Title: Bournemouth University, Contaminated Land Assessment
1Big Bang reviews addressing over-teaching Bria
n Astin We cant teach all the medical
students everything they need to learn - we need
to teach them how to learn and how to learn on
their own. (Peter Howley, Head of the Department
of Pathology, Harvard Medical School)
2What can we expect from curriculum review?
- The release of staff time to allow engagement
with research and enterprise thus maintaining
academic and professional credibility. - Enhancement of the student experience with the
effective integration of theory and practice. - Increased flexibility of delivery efficient
suites of programmes responsive to changing
markets. - Effective mechanisms for benchmarking and quality
assurance.
3Releasing staff time
- Elimination of seminars. This began over ten
years ago when (lecture seminar) units were
changed to two hours of activity. For a class
of 60 this reduced the staff contact hours from 5
to 2 hours per week per 20 credit unit. - Later Big Bang events created common units with
groups of ca. 180 students in Level C, allowing a
possible load of 1 lecture 10 weekly seminars
i.e. 11 hours of staff contact to be reduced to 2
hours. - Staff workloads can now be expressed in terms of
units delivered rather than contact hours with
staff each delivering ca. 4 units.
4BSc Environmental Protection
5Effects of releasing staff time
- Each unit is typically delivered by no more than
two members of staff. - The further integration of research into the
teaching programmes. - More time for staff research and enterprise
activity. - More efficient timetabling in 2002 03, 1147
hours were saved in 2003 04, a further 203
hours were removed.
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8Improved research metrics
9Enhancing the student experience
- Students do not have reduced contact hours it is
the staff who have reduced timetables. - Students have hands-on experience of the latest
equipment and techniques, and in many cases
collaborate directly on staff research projects. - Students experience a wide range of learning
environments eg, lectures, laboratories,
fieldwork, access to reference collections,
keynote lectures, research seminars many of
which involve smaller groups.
10Student Timetable BSc Environmental Protection
(Level C)
11School resources available to students
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13Increased flexibility of delivery
- The lost seminars have been replaced by
- laboratory sessions
- fieldwork exercises, of half-day to several weeks
duration - tutorial sessions early in Level C, and programme
specific pathway seminars, one per term at Levels
C and I - and six-week work placements remain a feature of
the majority of our UG provision.
14Benchmarking and quality assurance
- The integration of research and professional
practice allows clear mapping on to the relevant
subject benchmarks. - Full and limited reviews are often used before BU
mandated timescales to allow refinements of the
curriculum and delivery to maintain academic
credibility and increase flexibility. - External examiners reports and ongoing
monitoring allow feedback of good practice, eg,
Circumstances Boards, models for a consistent
assignment feedback vocabulary, front-loaded
tutorial support in Level C.
15The future
- Units shared across Schools a possible common
platform for the delivery of all the Universitys
science programmes. - Streamlining of the programme review process
devolution to SQCs? - Increased elements of flexible and independent
learning, particularly at PG level. - Two-year degree programmes.
- Credit rating of fieldwork and placements.