Welcome

The Phoenix Course Development Programme

Andrew Turner and Louise Wilson

Learning and Development

The workshop is an opportunity..

1. For the extended course team to collaboratively define the course experience

2. To think differently

3. To shape the course design process

The student experience?

• How much to attend a workshop on an MBA programme?• The £135 university lecture – but is it worth it?• As universities hike their fees, will students be left questioning

the quality – and quantity – of teaching?

(Mortarboard 3 May)

University priorities in teaching and learning

1.Student satisfaction

2.Student success and completion

3.Graduate level jobs and careers

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Course

experience

Student satisfaction

Success and completion

Graduate level jobs and

employment

International experience

Excellent student experience

Value for money

The focus is now on the course experience

The idea of the journey

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From student to...

• The course designers job

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The student experience

‘Classroom Experience’

Careers and employment

An international experience

Academic and personal tutoring

Technology

Assessment

Work experience

Professional accreditation?

Some questions to consider

• What will constitute excellence in teaching, learning and assessment in your course?

• What is the role of technology ?

• How will you incorporate the international experience

• How will students experience the course?

• How will you use assessment to drive learning?

• What is the role of the academic and personal tutor?

Plan for today

• Review of existing provision to identify strengths and areas to develop.

• Developing a course vision • Developing the student journey • Developing the course structure• Building examplars.

Tomorrow

• Pitch ideas and exemplars to the student group for feedback.

• Finalise action plan and timeline.

Activity: SWOT Analysis

• Using your knowledge of the existing provision: – What are the opportunities for

development?– What would you keep and develop –

strengths.– What are the weaknesses and what would

you ditch– What are the threats?

Developing a collective rationale for your course• In your groups develop a rationale for your course

which reflects the student experience and your vision for the graduates from it– Consider teaching and learning experience– International experience– Employment – employability– Unique selling point of the course / distinctiveness– Why would a student choose your course over a

competitor.

Developing and mapping the student journey

From student to...

Course outcomes

• What is the body of knowledge that participants will gain and what are the personal capabilities they gain– Knowledge and understanding– Cognitive skills– Practical / professional skills– Key skills

Developing the journey

• What does the student journey look like?– Teaching and learning experience– Assessment experience– International experience– Seminal points – Threshold concepts– Transformative experiences.

Threshold concepts and troublesome knowledge

Addresses the concern to teachers of why certain students ‘get stuck’ at particular points in the curriculum whilst others grasp concepts with comparative ease.

Certain concepts appear to be particularly ‘troublesome’ to students

“Within all subject areas there seem to be particular concepts that can be considered as akin to a portal, opening up a new and previously inaccessible way of thinking about something. A threshold concept represents a transformed way of understanding or interpreting, or viewing something without which the learner cannot progress.”

Mayer and Land (2003)

Threshold concepts

Threshold concepts can be considered akin to a portal…

Some examples

• Economics – ‘opportunity cost, price, elasticity’• Transport design – ‘spatiality’• Mathematics – ‘complex numbers’• Law - ‘precedence’• Biology, Psychology - ‘evolution’ • Politics – ‘the state, civil society’• Medical studies – ‘pain’

Threshold concepts tend to be…

transformative

irreversible

integrative

Implications for teaching

• Identification of the thresholds within a subject: staff and student perspectives.

• Creating learning activities designed to “scaffold” or support students to acquire concepts.

• Whilst students may have feeling of exhilaration brought about by acquiring a concept, they might equality experience a sense of loss or stress.

Developing the student journey

• Using the mind map for prompts – map out the student journey over the course of the MBA:– Start with defining the outcomes and work back..– Could use mind maps and post it notes to indicate

significant points of learning– Where are the learning thresholds– How will you develop learning communities– How are developing intercultural capabilities– How are you developing graduate attributes

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