Curriculum processes are central to what an institution does and how it defines its role, including the academic quality of its programmes. Changing these processes can only be done by working across institutional boundaries and roles, and involving many stakeholders in considering the risks and benefits. Core strategies such as e-learning, TLA, HR and Quality may need to be reconsidered. Projects involved in the JISC CDD programme have taken strategic approaches to managing change, and are working to integrate institutional strategic priorities with their curriculum change agenda. Both need also to be operationalised effectively in departments and services. Working for change summarises some of the approaches used by the Design projects (summer 2011). The page on cultural change describes approaches to changing the hearts and minds of stakeholders rather than just re-engineering processes and systems.

In the Design programme, the ENABLE project has been at the forefront of change management. Discrete local initiatives are being joined up, leading to better communication with frontline staff, and less duplication of effort.

Several projects have alligned activities with the migration of  VLE systems to Moodle, which has presented opportunities to  review how the VLE integrates with core institutional systems as well as adapting to curriculum developments.

As well as aligning disparate initiatives, strategies for change which projects have adopted include:

• innovative approaches to stakeholder engagement
• rewarding and recognising innovation at institutional level
• a focus on staff development, especially of teaching staff
• challenging and changing the role of senior management
• flexible costing models to support blended modes delivery
• focusing on generic interventions that have impact across the institution e.g. academic skills support (COWL Project), supporting assignment handling processes (Cascade Project, Integrative Technologies Project, eBioLabs Project)
• Using technologies to relieve the administrative burden on staff and students (Cascade Project , Making the New Diploma a Success Project , Duckling Project , ESCAPE Project , eBioLabs Project , UG-Flex project )

All projects need to be able to demonstrate that they are responsive to external drivers acting on institutions. At present some of these are very sharp indeed, i.e. changes to the regulatory environment, funding cuts and Government policy.  Projects have been agile in aligning their objectives and communicating their activities in order to remain relevant to changing priorities. Agendas for change which already have considerable purchase in baseline institutions, and around which the benefits of process change can be communicated, include:

• a more flexible and responsive curriculum (a 'learner-led' curriculum)

• meeting the needs of students in part-time and full-time employment (work-based learning)

• collaborative curriculum development across programmes and schools, and with partner institutions

• creativity and innovation in curriculum design

• enhancing the quality of the learning experience

General resources on change management

• The Change Management Infokit
• Challenge to Change activity
• ENABLE managing change resources
• CABLE Change Academy
•  Organisational change approaches from Design Cluster B  
  
• TESEP transformation stories
• U-NOW senior management videos
• Strategic planning tools and techniques

Resources tagged 'transformation'

Resources tagged 'change' and 'change management'