Quality Enhancement Themes: the First Year Experience. Curriculum Design for the First Year

Bovill, C., Morss, K. and Bulley, C. (2008) Quality Enhancement Themes: the First Year Experience. Curriculum Design for the First Year. Project Report. QAA (Scotland), Glasgow, UK.

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Abstract

This report outlines the work and outcomes of a practice-focused development project 'Curriculum design for the first year'. The project was one of nine funded by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) under the First-Year Experience Enhancement Theme of the Scottish quality enhancement agenda. The stages of this curriculum design project included: completing a literature review; running staff workshops to gather and disseminate information; holding student focus groups to gather students, views and experiences of the curriculum; collecting case studies of interest to the sector; and reporting findings to the sector. Key findings from the literature are presented in this report. They include the need to adopt student-centred active learning strategies (Harvey, Drew and Smith, 2006; Oliver-Hoyo and Allen, 2005; Barefoot, 2002) and the importance of providing early formative feedback to students (Davidson and Young, 2005; Barefoot, 2002). Many suggestions for improving learning and teaching strategies have been adopted at module level, but could be implemented strategically across the breadth of a programme curriculum. Kift and Nelson (2005) supported this view and argued that it is equally important to support these principles with systemic university-wide change, including administrative and support programmes that are also integrated with the curriculum and student needs.

Item Type:Research Reports or Papers (Project Report)
Keywords:First year, curriculum, student engagement, student empowerment, student participation
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Bovill, Dr Catherine
Authors: Bovill, C., Morss, K., and Bulley, C.
Subjects:L Education > LB Theory and practice of education
L Education > L Education (General)
College/School:College of Social Sciences > School of Education
College of Social Sciences > School of Education > Social Justice Place and Lifelong Education
University Services > Learning and Teaching Services Division
Publisher:QAA (Scotland)
ISBN:9781844827855
Published Online:01 January 2008
Copyright Holders:Copyright © 2008 QAA (Scotland)
Publisher Policy:Reproduced with the permission of the publisher.
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