also includes the Viewpoints Handbook (a guide to delivering a curriculum design workshop), supporting resources for each of the four themes, facilitator guides and presentation templates.

You can browse and download resources individually or download the entire resource pack as one compressed ZIP file (26 MB in total).

Speech and Language Therapy

Catherine and Vilinda delivered a Viewpoints course level workshop with the Speech and Language Therapy team at Jordanstown who are preparing for revalidation. The team chose to focus on planning their Assessment and Feedback strategies across three years of the course. Photographs and outputs are available via Flickr.

Seda Conference

Today Alan Masson, Catherine O'Donnell and Jill Harrison presented a workshop entitled an ‘Encouraging creativity and reflection in the curriculum’ during Parallel Session 1 at the SEDA Spring Teaching Learning and Assessment Conference 2011 at the Holyrood Hotel in Edinburgh.

Delegates were given the opportunity to consider a given scenario and:

o Explore innovation in curriculum design within institutional processes.
o Engage in one aspect of the Viewpoints toolkit.
o Understand how sharing curriculum plans across a student learning timeline at course, module and activity level can help academics prepare for effective practice.
o Discuss, share and evaluate how the Viewpoints approach may be applicable to their own Institution and/or teaching practice.

Further information about the session is available at: http://www.seda.ac.uk/resources/files/2_OdonnellMassonharrison.pdf.

Slides from the session are available via the Viewpoints Slideshare website.
Scenarios from the session are also available via the Viewpoints Slideshare website.

Viewpoints draft Handbook - Executive Summary now available

Viewpoints are currently working on a Handbook to help academic staff with their curriculum design, at module or whole-course level.

The Handbook will give course teams all the information they need to run their own curriculum design workshops, using reflective resources developed by the Viewpoints Project - a learner timeline worksheet and best-practice pedagogical principles based around four themes - Assessment and Feedback, Information Skills, Learner Engagement and Creativity in the Curriculum.

The Executive Summary and flow diagram of the Viewpoints process are now available via Slideshare. We will post a full (draft) version of the Handbook once our April Interim Report to JISC is published, to allow interested academics to feed back and comment on the document.

A full copy of the draft Handbook is available on request to academics interested in reviewing the full Guide. Contact k.virapen@ulster.ac.uk if you would like to receive a copy.

Viewpoints draft handbook - executive summary

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TFL Development Programme - Student Engagement

Catherine O'Donnell and Vilinda Ross today facilitated a Viewpoints session during the TFL Development Programme for Ulster staff at the Rosspark Hotel.

The theme of the TFL Programme was 'Student Engagement' and the project teams were working on various proposals around this theme.

There were twelve workshop participants, and 3 project teams from the University of Ulster.

The project teams used this Viewpoints taster session of 1 hour to explore how the process could be used to help them scope out their project plans on the theme of Student Engagement. The Viewpoints themes used for this taster session were Assessment and Feedback, Learner Engagement and Creativity in the Curriculum. The introductory session primarily focused on module level.

There was a good response to this taster session, with 60% indicating that they found the session very useful.

Slides from the session are available via the Viewpoints Slideshare website:

TFL Development Programme - 18th April 2011

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Photos are also available for view on the Viewpoints Flickr photostream:

Encouraging creative and innovative 'Viewpoints' in Curriculum Design

Viewpoints has rescheduled its seminar as part of the Higher Education Academy's Northern Ireland Seminar Series. It will now be held on the 2nd June 2011, 10am - 3pm.

To book your place email: saj.copeland@ulster.ac.uk.

Further Information is available on The Higher Education Academy website or via the poster which can be downloaded from Slideshare.

Information about the event:

This seminar will demonstrate how course teams can be helped to incorporate pedagogic best practice research into their teaching and learning plans, and be encouraged to be more creative and innovative in their designs.

It will share research findings to date and experiences from past workshops (e.g., photos, videos, evaluative commentaries and case studies) and will demonstrate how these can stimulate constructive dialogue and foster collaboration, helping course teams build ideas towards a student-centred curriculum design model.

Attendees will be invited to participate in group activities using either the ‘assessment and feedback’ or ‘learner engagement’ strands of the Viewpoints tools.

These activities will help participants consider how course teams address an agreed challenge e.g., designing an assessment and feedback or learner engagement strategy which:

• Supports students’ transition to higher education;
• Provides a supportive learning environment for students from different backgrounds;
• Improves feedback methods/opportunities for students to respond to feedback;
• Enables flexible learning opportunities;
• Increases the employability of graduates during their final year.

The afternoon session will give participants an opportunity to:

• Explore other Viewpoints themes, such as 'information skills' and 'creativity in the curriculum';
• Review a 'Train the trainer' handbook currently in development;
• Discuss how the Viewpoints process and tools may be useful within other institutions.

50 places are available on this all-day seminar, which will take place on the Belfast campus.

HEA Seminar - Encouraging creative and innovative 'Viewpoints' in Curriculum Design, 2 June 2011

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Assessment and Feedback workshop - Radiography

Catherine O'Donnell and Dr Vilinda Ross facilitated a Viewpoints workshop on Friday 25th March with 9 diagnostic and 2 therapeutic Radiography colleagues preparing for revalidation in 2012.

