Joint curricu­lum devel­op­ment: an iter­a­tive and incre­men­tal process

This article describes some elements of the joint curricu­lum devel­op­ment process of the bach­e­lor and master degree programs of the Euro­pean Univer­sity Alliance INVEST (INno­Va­tions of REgional Sustain­abil­ity: Euro­pean Univer­siTy). It was an inter­est­ing expe­ri­ence. To coop­er­ate in an effec­tive way with inter­na­tional colleagues having differ­ent educa­tional back­grounds, disci­plines and expe­ri­ences, was both an iter­a­tive and incre­men­tal process as a chal­lenge. But the results are very promis­ing. Together, we made impor­tant steps towards provid­ing joint programs, based on a jointly devel­oped pedagogy.

Initial task

The proposal that had been submit­ted to the Euro­pean Commis­sion in Febru­ary 2020, was very ambi­tious. Within three years, from Novem­ber 2020, we had to develop and offer, among other tasks and deliv­er­ables, ten joint bach­e­lor degree programs and four master programs. These programs should be based on a joint vision on peda­gogy and must meet the inter­na­tional quality stan­dards for joint degree programs. In the programs, the shared INVEST ambi­tion should be reflected: all grad­u­ates will become active citi­zens of and profes­sion­als for Europe, playing an impor­tant role in the way we are build­ing on a sustain­able future of society in the regions.

Some features of the joint INVEST pedagogy

Even though the proposal indi­cated numer­ous refer­ences to a variety of educa­tional approaches, the INVEST peda­gogy, which would become leading in the devel­op­ment process, had still to be devel­oped jointly.

Start­ing point for devel­op­ing a joint peda­gogy was the deter­mi­na­tion and formu­la­tion of an educa­tional vison. We distin­guished some main educa­tional prin­ci­ples and approaches that should be included in the peda­gogy and should act as guide­lines for curricu­lum development. 

INVEST educa­tional prin­ci­ples 1. Inno­v­a­tive, inter­na­tional, high quality, and cutting edge (mean­ing­ful) 2. Involve­ment of the real world: labor market and stake­hold­ers in devel­op­ment and offer­ing the programs 3. Personal, inclu­sive and flex­i­ble towards students INVEST educa­tional approaches 1. Student-centred approach 2. Real-world learn­ing / compe­tence based 3. Chal­lenge based educa­tion geared towards problem solving 4. Multi­dis­ci­pli­nary trans-disci­pli­nar­ity and/ or cross-disci­pli­nar­ity approach of issues 5. Inte­grated role of applied research

The most signif­i­cant feature of the peda­gogy is the ‘’real world and compe­tence based learn­ing’’. In compe­tence based educa­tion, where ‘’knowl­edge, skills and atti­tudes’’ are applied to study and solve complex and multi-disci­pli­nary regional sustain­abil­ity issues, knowl­edge is consid­ered rather a tool than an aim in itself. Theory and prac­tice is aligned in profes­sional situ­a­tions as being the start­ing points for devel­op­ing and offer­ing study units.

Not only the compe­tences directly needed for job perfor­mances, but also ones neces­sary to survive in today’s society e.g. compe­tences in commu­ni­ca­tion or learn­ing and compe­tences to enhance iden­tity development.

So, in the compe­tence based INVEST curric­ula, the learn­ing outcomes are tightly connected to profes­sional tasks and real-life assign­ments. Even assess­ments could take place outside the class­room. In this form, educa­tion is also strongly inter­twined with real research and inno­va­tion processes in prac­tice. A profes­sional context in differ­ent authen­tic situ­a­tions makes learn­ing more mean­ing­ful to students and stim­u­late them to get the best out of themselves.

This meant for the partic­i­pants in the curricu­lum devel­op­ment process and the perform­ing educa­tional staff a shift from class­room-based, theo­ret­i­cal, teacher-driven educa­tion, towards educa­tion taking place in prac­tice or in the region, in coop­er­a­tion with entre­pre­neurs and other prac­ti­cal part­ners or stakeholders.

The appli­ca­tion of the “chal­lenged-based approach” brings students to a problem-solving atti­tude. The broad range of chal­lenges in the INVEST regions and the daily prac­tice are the source of inspi­ra­tion for the exer­cises, case studies, tasks, projects and research topics, INVEST students work on during their studies. To be able to contribute on these, students must be famil­iar to the problem-solving way of think­ing that involves multi­ple phases, iter­a­tive think­ing and produc­ing possi­ble solu­tions for the wicked regional prob­lems that have a global impact too. This approach demands students’ creativ­ity, encour­ages debates (in study groups and with stake­hold­ers), group work, and student initia­tives. This problem-solving compe­tence has become one of the common INVEST competences. 

Another note­wor­thy aspect was the sequence of steps in the curricu­lum devel­op­ment. Tradi­tion­ally, there is a tendency to compile lists of keywords, concepts and theo­ries and design study programs based on these. Now we started with a research of the profes­sional field, to collect the rele­vant compe­ten­cies and profes­sional prod­ucts, activ­i­ties and tasks students could work on. After­wards the learn­ing outcomes and learn­ing objec­tives have been formu­lated and the assess­ment methods defined. Only after this, the educa­tion was to be designed and developed. 

