Promoting academic innovation by valuing and enabling disruptive design Andrew Middleton Head of Innovation & Professional

Introductions  Hello!  Why are we interested in curriculum design?

Session outline  Introductions  Curriculum SHU background  Defining priorities for collaborative design teams  Principle-based design and other approaches  Designing a design lens  Scenario-based design  Building scenarios  Devising and sharing other collaborative design methods  Conclusions

Background: The Design Studio Our Challenge: how to engage multiple stakeholders effectively in curriculum design Students and others not directly involved in teaching Why:  breadth of experience  knowledge  perspectives  accommodate diverse stakeholder requirements How:  Two day design team immersive think tank  Principle-based facilitation

disruptive design generates alternatives manages risks accommodates multiple stakeholder perspectives suspends reality tests different ideas safely supports collaboration encourages dialogue addresses intended outcomes changes perceptions of design develops stakeholder relationships develops staff

Opportunity, space and structure  Open and supportive  Space: time, people, place  Contained activity  Critical friendship  Co-operation and collaboration  Safe risked-based thinking  Communal validation Background: Why Studio?

Defining priorities for collaborative design teams Analysing needs and identifying priorities Radar Discussion tool  Alumni goldfish bowl - observed structured group discussion  Student evaluations (surveys or video evaluations)  NSS analysis  What else?

Principle-based design and other approaches

Principle-based facilitation “Rhetorical resources” – Nicol (2012)  High level educational aspiration  Problem domain/area of concern  Practice-orientated principles  A compelling narrative  Examples of application  Research evidence – to focus useful conversation – e.g. stakeholder participation – e.g. graduate attributes – often set out in ‘literature’ – what do the principles mean – associated case studies – associated ‘toolkits’

Key Tools  Screencasts  Priority analysis tool  Design lens based upon the Viewpoints (University of Ulster) method  Set of cards, each addressing ideas supporting one principle  Online resource-base (Toolkit) Assessment & feedback lens from University of Ulster

Designing the Design Lens  Explored principles and frameworks found in academic literature on learner engagement  Reflected on their experience and expectations and generated examples of engaging practice  Generate new ideas using creativity methods (i.e. word association, photo elicitation, scenario writing) Example: Learner Engagement development workshops for staff and students Assessment & Feedback lens from University of Ulster

Activity: Principles of Digital Literacy Identify between 5 and 7 key ideas that together encapsulate what digital literacy means. 1. Ability to find, select, retrieve and use digital information 2…

Scenario-Based Design

“a concrete description of activity that the user engages in when performing a specific task, description sufficiently detailed so that design implications can be inferred and reasoned about” - Carroll (1995) “a concrete description of activity that the user engages in when performing a specific task, description sufficiently detailed so that design implications can be inferred and reasoned about” - Carroll (1995)  Descriptions of the past, present or future  Risk-free tools for imagining the future and for asking ‘what-if..?’  Colourful narratives or process statements  'Good enough' representations of possibilities... ...or highly detailed  Scenarios set the scene for discussion  Scenarios can concretise ideas for development About scenarios

Why use scenarios for curriculum design? Scenarios,  Use diverse kinds and amounts of detailing  Present alternative consequences of action  Can be abstracted and categorised  Help designers to recognise, capture, modify and reuse generalisations or patterns  Support reasoning  Make design tasks accessible to diverse expert stakeholder groups

Scenarios address 6 challenges 1. Reflect on designs and processes 2. Co-ordinate collaborative design action and reflection 3. Manage risk by having something that appears concrete and remains flexible 4. Manage the fluidity of design situations 5. Consider multiple views of an interaction 6. (Capture outputs of idea generation) Designers have to continually make commitments without making commitments! Designers say “What if…” Designers have to continually make commitments without making commitments! Designers say “What if…”

4 ways to use scenarios to support curriculum design Collaborative design teams can, 1. Construct scenarios to work out and communicate their thinking 2. Construct scenarios to capture and communicate their thinking 3. Review or compare representations of existing pedagogy 4. Review or compare representations of proposed pedagogy

Forming successful scenarios - characteristics  Goals, sub-goals or outcomes  Settings  Agents or actors playing primary or supporting roles (descriptions of who is involved, how and why)  Plot - sequences of actions and events done by or to the actors or changes to the setting. Changes to events show how scenarios can be used dynamically to assess different decisions and outcomes.

Presenting successful scenarios  Scenarios use natural language query and are presented as short narratives and can use various media, e.g.  Text  Visualisations, diagrams, pictures, etc.  Comic strips and storyboards  Videos  Multimedia  Post-it notes

Activity: Facilitating the design of pedagogy to promote learner  Generate ideas for a New Staff Induction Programme using the Learner Engagement and Authentic Learning design lenses (or our Digital Literacy lens!).  Focus on a small part of the Induction Course which will be run over 3 x 2 hour workshops and be supported by online resources.  Work towards constructing a scenario statement to support the communication and evaluation of you idea

Activity: Build your scenarios! To capture and communicate your idea Agree media Include:  Goals, sub-goals or outcomes  Settings  Agents or actors playing primary or supporting roles (descriptions of who is involved, how and why)  Plot - sequences of actions and events done by or to the actors or changes to the setting. Changes to events show how scenarios can be used dynamically to assess different decisions and outcomes.

Activity: other approaches Devise and share other collaborative design methods  Analyse what is needed and identify priorities  Design together  Capture ideas and develop them further  Evaluate approaches  Breakout and feedback

Conclusions  Curriculum design activities and a key opportunity for promoting academic innovation  Involving ‘others’ early is useful, difficult – but possible!  Innovation is risky – but risk can be managed through collaborative engagement and validation

 Bryson, C., & Hand, L. (2007). The role of engagement in inspiring teaching and learning. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 44(4), pp.349–362.  Carroll, J.M. (2000). Five reasons for scenario-based design. Interacting with Computers 13, pp.43 – 60.  Fowler, C.J.H, van Helvert, J; Gardner, M.G, and Scott, J.R. (2007). The use of scenarios in designing and delivering learning systems. In: H. Beetham & R. Sharpe, Rethinking Pedagogy in a Digital Age: Designing and delivering e-learning. London: Routledge  Herrington, J. (2006). Authentic e-learning in higher education: design principles for authentic learning environments and tasks. Online at:  Nicol, D. (2012). Principles as discourse. JISC Webinar, 20 th March 2012  Nicol, D., & Draper, S. (2009). A blueprint for transformational organisational change in  higher education: REAP as a case study. In: Mayes, T., Morrison, D., Mellar, H., Bullen, P. & Oliver, M., (eds) ‘Transforming higher education through technology-enhanced learning.’ York: Higher Education Academy.  O’Donnell, C., Masson, A., & Harrison, J. (2011). Encouraging creativity and reflection in the curriculum. SEDA Spring Teaching Learning and Assessment Conference 2011, "Academics for the 21st Century", 5th May May 2011, Holyrood Hotel, Edinburgh. References