Slides from a short presentation made by Peter Bird and Rachel Forsyth of Manchester Metropolitan University on institutional change at the University. Presentation given at the Open University hosted workshop 'Curriculum Design - Opening up the Game'. http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/6389

1. Institutional Change at MMU
Peter Bird & Rachel Forsyth
SRC project
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 1

2. What was SRC
• Try out curriculum change in four areas, Law,
Accounting, Creative Digital, Physiotherapy
• Curriculum tuned to needs of employers,
professional bodies
• Showcasing of talent through portfolio/PDP
• Attempt to create a more efficient QA process
with online curriculum

3. Wednesday, July 11, 2012 3

4. How was it in 2009?
• Robust but burdensome QA processes with lots of
paper and large approval meetings
• Inconsistent and often large numbers of assessments
per unit, lack of clear learning outcomes
• A lack of a consistency for students – ad-hoc linkage
between curriculum, timetabling, VLE, library
resources etc…
• Some good links to employability but no overall
strategy

5. Course Info | systemic problems
Practice is too QAA commend our
We struggle to
varied to robust processes
interpret vague
systematise QA docs
Central systems don’t
Student Records
support local variety QA We keep it vague to
avoid tortuous QA
We re-type so we build our own
everything
into UCAS
We can’t get
Marketing concrete details on Course Teams do marketing
Why
courses for website, never have up-to-
so maintain our own date info about our
courses 5

6. 2010 - Stop Mucking about, let’s go for
broke…
• Re-write the curriculum
• Standardise course units
• Link in employability outcomes
• Stick the curriculum online
• And while you’re at it, change the VLE, introduce
personalised timetabling and mash it up into a
student portal.

7. What have we done… The launch of
EQAL
• Re-written the entire undergraduate curriculum
(over 1300 course units so far…). First year went
live in Autumn 2011
• Put the curriculum online and streamlined QA
processes
• All course units linked to graduate outcomes
• Less assessments to lead to better feedback..
• New VLE, online personalised timetabling,
assessment tracking system

8. What have we learned
• “Never mind the pedagogy”. Standardisation – 30
credits, 20 credits – forget the credits it’s forcing
the change that matters…..
• It’s not about saving money – it’s better student
experience for the same bucks
• It’s all or nothing with institutional change – can’t
do it by experimentation
• How to do change management

9. What we have learned
• You won’t get instant leaps in NSS scores –
management has to hold its nerve for several
years at least…
• Communication is a key issue – Easy for staff to
see this as pre-cursor to re-structuring
• Accurate data is key – an inaccurate curriculum
will be quickly visible to students
• Training/Support is needed – hence the games!

10. What they said…
• “We recognised that if we were to be one institution, albeit made up of different
faculties and campuses with different origins and histories, we needed a greater
degree of standardisation and consistency about the way the curriculum was
assessed.” Deputy VC
• “I don’t like the 30-credit unit size; it’s too big and prevents a diverse curriculum,
reduces student choice and requires lumping things together which don’t naturally
fit.” EQAL Faculty Lead
• “There is a better understanding now of the connection between basic aspects of
the curriculum and the student experience… it doesn’t matter how good teaching
and learning is, it will be dragged down if the basics aren’t in place, like knowing
where you are supposed to be, what assignments will be set and when the
submission dates are. I think that understanding of this is beginning to grow
across the institution now.” Learning Technologist
• “I appreciate why MMU has done EQAL – for a more positive student experience.
These things just take time, it’s such a big university. On the whole, the university
does listen to the student voice.” Vice President, Student Union

11. The end is only the beginning…
• Building blocks in place but assessment for
learning is a(nother) long-term project….
• You can’t do enough to develop links to
employability…
• Showcasing of talent through Mahara
• Communication, Communication Communication
has to improve to keep staff on-board