Curriculum Management Software

Description

The successful introduction of a curriculum management system will move us into a very different place that will be ahead of other universities in terms of our ability to design new programmes, refresh and reinvigorate existing programmes, and to support our students and staff during programme implementation. Delivery of an appropriate curriculum management will bring a step change in our understanding of the ‘products’ we can sell, the fees associated with these offerings, and the income that they can generate. We need to invest in time, systems and people in order to succeed. The outcome will place us in a very strong position to support innovation in programme design and delivery that will meet the needs of the changing external environment. The main objective is to better equip the University in the management of our provision lifecycle. From development, through approval, integration into how we deliver that provision, support the management, review and update of the content, closure and archiving. This will provide a robust reliable one truth source of information to support understanding and managing our portfolio. Provision Concept and Development We require a system to support the management of the lifecycle of our academic provision. This stage of the lifecycle is about the creation of a draft provision approval. We need to collect key business case information to allow the approval decisions to be made. This includes key information such as market intelligence, expected fees, expected costs, expected student numbers, strategic fit as well as the academic rationale. We will also be gathering outline provision structure and content, award information, accreditation, learning outcomes for academic quality approval. We will also look to gather initial operational information – which will be built on through development but will include details such as library resources required, timetabling requirements. The categorisation of our provision types will allow different information to be gathered depending on what is pertinent to that provision. Provision Approval We require a system to support the approval process through defined, automated workflows. The system will also support visibility of current and upcoming approvals to others who have the approved access, this will allow other departments to get early visibility of, and comment upon new provision with respect to their area of expertise. Approval dates, comments and documents should be recorded against the provision. Operation/ User Scenarios/Business Process Integration Provision information needs to be accessible to support a myriad of different purposes. The system will support our improved understanding of activities, learning outcomes at module and the linkages to programme level learning as well as accreditation and professional body recognition. The system will be the one truth source of information on provision supporting various processes such as peer review and external examiners. The ability for staff to easily see what a provisions structure is and which provisions a module is taught on is essential. The system will support the complexities of different delivery pathways of the same programme whilst making it simple for staff to navigate the different versions. Provision Review and Change The system will support our institutional led reviews, this will require dates for approval, re-approval, delivery, closure to be recorded to allow the lifecycle to be managed. There will be tracking of changes made to provision and the ability to view those changes to support review. Workflow will support these processes to remove some of the burden of managing the review workload. It will provide assurance through date reporting to facilitate operational planning of the reviews. Provision Closure We require to provide a closure workflow which will make explicit and support the closure process, ensuring any module closures trigger a notification to relevant provision leaders to assess impact on their provision. The workflow and visibility of closures will allow staff in supporting departments to consider the impacts of closing that provision. Provision Archive Closed provision will be archived so we have an institutional record of all provision we have created. This record should be searchable to allow staff to look at previous provision content from either an academic provision development point of view or to support providing alumni with historical information about the course they ran. Usability The system will need to be simple to use. It will be a core system used by a large number of staff across the institution. Intuitive navigation, personalised views of information, excellent search functions, and drop-down standard lists will all support an excellent user experience.