C-CAP: Managing Curriculum Designs as Knowledge Assets - Briefing Paper

Curriculum design is the process of developing a "total plan for learning" [1] in which consideration is given to the learning content students will be exposed to, the teaching and assessment methods to be used, and the academic rationale behind the curriculum [2]. Curriculum design in higher education (HE) is therefore a key "teachable moment" and often remains one of the few occasions when academics will plan and structure their intended teaching [3]. The Principles in Patterns (PiP) project was funded by JISC under its Institutional Approaches to Curriculum Design Programme [4] to develop new, innovative technology-supported approaches to curriculum design, approval and review. It is anticipated that such technology-supported approaches can improve the efficacy of curriculum approval processes at HE institutions, thereby improving curriculum responsiveness and enabling improved and rapid review mechanisms which may produce enhancements to pedagogy [4], [5] and present an opportunity for improving academic quality, pedagogy and learning impact [6]. Approaches that are innovative in their use of technology offer the promise of an interactive curriculum design process within which the designer is offered system support to better adhere to pedagogical best practice, is exposed to novel and high impact learning designs from which to draw inspiration, and benefits from system support to detect common design issues, many of which can delay curriculum approval and distract academic quality teams from monitoring substantive academic issues, e.g. [7], [8].