Dr Nina Brooke, University of Reading.
Wholescale approaches to curriculum transformation are gathering momentum across the sector to improve the student experience and increase efficiencies. The sector is awash with strategies and frameworks. At the University of Reading we embarked on an ambitious Portfolio Review Pathway (PRP) which involved the redesign of around 300 programmes. Our Planning and Strategy Team were fantastic at creating timelines and working groups and bringing together the right people. This process taught us that meaningful curriculum change only happens when everyone has a seat at the table. In this blog, Dr Nina Brooke, Education Developer at the University of Reading, reflects on the role of a team of educational developers during this process.
Educational Developers as Change Agents in Curriculum Transformation
The project sponsor, Reading’s Pro-Vice Chancellor for Education and Student Experience, recognised the role educational developers play as collaborative agents of change and ensured our seat at the centre of the table from the outset. The academic development and enhancement (ADE) team were also allocated funding to employ 2 x FTE ‘programme design partners’ on a fixed term basis. This created the additional capacity ADE needed to contribute meaningfully to PRP.
The work of the ADE team largely focused on the following areas:
- Co-creating principles for curriculum design (2021/22). We worked collaboratively with colleagues from across Professional Services (e.g. Quality Assurance, Timetabling and Exams) to design listening exercises with our Student Panel to ensure our principles were student-centred. We drew on our pedagogic expertise to draft evidence-informed principles and led consultations with academic colleagues.
- Translating principles into practice (2022/23). We created a structured, iterative curriculum design process which was owned by the academic schools and centrally supported. Alongside facilitating workshops (e.g. writing learning outcomes, ABC learning design), we developed a series of ‘green guides’. We also acted as critical friends by providing bespoke support to academic leads and programme teams, helping apply the principles to their diverse disciplines and contexts. We also employed and supported a team of student partners to work collaboratively with colleagues in their schools.
- Evaluating adoption of the principles (2023/24). Over four months we worked collaboratively with teaching and learning deans and their schools to evaluate the resulting paperwork — approximately 300 programme specifications and more module descriptions than we could count! — developed as part of this process. To ensure consistency we developed a rubric-based framework which also automated the feedback we provided and highlighted good practice and areas for further enhancement.
The redesigned portfolio was successfully launched in September 2024.
Reflections from the ‘third space’
As an educational developer, I have spent many years working in the third space at the intersection of academic practice and institutional change. Here we act as leaders, facilitators, and brokers, and have to work hard to balance institutional priorities with staff and student voices. But I firmly believe we are uniquely placed to build relationships based on credibility and trust, ask (naïve but often really good!) questions, and support collaborative and values-led curriculum change.
We found that the most successful curriculum change occurred when academic leaders in schools took ownership over the process, bringing programme teams together to facilitate ‘programmatic thinking’ and overcoming module siloes. Ensuring that the programme redesign did not fall on the shoulders of a select few was necessary to achieve buy-in and support staff wellbeing. This is especially important post-pandemic and in a time when the sector is being asked to do more with less. It ultimately leads to the development of more coherent, student-centred and inclusive programmes.
Looking ahead: sustainable curriculum enhancement
As we enter the post-PRP era, the team continue to provide bespoke support to academic leads and programme teams, and review documentation as part of the University’s Programme Lifecycle Policy. This is a welcome development that embeds our role in ongoing curriculum developments which is, after all, an iterative process! We have been lucky to retain the expertise of the programme design partners with many moving into permanent roles in ADE. However continuity and capacity for this important work cannot be left to chance. Curriculum enhancement needs to be recognised as a core function of educational development teams. This means senior leaders giving educational developers a seat at the table and sustaining capacity for this work beyond sporadic, project-based initiatives. Bespoke support for programme teams is also arguably more impactful than delivering generic workshops to an already engaged core group of individuals.