1. Curriculum Design
Design & plan effective learning experiences
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Level 2: Effectively design curriculum demonstrating integration across the degree.
Level 2: Effectively design curriculum demonstrating integration across the degree.
Review Indicators: Makes decisions in the design of subjects or whole courses demonstrating integration across the degree. Alignment to the UOW Standards and Quality Framework for Learning and Teaching is evident.
I began my continuing position at UOW in late 2015, in the middle of a curriculum refresh in the (now former) School of Earth & Environmental Sciences (SEES). As part of this process, I was asked to lead the development of a new core first-year subject. This timing gave me the unique opportunity to design an entire subject from scratch, taking into account not only the subject itself but its place within the broader degrees delivered by the school. I have since been involved in ensuring skills introduced in the first-year subject are built on throughout our courses. This process – and the flow-on effects – are highlighted here. Aspects aligned to the UOW Standards and Quality Framework for Learning and Teaching are identified with “SQFLT”.
I began my continuing position at UOW in late 2015, in the middle of a curriculum refresh in the (now former) School of Earth & Environmental Sciences (SEES). As part of this process, I was asked to lead the development of a new core first-year subject. This timing gave me the unique opportunity to design an entire subject from scratch, taking into account not only the subject itself but its place within the broader degrees delivered by the school. I have since been involved in ensuring skills introduced in the first-year subject are built on throughout our courses. This process – and the flow-on effects – are highlighted here. Aspects aligned to the UOW Standards and Quality Framework for Learning and Teaching are identified with “SQFLT”.
Identifying gaps in our curriculum
Identifying gaps in our curriculum
Shortly after I joined SEES, a small group known as the “first-year team” formed, composed of the Head of School, Deputy Head of School, an educational designer from LTC, and the three academics (including me) teaching first-year core subjects. Our goal was to re-design the curriculum from the ground up by determining what skills we expected of our graduates and using that information to inform our first-year core (which would include new and revitalised subjects). Introducing (and assessing) our most important skills in the first-year core, ensures that the “first year undergraduate curriculum and assessment is designed around foundation academic skills” (Support 2.1, SQFLT).
As my new subject (EESC102) was the only true “blank slate”, I wanted to design it to fill in gaps in our existing core. For this I led a skills mapping exercise, working with the first-year team to identify the skills that our students should develop throughout their first-year experience and determine which of those skills were covered in existing subjects. One outcome from this exercise is that the skills mapping was subsequently adapted for use across all SEES subjects to ensure scaffolded skill development across all SEES courses, and a variant is now being used for the faculty-level science curriculum restructure (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Left: an early (2015) version of the skills mapping used by the first-year team as we re-developed our first-year core. (Note the "?" for some boxes in the new subject, EESC102, at this stage of development.) Right: part of the subject mapping templates used in the 2018 science schools curriculum review, adapted in part from the early version on the left.
Filling in the gaps
Filling in the gaps
Through the skills mapping exercise, I identified four key skills that were not covered in the existing SEES core curriculum: (1) scientific computing, (2) model development and interpretation, (3) communicating scientific content to a non-specialist audience, and (4) peer review. These skills were identified as critical both by consultation with other UOW/SEES academics and by review of employer needs (Figure 2), ensuring that the subject (and by extension, follow-on subjects and associated courses) “incorporate advice provided by employers…” (Design 2.1, SQFLT) and “are up-to-date with developments within the discipline and profession/ industry” (Design 2.2, SQFLT).
Figure 2. "Critical skills necessary for the development of undergraduate geoscience students", as identified by a survey of 455 geoscience professionals from academia, industry, government, and professional societies. Red underlines show gaps in our original first-year core that are now included in the new first-year subject I designed, EESC102. Note that several other skills identified in the figure are also taught in EESC102, but these are not highlighted as they are also part of our other first-year core subjects. Source: Mosher, 2015.
The four identified missing skills now form the basis of the EESC102 Subject Learning Outcomes and contribute to the Major Learning Outcomes for all related BSc majors (Table 1; Design 6.2, SQFLT). I have designed a set of class activities and assessments (Table 1; Design 7.4, SQFLT) to ensure students develop these skills. For example, I have developed new curriculum and assessments to teach computing and modelling skills as described in Section 5 and a scaffolded Wiki Project to teach communication skills and peer review as described in Section 4.
Table 1. Skill gaps identified in first-year core skill mapping exercise that I now teach in EESC102, along with the related assessments, Subject Learning Outcomes, and Major Learning Outcomes (shown for the BSc Environment, but similar for the BSc Geology and BSc Physical Geography and Environment Geosciences). The first two skills are shown together as they are covered by the same assessments and learning outcomes.
Scaffolding across the degree
Scaffolding across the degree
I have shared my curriculum materials with colleagues (Delivery 6.1, SQFLT) to ensure they can build on them in the new second and third year subjects developed as part of the ongoing curriculum refresh. For example, computing skills have now been integrated in the second-year subject EESC209 by Dr Nicolas Flament and in the third-year subject EESC331 by A/Prof Helen McGregor. I have also designed a new assessment for EESC331 (delivered for the first time in 2018) that builds on the model interpretation skills first taught to students in EESC102 (Design 7.3, SQFLT).
In a Peer Review of Educational Practice, former Head of School Prof Zenobia Jacobs and Deputy Head of School A/Prof Laurie Chisholm stated:
“Dr Fisher has demonstrated sound knowledge and understanding of how EESC102 needs to be re-designed to accommodate this [SEES] context… She has made considerable contributions to the course level curriculum development… She has always encouraged creativity in both design of skills and assessment, and been a stalwart in the desire to see students develop computing skills from day one and therefore ensure technology is embedded at the outset… [She] has brought a new skill set into the mix that was previously absent. This presents a distinct advantage to promote student learning.”
References
References
Mosher, S. (2015). Critical skills necessary for the development of undergraduate geoscience students. American Geosciences Institute Geoscience Currents, 106.
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