1. DETAILED PLANNING

2. You realise that your team will need to receive intensive VLE training for the programme to be effective. They aren’t keen.
OPTION 1
Give in to the team, and reduce the VLE activity considerably, even though this will be less flexible for students
OPTION 2
Spend time producing a persuasive demonstration for the team and show examples from your discipline
+ 6
- 2 1

3. DETAILED PLANNING

4. You need to use a lot of new technology
You need to use a lot of new technology. Your team is enthusiastic but inexperienced, and it's difficult to get everyone together.
OPTION 1
Organise two days of intensive training at the end of term
OPTION 2
Provide everyone with manuals so that they can get on in their own time
+ 4 1

5. DETAILED PLANNING

6. The planning department tell you that your innovative plans look impossible in terms of timetabling and you’ll need to rethink.
OPTION 1
Revert to a traditional one hour lecture/two hour seminar format
OPTION 2
Refuse to compromise on the innovative aspects and work with the timetablers to come up with a solution
+ 6 1

7. DETAILED PLANNING

8. Your student representatives provide a one page summary providing suggestions on how the new provision improve on existing provision.
OPTION 1
Implement anything that is easy, or you were going to do anyway
OPTION 2
Consider every suggestion and implement everything that is feasible
+ 8 1

9. DETAILED PLANNING

10. Student consultation appears to be sparse and the outcomes are uninformative.
OPTION 1
Decide that is good enough and get on with other things
OPTION 2
Take time to get to know the student reps and develop a through consultation strategy
+ 2
- 4 1

11. DETAILED PLANNING

12. You have an early meeting with timetablers to discuss the potential impact of the programme design on the faculty and explain the outcomes in the strategic approval form.
OPTION 1
Assume that everything is now agreed and will work
OPTION 2
Schedule regular follow-up meetings
+ 4 1

13. DETAILED PLANNING

14. + 4 + 8 2 You need to form a team to get the documentation together.
OPTION 1
Form a core group, including students, schedule all meetings and set up a blog
OPTION 2
Lead from the front, producing all the documentation and circulating for comment at regular intervals
+ 4
+ 8 2

15. DETAILED PLANNING

16. There is no slot when all members of the course team can meet regularly during the process and yet they all want to be involved at all stages.
OPTION 1
Set up a wiki and a regular weekly newsletter to keep people in touch
OPTION 2
Set up a regular monthly meeting anyway, people will come if they want to
+ 6
+ 6 1

17. DETAILED PLANNING

18. + 6 + 4 1 The new course is going to be very different. OPTION 1
Divide the work and delegate each chunk to an individual with a deadline for completion
OPTION 2
Work in small task- focused teams to ensure consistency
+ 6
+ 4 1

19. DETAILED PLANNING

20. At the first planning meeting, the course outline is agreed
At the first planning meeting, the course outline is agreed. It’s going to be very similar to the last version.
OPTION 1
Agree to write the documentation and leave each unit leader to write their own outline
OPTION 2
Divide up the whole documentation
+ 4 1

21. DETAILED PLANNING

22. There are lots of reasons why the course should be radically different from previous versions.
OPTION 1
Ask everyone on the team to send in their ideas and then write a plan
OPTION 2
Have an away day to agree on course structure, assessment and feedback strategy and technology use and share out tasks
+ 6
+ 10 2

23. DETAILED PLANNING

24. One of your unit leaders has filled half the spaces in the online form with rubbish and forgotten to go back and sort it out before signing the unit as complete. She's now gone on study leave for six weeks.
OPTION 1
Fill it in yourself
OPTION 2
Wait for her to come back
+ 8
- 4 1

25. DETAILED PLANNING

26. Two people on the team have missed every deadline so far and the documents need to be signed off now.
OPTION 1
Write their bits yourself
OPTION 2
Complain to the head of department
+ 6

27. DETAILED PLANNING

28. In several units, the assessments do not align with the learning outcomes and activities.
OPTION 1
Leave it and hope the reviewers don't notice
OPTION 2
Rewrite all of the unit outcomes and assessments
+ 6
- 4 -1

29. DETAILED PLANNING

30. The team refuses to use a shared file system and, as a result, there are multiple versions of documentation.
OPTION 1
Insist that all team members put the correct version onto a shared system
OPTION 2
Collect all the documentation together and sort it out yourself
- 2
- 6 1

31. DETAILED PLANNING

32. The university decides that all units must be 30 credits rather than the 20 credits you had been working to.
OPTION 1
Completely review the course units and create a set of coherent new units
OPTION 2
Quickly shift the learning outcomes around so that it looks like a set of coherent new units
- 6
- 2 1

33. DETAILED PLANNING

34. Two unit leaders have developed units that are broadly identical in an area they both want to teach.
OPTION 1
Leave both units available but make them optional
OPTION 2
Insist that they work together to create a single core unit covering that area
+ 4 1

35. DETAILED PLANNING

36. A team member has created a new optional unit in an area that is of little interest to anyone but them.
OPTION 1
Accept the unit to keep them happy, recognising that it will probably never run
OPTION 2
Point out that the new unit does not fit well within the course, and risk annoying the team member
+ 4 1

37. DETAILED PLANNING

38. At the last minute realise that the unit credits do not add up to a complete programme.
OPTION 1
Fudge it by changing the credits on some of the units so that it adds up
OPTION 2
Thoroughly investigate why the problem has arisen and resolve it
+ 2
- 4 1

39. DETAILED PLANNING

40. A change in legislation means that one of the units needs to be completely revised to keep it up to date.
OPTION 1
Leave it as it is and hope nobody notices
OPTION 2
Completely revise the unit
+ 4
- 4 -1 1