Transcript Promoting academic innovation by valuing and enabling

Promoting academic innovation by valuing and
enabling disruptive design
Andrew Middleton
Head of Innovation & Professional Development
@andrewmid
Introductions


Hello!
Why are we interested in curriculum design?
Session outline









Introductions
Curriculum Design @ SHU background
Defining priorities for collaborative design teams
Principle-based design and other approaches
Designing a design lens
Scenario-based design
Building scenarios
Devising and sharing other collaborative design methods
Conclusions
Background:
The Design Studio
Our Challenge: how to engage multiple stakeholders
effectively in curriculum design
Students and others not directly involved in teaching
Why:
 breadth of experience
 knowledge
 perspectives
 accommodate diverse stakeholder requirements
How:
 Two day design team immersive think tank
 Principle-based facilitation
changes perceptions of design
accommodates
multiple stakeholder
perspectives
manages risks
tests different ideas safely
develops staff
disruptive design
encourages dialogue
suspends reality
generates alternatives
addresses intended outcomes
develops stakeholder relationships
supports collaboration
Background:
Why Studio?
Opportunity, space and structure

Open and supportive

Space: time, people, place

Contained activity

Critical friendship

Co-operation and collaboration

Safe risked-based thinking

Communal validation
Defining priorities for collaborative design
teams
Analysing needs and identifying priorities
Radar Discussion tool
•

Alumni goldfish bowl - observed structured group
discussion

Student evaluations (surveys or video evaluations)

NSS analysis

What else?
Principle-based design and other
approaches
Principle-based facilitation
“Rhetorical resources” – Nicol (2012)
 High level educational aspiration
 Problem domain/area of concern
 Practice-orientated principles
 A compelling narrative
 Examples of application
 Research evidence
– to focus useful conversation
– e.g. stakeholder participation
– e.g. graduate attributes
– often set out in ‘literature’
– what do the principles mean
– associated case studies
– associated ‘toolkits’
Key Tools





Screencasts
Priority analysis tool
Design lens based upon the
Viewpoints (University of Ulster)
method
Set of cards, each addressing
ideas supporting one principle
Online resource-base (Toolkit)
Assessment & feedback
lens from University of
Ulster
Designing the Design Lens
Example: Learner Engagement development
workshops for staff and students



Explored principles and frameworks found in academic
literature on learner engagement
Reflected on their experience and expectations and
generated examples of engaging practice
Generate new ideas using creativity methods (i.e. word
association, photo elicitation, scenario writing)
Assessment & Feedback lens from University of Ulster
Activity: Principles of Digital Literacy
Identify between 5 and 7 key ideas that
together encapsulate what digital literacy
means.
1. Ability to find, select, retrieve and use digital
information
2….
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Scenario-Based Design
About scenarios







Descriptions of the past, present or
future
Risk-free tools for imagining the
future and for asking ‘what-if..?’
Colourful narratives or process
statements
'Good enough' representations of
possibilities...
...or highly detailed
Scenarios set the scene for
discussion
Scenarios can concretise ideas for
development
“a concrete description of
activity that the user
engages in when
performing a specific task,
description sufficiently
detailed so that design
implications can be inferred
and reasoned about”
- Carroll (1995)
Why use scenarios for curriculum design?
Scenarios,

Use diverse kinds and amounts of detailing

Present alternative consequences of action

Can be abstracted and categorised



Help designers to recognise, capture, modify and reuse
generalisations or patterns
Support reasoning
Make design tasks accessible to diverse expert
stakeholder groups
Scenarios address 6 challenges
1.
Reflect on designs and processes
2.
Co-ordinate collaborative design action and reflection
3.
Manage risk by having something that appears concrete
and remains flexible
4.
Manage the fluidity of design situations
5.
Consider multiple views of an interaction
6.
(Capture outputs of idea generation)
Designers have to continually make commitments without making
commitments!
Designers say “What if…”
4 ways to use scenarios to support
curriculum design
Collaborative design teams can,
1.
Construct scenarios to work out and communicate their
thinking
2.
Construct scenarios to capture and communicate their
thinking
3.
Review or compare representations of existing
pedagogy
4.
Review or compare representations of proposed
pedagogy
Forming successful scenarios - characteristics

Goals, sub-goals or outcomes

Settings


Agents or actors playing primary or supporting roles
(descriptions of who is involved, how and why)
Plot - sequences of actions and events done by or to the
actors or changes to the setting. Changes to events show
how scenarios can be used dynamically to assess
different decisions and outcomes.
Presenting successful scenarios

Scenarios use natural language query and are presented
as short narratives and can use various media, e.g.

Text

Visualisations, diagrams, pictures, etc.

Comic strips and storyboards

Videos

Multimedia

Post-it notes
Activity: Facilitating the design of
pedagogy to promote learner
 Generate
ideas for a New Staff Induction Programme using
the Learner Engagement and Authentic Learning design
lenses (or our Digital Literacy lens!).
 Focus on a small part of the Induction Course which will be
run over 3 x 2 hour workshops and be supported by online
resources.
 Work towards constructing a scenario statement to support
the communication and evaluation of you idea
Activity: Build your scenarios!
To capture and communicate your idea
Agree media
Include:

Goals, sub-goals or outcomes

Settings


Agents or actors playing primary or supporting roles
(descriptions of who is involved, how and why)
Plot - sequences of actions and events done by or to the
actors or changes to the setting. Changes to events show
how scenarios can be used dynamically to assess
different decisions and outcomes.
Activity: other approaches
Devise and share other collaborative design methods

Analyse what is needed and identify priorities

Design together

Capture ideas and develop them further

Evaluate approaches

Breakout and feedback
Conclusions
 Curriculum
design activities and a key opportunity for
promoting academic innovation
 Involving ‘others’ early is useful, difficult – but possible!
 Innovation is risky – but risk can be managed through
collaborative engagement and validation
References








Bryson, C., & Hand, L. (2007). The role of engagement in inspiring teaching and learning. Innovations in
Education and Teaching International, 44(4), pp.349–362.
Carroll, J.M. (2000). Five reasons for scenario-based design. Interacting with Computers 13, pp.43 – 60.
Fowler, C.J.H, van Helvert, J; Gardner, M.G, and Scott, J.R. (2007). The use of scenarios in designing
and delivering learning systems. In: H. Beetham & R. Sharpe, Rethinking Pedagogy in a Digital Age:
Designing and delivering e-learning. London: Routledge
Herrington, J. (2006). Authentic e-learning in higher education: design principles for authentic learning
environments and tasks. Online at: http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/5247
Nicol, D. (2012). Principles as discourse. JISC Webinar, 20th March 2012
Nicol, D., & Draper, S. (2009). A blueprint for transformational organisational change in
higher education: REAP as a case study. In: Mayes, T., Morrison, D., Mellar, H., Bullen, P. & Oliver, M.,
(eds) ‘Transforming higher education through technology-enhanced learning.’ York: Higher Education
Academy.
O’Donnell, C., Masson, A., & Harrison, J. (2011). Encouraging creativity and reflection in the
curriculum. SEDA Spring Teaching Learning and Assessment Conference 2011, "Academics for the 21st
Century", 5th May 2011 - 06 May 2011, Holyrood Hotel, Edinburgh.