The Impact of Employability on Curriculum Design – An OU Perspective

Professor David Vincent

Pro Vice Chancellor Strategy & External Affairs

• Can the design of suitable learning outcomes be equated with employability? If not what might be the missing ingredients?

• What if carefully designed subject-specific and generic learning outcomes are not in tune with the catalogue of desired skills of a future employer?

• How can curricula developers translate the skills needed into viable learning outcomes boosting the attractiveness of their curriculum?

The exam question

An OU perspective…

Mission“The Open University is open to people, places, methods and ideas.

It promotes educational opportunity and social justice by providing high-quality university education to all who wish to realise their ambitions and fulfil their potential.

Through academic research, pedagogic innovation and collaborative partnership it seeks to be a world leader in the design, content and delivery of supported open and distance learning.”

About The OU• 150,000 undergraduate and more than 30,000 postgraduate

students - nearly all students are studying part-time• 10,000 students have disabilities• A third of UK undergraduate students have entry qualifications

lower than those normally demanded by other UK universities• 20% of new UK undergraduates live in the 20% most deprived

areas of the country• Most OU courses are available throughout Europe - some

available in many other parts of the world• More than 25,000 OU students live outside the UK• The OU is ranked among the top UK universities for the quality of

its teaching• About 70% of undergraduates are in full-time employment• More than 50,000 students are sponsored by their employers

Working with Employers• In the last 3 years The OU’s Corporate & Employer

Services Unit has partnered large private organisations such as:– Airbus– Rolls Royce– First Group– Compass Group

• In working with employers the OU has been able to develop and deliver a range of curriculum and services

Employer Engagement – A UK Government priority

• 40% of the working age population to hold degree level skills by 2020

• Universities to significantly grow the number of places co-funded by employers to 20,000 by 2010/11

By 2012 The OU aims to be…

• The largest higher skills workforce development partner to UK employers

• Teaching 36,500 sponsored students pa across the UK

• Supporting c750 co-funded Full Time Equivalent students on tailored learning programmes

How we achieve this• The OU is adopting a new strategic approach to

managing all of its employer engagement activities by focusing on 4 specific market sectors:– Health– IT & Telecoms– Primary & Secondary Education– Financial Services

• The OU is also focusing on 4 strategic strands of activity…

• Curriculum & Services development: positioning to provide a complete range of products and services within these sectors (from conventional modules and awards, to tailored learning programmes), working with employers and professional bodies

• Marketing to employers: actively engaging with employers to grow demand for higher skills training

• Infrastructure & capability building: introducing an employer-focussed organisational structure which facilitates and supports relationship building with the OU

• Cultural change: putting in place a major staff development programme to support the implementation of our strategy

Curriculum & Services development• Working with employers and professional bodies to:

– Grow our range of curriculum products & services for work-based learning

– Create pathways of learning directly relevant to Employers’ workforce development

– Use innovative ways for the Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning

– Provide innovative learner support

But it’s not only about the Curriculum…

It’s also about transforming education through innovative learner support…

OU activity

• The UK’s leading University delivering eLearning at scale

• Students on two-thirds of all courses undertake eLearning activities

• All courses include optional online activities

“The most promising initiative in e-learning is the concept – and the developing reality, of open educational resources.”

Sir John Daniel (OU, UNESCO, Commonwealth of Learning)

OpenLearn• OpenLearn is an institution-wide action research programme• It is making some of the OU’s open and distance learning

materials freely accessible to learners and educators in an international web-based open learning environment

• It is seeking to advance open content delivery method technologies by:– Deploying leading-edge learning management tools for learner

support– Encouraging the creation of non-formal collaborative learning

communities– Encouraging other institutions to reuse and rework the content– Enhancing international research-based knowledge about

modern pedagogies for HE

OpenLearn provides• Over 400 self-study web units (over 5400 study hours)

– ranging from 1–50 hours of study per unit– across 12 topic areas

• An additional 2700 study hours from discontinued OU course materials

• New technology – learning support tools– Knowledge mapping (create mind maps, essay plans)– Video conferencing (arrange tutorials, seminars via web)– Discussion forums– Personalised learning journal, join a learning club, create your

own learning space

The best thing of all…

It’s completely FREE• Free to browser• Free to register• Free to use the learning support tools• Free to download the content

- reversion, repurpose, remix• Free to upload and share content• Free to join in the discussions• Free to create a personalised learning journal• Free to create your own learning space

Free for:

LEARNERS, EDUCATORS, CONTRIBUTORS

Free to ALL

Video conferencing

How is it being used?• Over 2 million visitors since launch• 90% new to the OU• 50% international• OU students and prospective students• Global HE community• Widening participation• Work-based learning• Schools & colleges• Prison service

Allows me to explore subject areas to see if I'd like to study them further.

OpenLearn helped me to prepare myself and get used to the idea of studying with Open University. I have

since enrolled at Open University as a result. I think OpenLearn is a fantastic resource and I look forward to watching its continued development and growth. Thank

you.

Probably the best on-line resource for language learning I have come across.

Social Learn

Right now millions of people are online and finding identity via large scale collaboration

Web 2.0: on a bookshelf near you…

Learner-centric environmentPersonalised, mobile

instruction and information feeds

Personalised resource archives Learner-selected

learning mentors

Learner-selected peer support network

iTunesU• Launched on 3rd June 2008

•Approaching 1 million downloads

• First 16 weeks:

–51,000 hours of audio and video downloaded (>10 Tb)

–87% of visitors from outside the United Kingdom

–1 in 7 downloaders go on to visit the OU website

(9 week data)

Screenshot taken from Apple’s iTunes U promotional materials

Fresh, Dynamic, Young, International

Second Life

Second Life

• Virtual reality environments - Second Life• Integrated with Virtual Learning Environment

(classrooms, simulations etc)

The challenges• If it was easy, someone would have solved it by now

– The true demand from employers is uncertain– Diverse employment sector (multinationals to SMEs)– Making it easy to work with HE institutions– The demand for bespoke curriculum & services– Making it cost effective– Routes from free to commercial– It requires major transformational change– The current economic climate

Questions?