All curriculum development benefits from a close involvement of stakeholders, not just in evaluating the delivered curriculum but from the initiation of the curriculum idea and rationale. Of particular interest in the current climate is the involvement of learners and major employers or professional bodies. However, as institutions develop more agile and flexible curriculum processes, it becomes easier to work in partnership with a range of stakeholders, whose input to curriculum development may be fairly light touch and short-term.
At the interim meeting of the Design programme in October 2011, projects described what effective stakeholder engagement looks like:
- Governance structures and processes involve the people that are affected by them
- Stakeholders are more aware that they are stakeholders (in curriculum design)
- Stakeholders area also more aware of having some ownership of the governance process
Approaches to achieving stakeholder engagement - as found successful by different projects - are described in more detail below. Scroll to the bottom of the page for links directly to stakeholder engagement resources.
Sometimes engaging stakeholders in a process is as simple as clarifying the process itself, so those engaged understand their role and contribution more clearly, and share a sense of common purpose. A joined-up, rationalised design process 'clarifies workflow processes, which facilitates greater engagement by stakeholders' (PiP)
Moving to an iterative rather than a linear process of curriculum design and enhancement also makes it easier for stakeholders to become involved. Instead of set-piece committees there are multiple opportunities for input.
Demonstrating the benefits is critical to engaging stakeholders, who are much more likely to engage with initiatives that have proven impact on the issues that matter to them. This can mean focusing attention on one area, problem, or department where change can be moved forward quickly ('low hanging fruit') and using this as a case study.
'prove benefits to stakeholders so they want to play' (PALET)
'successful 'example' developments have resulted in improved stakeholder engagement across the institution' (Enable)
It is important to get the language right for different audience. For examples 'a leading technology university' might work with senior staff; 'curriculum renewal' with teaching staff; 'process re-engineering', 'accessible and transparent systems' with technical and professional staff, etc. PiP have described this as 'action poetry'. But projects can also be an opportunity to develop a (new) shared language about a particular difficulty or approach.
'Couldn't PiP solve this? (…) The acronym has no obvious physical representation but they have a sense of what kind of conversations will take place.'
Projects can be the honest brokers between centralised/managerial change agendas and local implementers. They can provide a neutral ground for stakeholders to meet and discuss issues, for example in a world cafe or a workshop (Viewpoints, UG-Flex) or in meetings that are not 'owned' by any particular tribe.
'Stakeholders have described the value of opportunities to meet and get to know staff in other offices, and their concerns and priorities' (UG-Flex)
Projects are using multiple channels to reach different stakeholders. MMU's EQAL project has made use of faculty EQAL champions, conferences and workshops, and support provided through the Centre for Learning and Teaching. The university is also using a dedicated blog to inform staff and encouraging interaction through social media such as twitter. The aim is 'to move from a command-led change process to a group-led change process' (SRC)
UG-Flex encourages other projects to be low key and 'pervasive': 'encourage stakeholders to identify and understand problems and to engineer their own solutions; work inside and alongside initiatives that are already supported and sponsored by schools'.
Several Delivery projects identified stakeholder engagement as key to ensuring embedding and sustainability of innovative practice and CASCADE developed a ‘communications and engagement strategy’ at an early stage. This project emphasised that utilising existing structures, communication mechanisms and appropriate timing of conversations (ie when people were ready) was crucial to engaging stakeholders. In contrast, INTEGRATE described their experience as ‘Change happens one conversation at a time’ which reflects their thoughtful and patient approach to transformation and to engaging stakeholders. This project team also developed an ‘Engaging stakeholders: 10 minute tool to help people apply Exeter’s approaches to their own context.
Many projects felt strongly that stakeholder engagement should make use of existing mechanisms and channels for communication and this had a significant impact on sustainability – getting established groups and committees to endorse and support change was noted as effective.
‘the most effective forms of engagement were those that built on existing activities or communicated the project through existing channels and meetings; for example, updates provided at the Department‟s Academic Board meeting, articles in the Departmental newsletter and updates given at University-wide groups, such as OxTALENT’ CASCADE
What has become evident is that stakeholder engagement needed to be phased, starting with awareness raising and reviewing existing practice to more detailed conversations focused on specific contexts for each group of stakeholders, leading to wider dissemination using pilot activity outcomes and exemplars.
‘Many hours were spent during the base-lining period working with, and talking to the teachers to attempt to get a better understanding of the problems they faced, relationships with each other and with the students.’ KUBE
The notion of ‘important individuals’ or ‘champions’ also emerged as significant, with these people being crucial during times of change fatigue or when encountering strong barriers.
‘Persuasion is an absolutely indispensable component in any form of change management exercise. In KUBE persuasion was needed at all stages and throughout the duration of the project. The project manager for any such enterprise simply must be persuasive. There will be a continuous need to influence, decisions, people, processes. Often the most comfortable option for individuals is to do nothing.’ KUBE
Techniques that can be reviewed on the Design Studio include:
See also Engaging Learners, Engaging employers
All resources tagged 'stakeholder engagement'
All resources tagged 'change management'
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