The document discusses a strategic change programme at Manchester Metropolitan University aimed at transforming the curriculum, student experience, and use of learning technologies. It outlines the university's goals of pursuing an ambitious institutional transformation through new buildings, curriculum, administrative processes, mobile technologies, and quality processes. A key part of the transformation involves taking a coordinated approach to improving the curriculum design, course administration, learning resources, and student experience through more integrated online and mobile services.

1. Strategic Change Programme:
Curriculum transformation, student
experience & learning technologies
Sheffield | Jan 2013
Professor Mark Stubbs
Head of Learning & Research Technologies
m.stubbs@mmu.ac.uk http://twitter.com/thestubbs
http://slideshare.net/markstubbs
Thursday, January 03, 2013 1

2. Context | an interesting place to work!
• Large, popular, multi-campus university
– 36,000+ students | 1,000+ courses | consolidating from 7 sites
• Pursuing an ambitious transformation initiative
– New Buildings, New Curriculum, New Admin Processes & Systems,
New Learning & Mobile Tech, New Quality Processes…

3. Context | priority project areas
League table rankings
A
Marketing &
Recruitment Reputation
Processes
C
B
Learning, Teaching, Assessment
Student Intake Student Retention
& Personal Development
(Aspirations, Attitude Success &
Processes, Facilities
& Abilities) Satisfaction
& Resources
Resource allocation
All Year Numbers
A Recruit to target B Improve satisfaction, retention & success C Inform decision-makers

4. Context | great online experience
B Improve satisfaction, retention & success
Great Great Great
Online Experience Learning Spaces Teaching
(Seamless, personalised)

5. Context | how best to make a difference
1. Listening
• Recurrent messages from diverse experiences
– Focus groups: consistent, easy to find info
– NSS analysis: course organisation determines Q22
– Mobile surveys: deadlines, timetables… (m-admin)
• Great (and not-so great) expectations
– “engaging, well-organised courses”
– “tutors who know me”

6. Context | the case for transformation
In the current climate
Diminishing unit of resource
Everything depends on everything else
>DVC “Out of patience”
error at line 1 We are large and risk averse

7. Context | the “who dares wins” response
 In the current climate
?
vc Diminishing unit of resource
θ
Everything depends on everything else
We are large and risk averse

8. Context | EQAL
In the current climate
• A coordinated strike for step-change improvement Diminishing unit of resource
New Curriculum Everything depends on everything else
• designing new units, … We are large and risk averse
New Admin Systems & Processes
• personal timetabling, …
New Virtual Learning Environment
• Moodle & myMMU web/mobile, Talis Aspire…
New QA & QE Processes
• facilitating curriculum transformation

9. MISSION:

10. Context | coordinated change
Curriculum Design Course Admin
Design Review Approve Set up Design
Produce Publish
New New New Curriculum Teaching
Timetables Timetables
Curriculum Curriculum Curriculum in SRS Schedules
Design Set up
Publish
Assessment Submission
Deadlines
Schedules System
Learning Technology
Input
Great
Set up Build Online
Pedagogic Courses in Courses in Experience
Input VLE VLE (Seamless,
Set up Publish Personalised)
Library Input Reading Reading
Lists Lists
Learning, Teaching & Assessment Resources & Facilities
Thursday, January 03, 2013 10

11. Context | pragmatic, lean innovation

12. This work is licensed under a Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence
Engaging our learners: Core+ DVLE model
Learning technologies not isolated :
interaction with personal and
administrative systems and underlying
infrastructure are major determinants
of the quality of the overall experience
Recognised: watch & learn how staff
use tech
Recommended: staff set up & we train
to integrate
Arranged: we set up & train staff to
use
Core: we set up & train staff & tell
students it’ll be a consistent front door
http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/ltreview

13. This work is licensed under a Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence
Wrapping the institution around the learner

14. This work is licensed under a Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence
Wrapping the institution around the learner
Student ID
Timetable
Sync to
personal
device
14

15. This work is licensed under a Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence
Wrapping the institution around the learner
Student ID (+ Unit code)
Hand-in dates / extensions / marks
Personalised submission sheet
15

16. This work is licensed under a Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence
Wrapping the institution around the learner
Unit code
Resource list
Relevant resource
16

17. This work is licensed under a Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence
Wrapping the institution around the learner
Unit code
Past exam papers
Past exam paper
17

18. This work is licensed under a Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence
Wrapping the institution around the learner
megamashup
mws
18

19. Are we in a better place now?
Engaging our
students
Automating Providing
our business
processes intelligence

20. Listening carefully to the student voice
• Personalised online survey on portal homepage
– Nov 2011: 10,716 left 58,000+ comments
– Nov 2012: 10,186 left 48,000+ comments
– All data tagged with unit / course codes
• Unit/Course leaders see their anonymised feedback
– Statistical analysis identified top 3 predictors of overall
satisfaction…
The course has helped me to develop confidence and skills to succeed
The course is well organised and running smoothly
Staff on my course are good at explaining things

21. Summary
• Pursuing joined-up approach for making a step-
change improvement in student experience:
– Wrapping resources around the learner
– Using personalised web-services (increasingly
delivering mobile content)
• Hand-ins, Timetable, Reading lists…
• Requires good partners with good APIs!

22. Find out more …
• Our initial drive for responsive curricula
– http://jiscdesignstudio.pbworks.com/w/page/29224166/Supporting%20Responsive%2
0Curricula%20%28SRC%29%20project
– http://www.celt.mmu.ac.uk/src/
• MMU’s EQAL curriculum transformation
– http://www.celt.mmu.ac.uk/eqal/index.php
• Our review of learning technologies
– http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/ltreview
• How we built our integrated VLE
– http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/w2c
• Where we’re going next with Assessment & Feedback
– http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/traffic/
• UCISA Mobile presentation
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X17yrTbdTHs