1. Exploring a transformed curriculum supporting flexible options for academic professional learning.
Dr Paula Myatt
Associate Professor Gail Wilson
Mr Jonathan Purdy
Southern Cross University, Australia

2. Exploring a transformed curriculum
Let’s hear their stories...
Evidence…
Institutional Context
Transformed curriculum

3. One great big story… SCU Context Design Team My personal beliefs…
Open Educational Resources
Asynchronous
Fully
Online
Transformed
curriculum
Design Team

4. Southern Cross University Multi-campus Australian university
SCU Context
Southern Cross University
Multi-campus Australian university
More than students
Approximately 300 teaching staff
Fully online Graduate Certificate
discontinued Grad Cert
Southern Cross University
Multi-campus Australian university
Operates across 5 campuses (including 3 regional campuses: Gold Coast, Lismore, Coffs harbour)
Services more than students
Employs approximately 300 teaching staff (not including casual and sessional)
2012 Fully online Graduate Certificate
2016 discontinued Grad Cert
Discontinued mainly due to low enrolment numbers and decreased resourcing of the central T&L unit
This created an opportunity for curriculum transformation.
An opportunity to create a Foundations program online
However there is more to this context…because we all know that building online materials also takes time and resources. This led to the desire to utilise Open Educational Resources

5. OER harnessed for learning (content & activity)
Open Educational Resources
OER harnessed for learning (content & activity)
Linked to a task activity
Context of OER provided
Provided Currency, Clarity and Relevance
Time consuming to find, required expertise
Requires integration into design
Southern Cross University
Multi-campus Australian university
Operates across 5 campuses (including 3 regional campuses: Gold Coast, Lismore, Coffs harbour)
Services more than students
Employs approximately 300 teaching staff (not including casual and sessional)
2012 Fully online Graduate Certificate
2016 discontinued Grad Cert
Discontinued mainly due to low enrolment numbers and decreased resourcing of the central T&L unit
This created an opportunity for curriculum transformation.
An opportunity to create a Foundations program online
However there is more to this context…because we all know that building online materials also takes time and resources. This led to the desire to utilise Open Educational Resources

6. Need a great design team!
Iterative, action research approach to design
Constantly reflecting, revising, sharing, learning
The team and its approach is part of effectiveness
Southern Cross University
Multi-campus Australian university
Operates across 5 campuses (including 3 regional campuses: Gold Coast, Lismore, Coffs harbour)
Services more than students
Employs approximately 300 teaching staff (not including casual and sessional)
2012 Fully online Graduate Certificate
2016 discontinued Grad Cert
Discontinued mainly due to low enrolment numbers and decreased resourcing of the central T&L unit
This created an opportunity for curriculum transformation.
An opportunity to create a Foundations program online
However there is more to this context…because we all know that building online materials also takes time and resources. This led to the desire to utilise Open Educational Resources

7. Foundations of University Teaching Practice (FUTP) Six online modules
Asynchronous
Fully
Online
Design Team
So what did we design??
Foundations of University Teaching Practice (FUTP)
Six online modules
Each containing 2 assessment tasks
FUTP equivalent to a single unit of study (130 hours)
Blackboard portfolio tool used for uploading assessment
Criteria for all assessment tasks within modules
Asynchronous, open access
Southern Cross University
Multi-campus Australian university
Operates across 5 campuses (including 3 regional campuses: Gold Coast, Lismore, Coffs harbour)
Services more than students
Employs approximately 300 teaching staff (not including casual and sessional)
2012 Fully online Graduate Certificate
2016 discontinued Grad Cert
Discontinued mainly due to low enrolment numbers and decreased resourcing of the central T&L unit
This created an opportunity for curriculum transformation.
An opportunity to create a Foundations program online
However there is more to this context…because we all know that building online materials also takes time and resources. This led to the desire to utilise Open Educational Resources

10. Fully online and asynchronous!!!
My personal
beliefs…
Design Team
Shhh…
Fully online and asynchronous!!!
No facilitation!! No cohort experience.
No guidance, discussion or sharing of practice
Challenge – make this as personally engaging and as professionally relevant as possible
Southern Cross University
Multi-campus Australian university
Operates across 5 campuses (including 3 regional campuses: Gold Coast, Lismore, Coffs harbour)
Services more than students
Employs approximately 300 teaching staff (not including casual and sessional)
2012 Fully online Graduate Certificate
2016 discontinued Grad Cert
Discontinued mainly due to low enrolment numbers and decreased resourcing of the central T&L unit
This created an opportunity for curriculum transformation.
An opportunity to create a Foundations program online
However there is more to this context…because we all know that building online materials also takes time and resources. This led to the desire to utilise Open Educational Resources

