TI 0950 - Curriculum Review Conversations

Course Description

Description

Is your programme embarking on curriculum review this year? Looking ahead to an upcoming curriculum review? You’re in good company!

Curriculum Review Conversations is part-workshop series and part-community of practice to help get your curriculum review off to a great start and to maintain momentum throughout the process. Each session will include practical information and strategies from Taylor Institute consultants as well as time for knowledge sharing, discussion and Q&A about your programme’s curriculum review.

Some of the guiding questions we will focus on include:

• What strategies can we implement to design a meaningful curriculum review process? 
• Why might we want to revisit our programme-level learning outcomes? 
• How and at what stages might we engage all teaching staff in our curriculum review? 
• How can we gather relevant data to respond to our guiding questions? 
• How does curriculum mapping work, and which processes will work best for us? 
• What goes into a meaningful action plan? 

This series will be an ongoing dialogue over the Fall 2023 and Winter 2024 semesters. Once you register, you will be enrolled for all eight sessions. We strongly encourage participants to attend all sessions in the series. 

Facilitators: Jaclyn Carter, PhD candidate and Patti Dyjur, PhD

Synchronous Sessions 

Introduction to Curriculum Review
Thursday, August 31, 2023 
10:00 - 11:30

This session will focus on an overview of the curriculum review process at the University of Calgary. We will look at the Quality Assurance Curriculum Review Handbook (link here) as well as resources provided by the Taylor Institute. In addition to unpacking the aims and requirements of the process, we will discuss potential strategies, timelines, and initial steps to customise the process for your context. There will be time for knowledge sharing and Q&A.

Guiding Questions and Data Sources (OIA)
Thursday, September 28, 2023
10:00 - 11:30

One strategy for establishing a meaningful curriculum review focus and structure is developing customised guiding questions. What do you really want to know more about? What kinds of data sources will help you find answers? In this session, we will look at multiple examples of guiding questions as well as have opportunities to chat with representatives from the Office of Institutional Analysis (OIA) who will describe your CR data package and the corresponding data dashboard. As always, there will be time for knowledge sharing and Q&A.  

Open Topic
Thursday, October 19, 2023
10:00 - 11:00

The focus of this meeting will be up to those who attend. Bring your questions, your suggestions, and your ‘what worked for me’ ideas!  

PLOs
Thursday, November 16, 2023
10:00 - 11:30

Curriculum review provides an opportunity to revisit and renew the programme-level learning outcomes (PLOs) that support and reflect student learning. Effective PLOs provide clarity and cohesion for everyone involved with your programme: students, instructors, advisors, etc. They will also form the foundation for your curriculum mapping processes. We will look at some strategies for assessing PLOs as well as for facilitating faculty/department conversations around PLOs. As always, there will be time for knowledge sharing and Q&A.

Open Topic
Thursday, December 14, 2023
10:00 - 11:00

The focus of this meeting will be up to those who attend. Bring your questions, your suggestions, and your ‘what worked for me’ ideas!  

Curriculum Mapping
Thursday, January 18, 2024
10:00 - 11:30 

Mapping your curriculum provides another way of looking at the overall student learning experience in your programme. In this session, we will introduce some of the key considerations for setting up meaningful curriculum mapping and some practical ‘how to’ strategies. As always, there will be time for knowledge sharing and Q&A.

Open Topic
Thursday, February 8, 2024
10:00 - 11:00

The focus of this meeting will be up to those who attend. Bring your questions, your suggestions, and your ‘what worked for me’ ideas!  

Analysing Mapping Data
Thursday, March 14, 2024
10:00 - 11:30

Once you have the courses in your programme mapped, it is time to have some meaningful conversations about what those maps show. In this session, we will look at examples of curriculum maps and explore strategies for leading groups of colleagues in the process of analysing this source of data. As always, there will be time for knowledge sharing and Q&A.

Action Plan and Final Report
Thursday, April 11, 2024
10:00 - 11:30

As you prepare to translate conversations about data and guiding questions into actionable next steps, this session will provide some examples and strategies for writing an effective action plan. We will also look at past curriculum review reports and discuss which strategies work best for your context. As always, there will be time for knowledge sharing and Q&A.

Open Topic
Thursday, May 2, 2024
10:00 - 11:00

The focus of this meeting will be up to those who attend. Bring your questions, your suggestions, and your ‘what worked for me’ ideas!  

Delivery

All sessions will be held online via Zoom. Participants will receive relevant Zoom information via email at least 1 hour before the designated start time.