The team were keen to explore how they could develop and use their assessment strategy to promote students' learning:-

· At module level
· At course level

Part of the session involved them looking at one module as a demonstration of how they could employ Viewpoints prompts at modular level. The rest of the session involved the radiographers using the Viewpoints tools and process to begin looking at their overall course perspectives.

Slides are available online at Slideshare (an online presentation viewing facility):

Viewpoints Assessment and Feedback workshop - Radiotherapy 25th March 2011

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Photos are available online via the photo-sharing site, Flickr:

Greenwich University Open Lecture - Learner-Centred Course Design

Viewpoints Project Director Alan Masson delivered a presentation today at Greenwich University, as part of their Open Lecture Series in Teaching and Learning. The topic of the presentation was 'Learner-Centred Course Design'.

Alan discussed how learner-centred models and frameworks could assist course teams to reflect on, plan, and articulate new course designs for a creative environment. He also talked about the Viewpoints project in the context of learner-centred models, and how the Viewpoints workshop and resources could benefit learner-centred design.

Slides from the presentation are available here.

Learner-Centred Course Design - Greenwich presentation, March 2011

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Viewpoints printable cards now available for download

Viewpoints has now released printable PDF versions of its cards, for use in workshops on curriculum design.

Staff both in Ulster and in other HE or FE institutions may now download the cards for their own use.

These resources will eventually form part of a freely available Handbook which we are currently preparing, which will show users how to run their own curriculum design workshop, using our downloadable resources.

Printable Assessment and Feedback cards - view/download

Printable Information Skills cards - view/download

Printable Learner Engagement cards - view/download

All these cards are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial - ShareAlike license, which lets users remix, tweak, and build upon our work non-commercially, as long as they credit us and license their new creation under the identical terms.


INSTRUCTIONS FOR DOWNLOAD AND PRINTING

1. Go to the link for your chosen set of cards (see above) and click on the Download button above the presentation. Your PDF download will begin. Save this PDF to your computer.
2. Choose File > Print.
3. When your printing options come up on screen, print two to a page and (if this option is available to you) choose double-sided printing (front and back).
4. If your printer doesn't support double-sided printing, you can glue/staple pages together to get the front and back of each cards put together - match up the colours and titles of cards to get the front and back of each card.
5. Cut out the cards to size and glue/staple together if you haven't printed double-sided.

Once you've printed your cards, you can use them in workshops or to aid discussions when considering curriculum design.

Nursing revalidation workshop, Jordanstown campus

Alan Masson today facilitated a Viewpoints workshop on Jordanstown campus for nursing professionals who are considering course revalidation.

The workshop consisted of twelve nursing practitioners, and included staff from the University of Ulster, Queen's University and a variety of Northern Ireland health trusts.

The teams focused on two specific themes for the workshop: Assessment and Feedback and Learner Engagement.

The workshop was received enthusiastically by all staff, with one participant commenting that the Viewpoints process was "a good starting point for [the] curriculum design and development."

Photos of the workshop outputs are now available for view or download via our Viewpoints Flickr photostream.

Encouraging creative and innovative ‘Viewpoints’ in Curriculum Design

Viewpoints is hosting a seminar as part of the Higher Education Academy's Northern Ireland Seminar Series on 30 March 2011.

To book your place email: saj.copeland@ulster.ac.uk.
Further Information available on The Higher Education Academy website.

Information about the event:

This seminar will demonstrate how course teams can be assisted to incorporate pedagogic best practice research into their teaching and learning plans, and be encouraged to be more creative and innovative in their designs.

It will share research findings to date and experiences from past workshops (e.g., photos, videos, evaluative commentaries and case studies) and will demonstrate how these can stimulate constructive dialogue and foster collaboration, helping course teams build ideas towards a student-centred curriculum design model.

Attendees will be invited to participate in group activities using either the ‘assessment and feedback’ or ‘learner engagement’ strands of the Viewpoints tools.

These activities will help participants consider how course teams address an agreed challenge e.g., designing an assessment and feedback or learner engagement strategy which:

o Supports students’ transition to higher education;
o Provides a supportive learning environment for students from different backgrounds;
o Improves feedback methods/opportunities for students to respond to feedback;
o Enables flexible learning opportunities;
o Increases the employability of graduates during their final year.

Learner Engagement Workshop – Students' Union

Jill Harrison, Catherine O'Donnell, and Alan Masson facilitated a Learner Engagement workshop for the Students Union on Friday 21 January 2011.

The students' union is currently developing a 10-point credit module for student representation. The objective was to minimise additional workload for participants, support participants to become effective course representatives and create a community for representatives to share good practice.

The group used the Learner Engagement cards and the module worksheets during the 2-hour group work activity-based session.

In the evaluation exercise afterwards (implemented by Vilinda Ross), participants noted the usefulness of the visual approach and prompts implemented at the Viewpoints session. One participant remarked that the approach provided a "good visual display of our work and plan for a semester" while another stated that the Viewpoints outputs and resources had managed to "spark creativity as well as providing sound building blocks for the module". Participants felt that the workshop had helped them reflect on the learner perspective, helping the team "recognise the needs of the learner and how we can make the student experience better for them, and therefore make them better class reps".

Slides from the session are available online at slideshare:

Viewpoints: Student Representation

View more presentations from Viewpoints, University of Ulster.

All the resources used in the workshop (worksheet and Learner Engagement cards) are available for view or download from the Viewpoints Flickr photostream.

Photos from the day are also available on Flickr: