Co:Lab – Curriculum Design at Brighton

During 2021/22 a new series of Co:Lab Curriculum Design workshops and resources are being developed and piloted at the University of Brighton to enable:

A collaborative curriculum enhancement process for course teams and students to work in partnership, facilitated by the Learning and Teaching Hub
Preparation for periodic review, module re/design and course validation
Opportunities for co-creation, innovation, dialogue with colleagues & re-centering the student voice
Opportunity to reflect upon and embed institutional strategies, primarily the Curriculum Design Framework, Assessment & Feedback Policy, the Digital Fluencies T-Shaped Framework, and the University of Brighton Graduate Attributes and Global Challenges

These workshops are available to academic staff and their student course reps, and organised based upon request and according to prioritising criteria for periodic review. Please contact the L&T Hub’s Curriculum Enhancement Lead Lucy Chilvers (L.R.Chilvers@brighton.ac.uk) or your School L&T Partner if you would like to discuss participating in any of the workshops detailed below.

Co:Lab Course Design Workshops (6 hours in total)

This Co:Lab Course Design workshop is suitable for course teams preparing for periodic review or course validation. It is delivered in 2 x 3 hour sessions, available to course teams and students either on campus or online on MS Teams. The workshop aims include:

To re/design Course Aims and Learning Outcomes in response to internal and external factors driving change and innovation
To reflect on the student development journey and design the embedding of intended Course Graduate Attributes and PSRB requirements within the curriculum
To redesign an Assessment & Feedback Strategy aligned with the updated UoB Assessment & Feedback policy
To embed the refreshed Curriculum Design Framework in Course learning teaching & assessment practices
To re/design a Course Roadmap & Module topics

The workshop is carefully aligned to the headings in the university’s recently developed Periodic Review Reflective Analysis template to ensure the discussions from the workshops, captured in a OneNote, help to inform completion of that documentation for Periodic Review.

Co:Lab Module Design Workshop (2 hours)

This Co:Lab Module Design Workshop is suitable for any academic staff involved in leading or designing modules. Ideally staff bring colleagues and students from their course or module team to collaborate with. This workshop is also available either on campus or online on MS Teams. Workshop aims include:

To design the rationale and aims of the module
To reflect on the variety and balance of types of learning and blended delivery modes on the module
To create a storyboard of the learning types and activities, modes of delivery and tools used throughout the module
To design the timings and activities for formative and summative assessment and feedback tasks
To reflect on the alignment of the module’s L&T practice with key institutional strategies

This workshop builds upon UCL’s ABC Learning Design approach with adapted versions of the resources made more relevant to the context at Brighton.

Students as Partners and Co-Creators

We strongly encourage staff to invite along a couple of their students; Course Reps who are interested in participating as partners and co-creators would be a good starting point. Some colleagues have developed student placements to provide more formal opportunities to involve students in the periodic review curriculum design activities. Co:Lab workshops provide a valuable opportunity for students to be involved in meaningful dialogue to co-create learning and teaching experiences, drawing from their own expertise in their course experiences and learning.
This is a great opportunity for students’ own learning and professional development which they can add to their CVs and LinkedIn profiles – a reference can be provided from the L&T Hub upon request.

Further Resources currently available for colleagues at Brighton

Co:Lab Toolkit – A Co:Lab Curriculum Design Toolkit for Course and Module Design is currently being developed and will be available online here for course teams to work through independently from July, 2022.
Periodic Review – the newly developed Periodic Review Reflective Analysis Template and Guidance document can be found here.
Institutional Strategies – below are links to relevant University of Brighton strategic documents referred to in Co:Lab Workshops:
• Curriculum Design Framework
• Assessment and Feedback Policy
• University of Brighton Graduate Attributes
• Inclusive Practice and Accessibility Policy
• Global Challenges

If you have any questions, please get in touch with:

Lucy Chilvers (L.R.Chilvers@brighton.ac.uk)
Senior Lecturer and Lead for Curriculum Enhancement
Learning and Teaching Hub
University of Brighton

Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash