Professor Elizabeth McCrum Pro Vice Chancellor Education and Student Experience University of Reading
Writing the Script on Curriculum Change
The story of curriculum change at the University of Reading began in 2020 in the wake of Covid. We knew that we were going to emerge from lockdown in to a very different context for HE. Our primary goal was to enhance student experience; tackling long-standing systemic issues raised by students- like the volume and distribution of their assessment. Even before the current financial pressures facing the sector it was clear that depreciation in the value of the tuition fee meant that we also had to look carefully at what we were doing with the resource we had.
Setting the Stage for Student Success
Covid also saw changes to global markets for higher education, to students’ expectations of University, to learning technologies. The well-being of our staff and of our students also became even more important than it had ever been.
So our core drivers were:
- Improving student experience and wellbeing;
- Creating a sustainable, coherent portfolio;
- Improve staff workload and wellbeing;
- Making better use of resources.
Our Play
Our programme, which we called our Portfolio Review, consisted of 3 overarching projects:
- Programme and module review
A holistic evaluation of our portfolio to ensure it is sustainable and reflective of student demand. To ensure students have realistic choice and coherent viable programmes and modules reducing administrative load and complexity.
- Restructure of the academic year
Moving our academic year from three terms to two semesters. Spreading assessment more evenly over the year with students assessed closer to when they are taught. Maximising the amount of teaching time within the year. Increasing physical teaching capacity without extending the teaching day.
- Review and redesign of programmes and modules against a set of core design principles
Establishing a set of simplified expectations of what a Reading programme and module should look like structurally.
Stage Directions
Some of these expectations of programmes and modules include:
Embedding a programme level approach– ensuring a cohesive and coherent experience for students that is progressively challenging and better designed e.g. for intentionally and thoughtfully designed digitally enhanced learning; for education for sustainability; for coherent and proportionate assessment.
Uniform module size and shape– leading to fewer modules, facilitating shared teaching and flexibility between programmes, ensuring parity in staff and student workloads, balancing teaching and assessment across semesters.
A compulsory first semester- giving new students the chance to settle into their studies, building community and belonging, enabling academic induction before choosing optional modules and creating timetabling capacity.
Managing optionality and module allocation– As far as possible eliminating module capping. Enabling students to study what they choose. Grouping optional modules into “baskets” within a program structure. Providing a more structured and manageable selection of optional modules for students, limiting timetable clashes, improving module selection and offering coherent pathways through their studies.
Assessment volume, design and distribution- limiting assessment to 2 with no more than 3 assessments per 20 credits spread evenly across the year to be completed in the semester of study. Assessment redesigned towards authentic assessment and a move away from a reliance on traditional examinations. Reducing the workload associated with assessment for staff. Reduced, effective, engaging proportionate assessment for students.
Opening Night
We are one year into delivering our curriculum change programme at the University of Reading. At the time of writing we have just been through one full cycle of our new academic year and the delivery of one year of our new programmes and modules. It is too early to evaluate the changes and to see all of the benefits fully realised but some early achievements include:
- A reduction in the number of Programmes by 35%, and of modules by 25%
- A reduction in the number of unique pathways studied by our students bringing operational efficiencies as well as promoting cohesion and community
- Over 330 programmes and 2000 modules redesigned
- A much-improved timetable built from scratch that makes better use of space
- Successful module selection with fewer queries and errors
- Capped modules significantly reduced [if not quite eliminated]
- All assessments set-up afresh to reflect the pedagogic changes made and to ensure assessment patterns are reasonable for student and staff
Encore
A key part of our work has been embedding all of the changes we have made into business as usual to ensure benefits are maintained into the future. This has included embedding them into: policy; portfolio management; programme design and approval; staff training, guidance development and recognition. Teaching and learning leadership roles and governance and decision making have been reviewed and enhanced to support this. The work goes on as we continue to maintain and track benefits, manage [avoid] exceptionalism and to continue to build on the work we have done to realise further benefits.
For more about the University of Reading’s Portfolio Review, click here.