development of the individual APD awards

Phase 2 (year 2) concentrated on the development of the shared/agreed programme across the IoTs in Ireland. As a way to involve all stakeholder groups in this process, the working group membership was extended to include representatives from all 14 IoTs; this group met three or four times a year in 2008 and 2009. It should be noted that, through these regular meetings, the group became established as a means of a wider dialogue and exchange in regard to academic professional development across the IoT sector that might not otherwise have existed. New ideas and advice were exchanged as members were at different stages of establishing institutional support centres and providing support for academic staff. In addition, the LIN learning development officer spent considerable time in each of the partner institutions not only as a way to maintain their involvement in the project but as a way to explore issues, gauge different academic development needs and identify areas of specialist expertise. Feedback from these consultations was used to inform the final design of the LIN APD framework.

An online ‘Wiki’ space was established in 2008 to support the work of the working group and the collaborative design of individual awards. With partners based in IoTs spread across Ireland, it was not possible to increase the number of face-to-face meetings. Although partners were generous with their time when additional workshops were being organised to support the design process, a regular additional commitment in terms of travel and time could not be sustained throughout the project duration. As a result, the LIN APD Wiki space was used to enable partners to collaborate in defining their own philosophy of education and to consolidate their core values (see Section 2.8) within their work.

In 2009, seven Level 9 Special Purpose Awards were commissioned: these were intended to reflect both the subject-matter expertise

and the staff professional development needs within the 14 IoTs. Through discussions with Roisin Donnelly, who has published widely in the area of online collaboration, it was agreed at that stage to adopt a backward curriculum design process to design the APD award framework. While the final design of the module content was to be determined by the institutional authors, all awards were required to adhere to the agreed LIN core values and to use a blended learning approach, incorporating technology where appropriate. Award designers also had to take into account the content of other LIN APD awards as well as programmes offered in other institutions in order to ensure flexibility in future access and progression opportunities.

A review of postgraduate academic development programmes was conducted during the first phase of the project, and different possible learner pathway options were explored. It had always been intended that in the future the awards would either combine into a new (shared academic development) award in its own right or be recognised as awards for exemptions from existing programmes. Consequently, it was decided to develop two short 5-ECTS capstone awards that could provide participants with guidance in personal development planning to prepare them for undertaking APD awards and/or to prepare them for the submission of evidence of learning as part of a programme. During this second phase, the APD working group also explored institutional support infrastructures that might support these awards through the establishment of, for example, local mentors and LIN learning advisors. Ciara O’Farrell worked with the group to help define and outline possible LIN mentoring roles and responsibilities. For the most part, these roles have subsequently been adopted informally by local LIN ADP designers and developers.

The Wiki proved to be a valuable tool in the development of all the APD awards, as a way to critique and create award descriptors, and

then to evaluate the awards. Each award under development was given its own webspace. The lead institute, which was being funded for the development and design, placed the award descriptor that they were presenting for validation in this space for comment and discussion before going through the standard quality assurance process. Because each of the awards was at a different stage of development, this online space was a useful way to capture both the design process and the collaborative enterprise. Again, it should also be noted that the LIN learning development officer had an important role in encouraging participation within and moderating online activities within the Wiki space. Many of the partners had not used a Wiki before, and there was some initial reluctance to both editing the work of others and developing documents collaboratively online.

As part of the commissioning agreement, resource materials produced during the development and piloting of the awards were to be made available to the wider LIN community. An APD pack would contain the resources to enable a LIN partner to run the award in their own institution. The packs would have the benefit of modifications that were made on the basis of an APD pilot evaluation and so, for example, they would list areas with which participants had experienced difficulties or suggested amendments to the order in which sessions were facilitated. There was extensive discussion in the steering group around the APD resource pack format and content. Eventually, a format was agreed that would facilitate author flexibility in development but at the same time ensure a consistency of approach across all the awards. As a result, a variety of different pack formats were produced by the APD designers and were then made available to the LIN community. These packs ranged from traditional collections of multimedia to content packaged in the form of award Wikis and a LIN APD blog. Each APD pack was required to include the following resources:

1. Validation information: name of module, level, number of ECTS credits, validating body and date of validation. 2. Copyright information: LIN ccLearn licensing agreement

signed by all authors. 3. APD module information:

• APD descriptor: this provides a clear outline of the module.

• Tutor guide: this provides both a holistic approach to the module as well as a breakdown of the component learning, teaching and assessment activities.

• Learning activity support: this provides the prerequisite information and materials for a tutor to be able to deliver and assess the module within their own institution. • Session outline: this specifies the title,

introduction/context, aims, learning outcomes, breakdown of methods to be used within the session, list of

assessments and assessment criteria, etc.

• Session learning activities: these include a breakdown of activities or tasks, how ideas/concepts might be developed within these activities, any follow-on and/or preparatory online activities to help develop core concepts. Where possible, any educational resources used to support these activities should be accessible by participants at minimal cost.

• Assessment methods: these include, where possible, a range of strategies to provide formative feedback to participants during the module learning activities as well as summative feedback on evidence of attainment of module learning outcomes.

• Additional resources and support materials: these include reference materials and recommended associated reading. Progress in the second phase of the development continued up to December 2009. A number of issues emerged during the implementation and piloting of the awards regarding programme validation processes, levels of expertise in specific areas of development and levels of staff support available for learning and teaching within the IoT sector. These challenges had implications for the work of the APD group during Phase 3. Below is schematic representation of Phase 2:

Figure 1.3.2: Overview of Phase 2 of the APD award development process Oct APD Curriculum design model/wiki David Baume LIN Values

established LIN MOU and CC

Learn Copyright agreed ITB Special Purpose Award Validated LIT Special Purpose Award validated PDP/RAE 5 ECTS Validated LIN PG Programme Outcome IT Carlow Special Purpose Award agreed for Validation by DIT IT Sligo Start Validation RLO Workshop IT Tallaght AIT Module Validated

Nov Apr May Jun Jul Aug

APD Curriculum Development 10 ECTS Special Purpose Awards Mentoring Workshop Ciara O’Farrell

Dec Jan Feb Mar