Innovating in the CurriculumKelly Wakefield, Marcus Burton, Mohamed Ibrahim, Love Oyeniran and Julie Wintrup

Third Annual Conference, Nottingham Trent University, 13th September 2013

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Who we are

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Curriculum Innovation • 2009 - Curriculum Innovation Programme formed

• 2011 – 5 new interdisciplinary modules developed

• 2011/12 – Curriculum Innovation menu of choice offered to two faculties

• 2012/13 – 18 CI modules on offer across 123 programmes and 6 Faculties

• 2013/14 – 26 CI modules offered across 140 programmes and 7 faculties

• 2013/14 – Development of Minor choice for 1st Year students in 2 faculties

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• UOSM2000 Work and Employment in Theory and Practice• UOSM2001 Business Skills for Employability• UOSM2002 Design Skills for Presentations and Maps• UOSM2003 Education for Health and Wellbeing• UOSM2004 Global Health• UOSM2005 Living with Environmental Change• UOSM2006 Building the Human Body • UOSM2007 Digital Humanities:

Critical thinking in the information age• UOSM2008 Living and Working on the Web• UOSM2009 Ethics in a Complex World• UOMS2010 Global Challenges• UOSM2011 The Management of Risk and Uncertainty• UOSM2012 Online Social Networks• UOMS2013 Pathological Mechanisms of Disease• UOSM2014 Piracy, Security and Maritime Space• UOSM2015 Sustainability in the Local and Global

Environment• UOSM2016 The Human Brain and Society

• UOSM2018 Understanding Modern China

• UOSM2020 Economics with Experiments

• UOSM2022 Social Enterprise

• UOSM2023 The Portus Field School

• UOSM2024 The Arab World in and Beyond the Headlines

• UOSM2025 Tall Tales: Unpicking the secrets of building

• UOSM2026 Jekyll and Hyde: Science as both hero and villain

• UOMS2027 Health Policy and Economics

• UOSM2028 How Musical Instruments Work

• UOSM2029 The Search for Life in the Cosmos

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Research• Curriculum Innovation research:

– Academic year 2012/2013– 18 modules

– 5 focus groups (25 students)– 47 individual interviews

– 399 surveys (pre, mid and post module)

Circa 800 students enrolled on CI modules in total

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Introduction

• Marcus Burton - English– Digital Humanities

• Mohamed Ibrahim - Geography– Ethics in a Complex World

• Love Oyeniran –Politics & International Relations– Understanding Modern China

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Why weare here

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Workshop aims• To think about:• Multi/inter-disciplinary environments• Does taking alternative (to subject-based) modules deepen

student engagement? If at all?• What factors influence taking alternative (to subject-based)

modules?• What impact does this choice take on intellectual, social

and/or academic engagement with:– Institution– CI module– Degree

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What weare doing

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Workshop• You have 10 minutes • Imagine you are thinking about submitting an

idea for an inter-disciplinary module: – What do you think students want to get out

of the module?– What do you think staff want to get out of

the module?– What challenges do you envisage students

and staff will face?– In your groups, note down as many points as

you can

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What youhave said

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What UoS students say

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Summary