11. And so we transformed the curriculum… And evaluated the outcomes…
With a focus on our design goals
Southern Cross University
Multi-campus Australian university
Operates across 5 campuses (including 3 regional campuses: Gold Coast, Lismore, Coffs harbour)
Services more than students
Employs approximately 300 teaching staff (not including casual and sessional)
2012 Fully online Graduate Certificate
2016 discontinued Grad Cert
Discontinued mainly due to low enrolment numbers and decreased resourcing of the central T&L unit
This created an opportunity for curriculum transformation.
An opportunity to create a Foundations program online
However there is more to this context…because we all know that building online materials also takes time and resources. This led to the desire to utilise Open Educational Resources

12. Design Goals
Goal 1: Create a flexible suite of professional learning modules which optimise the use of open educational resources (OER) and offer flexibility in pace and place of learning.
Goal 2: Design an engaging program which increases the knowledge and understanding staff have about designing teaching for learning.
Goal 3: Design modules with authentic assessment tasks which contextualise their learning.
Goal 4: Enable staff to experience learning in the online environment.
Goal 5: Introduce and trial digital badges and credentialing as an emerging professional learning approach for the centre and for the university.
Goal 6: Utilise the Blackboard environment, and the skills of CTL in digital design, to showcase design patterns and principles.

13. Research question To what extent were the design goals achieved?
With a focus on:
Goal 1
Create a flexible suite of professional learning modules which optimise the use of open educational resources (OER) and offer flexibility in pace and place of learning.
Goal 2
Design an engaging program which increases the knowledge and understanding staff have about designing teaching for learning.
Goal 3
Design modules with authentic assessment tasks which contextualise their learning.

14. Research details 42 staff enrolled from August to end November 2016
We focused on participants who completed one or more modules
Six participants engaged in focus groups
8 participants completed the online survey
3 participants engaged in semi-structured interviews
…but I am going to take a slightly different approach.
The focus groups were held in the middle of the study period and gave us mid-point data.
The survey was conducted at the end.
Of the 14 academics who had completed one or more modules, eight completed the survey, a response rate of 60%.
So the numbers in this study at the moment are very small.
But what these participants have to tell us is still very useful and valid.

15. Let’s hear their stories…
Narrative inquiry
… a methodology to add richness and further insight to the data we can obtain through surveys and guided interviews.
… can also encompass 2 types of data analysis:
where the collected stories are thematically analysed; or
where the data is collated and re-written as a story.
Polkinghorne (1995)
… In this case, not so much as an approach data gathering but an approach to analysis and data representation…

16. Let’s hear their stories…
In this case…
Data source was interview notes from guided interviews.
Experiences of 2 academics, represented separately.
They are not fictionalised.
The factual basis, and most of the words, arise from the interviews, but as the researcher I am narrating their stories using what they said but ‘re-storied’ as if they were telling their story today.
It’s a dynamic framework of my analysis of their words and their emotions, re-presented as a storied account of their experience.

17. As you listen…  Return to the research question –
To what extent were the design goals achieved?
Goal 1
Create a flexible suite of professional learning modules which optimise the use of open educational resources (OER) and offer flexibility in pace and place of learning. 
Goal 2
Design an engaging program which increases the knowledge and understanding staff have about designing teaching for learning.
Goal 3
Design modules with authentic assessment tasks which contextualise their learning.

18. Conclusion
Our small study, involving 14 university teaching staff, revealed a strong, positive impact from the FUTP.
Staff embraced the new approach to pace and place of learning, and the characteristics of flexible access were highly valued.
Participants reported having redesigned their teaching.
This was all concrete evidence that knowledge about teaching and learning had been increased, and design goals had been met.

19. Conclusion
With technology offering opportunities for increased flexibility in learning, and the need for greater access driving curriculum transformation, our new FUTP is an example of a transformation put into practice.
…and an example of the importance of challenging our own beliefs!
…and the power of hearing the voices from our research in the absence of the numbers.

20. Paula Myatt p.myatt@griffith.edu.au Gail Wilson gail.wilson@scu.edu.au
Jonathan Purdy