Implementation of a Curriculum Management Tool: Challenges Faced by a Large Australian University

Abstract

This paper describes how a large Australian university implemented a new curriculum management tool  UNITS. UNITS is an online repository of unit guides and a curriculum mapping tool. We analyze the advantages of using a university-wide curriculum management tool and the change management processes used to develop the bespoke tool. Staff development in the use of the tool has led to more thoughtful use of learning and teaching activities and better linking of learning outcomes with assessment. To ensure a smooth transition, faculty were supported throughout the process of implementation. Drop-in clinics, video clips, discipline-specific implementation guides as well as a UNITS help page were provided. This paper contributes to the understanding of the challenges in setting up and implementing a large-scale curriculum management tool in a university. Challenges including increased workload, intellectual property concerns, impact on academic freedom and technological issues are discussed.

Reviewing the preclinical curriculum in a Problem Based Learning driven medical program: challenges and strategies

“…This was closely followed by steps to review the constructive alignment between the learning objectives (LOs), resources and assessment items ( Biggs and Tang 2011 ). One of the challenges to construct and analyse the curriculum map to review the constructive alignment and content was the management of the vast amount of data that needed to be incorporated into the curriculum map ( Lai et al 2012 ). In attempting to identify a strategy for this time consuming and complex task, we decided to utilise the web-based curriculum mapping tool Prudentia © that has been developed by the SOMF ( Steketee 2015 ).…”

Software Development and Tool Support for Curriculum Design: A Systematic Mapping Study

“…Furthermore, predicting that the data used in one region will give the same result as in other regions is impossible. Lai et al mention that further studies on the implementation processes of online curriculum management tools would be beneficial [115]. Chimalakonda and Nori [76], and Sarkar and Negi [86] mention as possible future work the design of meta ontology or UML models, respectively.…”

“…Other authors do not describe the alignment problem and focus on problems such as AR or competency management [116,117], resource consumption in time and cost [70,96], curriculum management [98,115], etc. These problems could be lessened by improving alignment.…”