INVEST focus areas and competences

From the INVEST focus areas we iden­ti­fied ten themes which were the start­ing points for the bach­e­lor degree programs. These themes cover a broad spec­trum. From ’Devel­op­ing viable commu­ni­ties’ with a soci­o­log­i­cal and facil­i­ta­tive perspec­tive towards sustain­able regional devel­op­ment, to a more tech­ni­cally oriented special­iza­tion ’Society 5.0 and Digital Trans­for­ma­tion” focused on digital trans­for­ma­tions support­ing sustain­able regional devel­op­ment. Programs oriented on most press­ing issues such as land­scape devel­op­ment, energy tran­si­tion, climate change and sustain­able regional economy complete the palette of programs. The themes of the four master programs came up later in the process, more or less spon­ta­neously, but connected to the INVEST focus areas and regional needs.

Simul­ta­ne­ously, we started to formu­late common INVEST compe­tences and intended learn­ing outcomes, that should be applic­a­ble for all programs. Besides, each special­iza­tion has to develop their own compe­tence and learn­ing outcomes.

The result was a compre­hen­sive and coher­ent set of compe­tences (common and special­iza­tion) and annexed intended learn­ing outcomes that are used by the devel­op­ment of the courses and study units.

Common INVEST compe­tences C1 Devel­op­ing sustain­able regions C2 Corpo­rate social entre­pre­neur­ship C3 Trans­dis­ci­pli­nary profi­ciency: Research and problem solving C4 Effec­tive commu­ni­cat­ing and social inter­act­ing C5 Inter­cul­tural and multi­lin­gual profi­ciency C6 Trans­ver­sal profi­ciency: personal devel­op­ment and project-management

Design­ing and devel­op­ing curricula

At the same time as compil­ing the peda­gogy, we addressed the accred­i­ta­tion frame­work that should meet all the part­ners’ national require­ments and stan­dards on accred­i­ta­tion of insti­tu­tions and programs. Very soon we had to acknowl­edge that the diffi­culty for an accred­i­ta­tion frame­work was not in the accred­i­ta­tion stan­dards or proce­dures of the programs itself, but in the autho­riza­tion or approval for newpro­grams. That’s why we decided to start with devel­op­ing one year joint bach­e­lor special­iza­tions, based on a similar struc­ture. One semes­ter of special­iza­tion study units, includ­ing language and culture of the host country we could offer as Erasmus minors. And one semes­ter for a final thesis/research devel­op­ment project address­ing a rela­tive complex problem in the field of one of the INVEST focus areas and under respon­si­bil­ity of the degree award­ing university.

Follow­ing all the prepara­tory work we started the curricu­lum devel­op­ment work itself.

After estab­lish­ing the inter­na­tional curricu­lum devel­op­ment teams, orig­i­nated from the partic­i­pat­ing univer­si­ties we orga­nized online kick off meet­ings, phys­i­cal work­shops at differ­ent venues and online sessions and reviews.

In a sepa­rate process, so called Living Labs were estab­lished in each of the INVEST univer­si­ties. Living Labs func­tion as a plat­form to facil­i­tate coop­er­a­tion between applied research and educa­tion and collab­o­rate with other stake­hold­ers in the regions to formu­late regional sustain­able knowl­edge agendas and address the issues. These public-private-people part­ner­ships will deliver real life contexts for the educa­tional programs.

In the first stage of curricu­lum devel­op­ment the regional knowl­edge agendas were not avail­able yet. That’s why the first task for the inter­na­tional curricu­lum devel­op­ment teams was to get insight in the profes­sional prac­tice and their need for grad­u­ates. A range of (special­i­sa­tion) compe­tences, profes­sional tasks, prod­ucts and actions, that are crit­i­cal for students’ future jobs, was iden­ti­fied and described in consul­ta­tion with the profes­sional field. The profes­sional profiles of the courses could be written then.

Templates were constructed for course and study unit descrip­tions. These were meant to struc­ture the activ­i­ties and to obtain some unity in the descrip­tions and to be suit­able for the formal EER (educa­tion and exam­i­na­tion regu­la­tion). And in a later stage templates for study manuals were provided.

During the meeting weeks, the colleagues from differ­ent univer­si­ties worked together in an inten­sive way on curricu­lum devel­op­ment. Exchange of differ­ent working methods and best prac­tices took place. Always consciously focus­ing on the need from the profes­sional field, what the students have to learn, which profes­sional assign­ments and task to be deliv­ered and how to assess the learn­ing outcomes. Some­times it was diffi­cult not to turn back to a list of knowl­edge concepts and theories.

Formu­lat­ing the special­iza­tion compe­ten­cies and asso­ci­ated intended learn­ing outcomes also required some effort. How to formu­late these at the right abstrac­tion level, not too general and not too detailed? And are the formu­lated learn­ing outcomes a coher­ent and work­able whole?

In retro­spect on the process

The inter­na­tional mix of colleagues worked very inspir­ing and coop­er­a­tive. Some alliance part­ners were repre­sented by board members/managers, other by teach­ers. The advan­tage of the pres­ence of boards members/ managers was the fast and solid embed­ding of INVEST in their own orga­ni­za­tions. The teach­ers were more focused on which best prac­tices could be used, and what the chosen INVEST peda­gogy meant for the content and context of the educa­tion to be developed.

In between we still had to cope with the issue that our national rules and regu­la­tions are hinder­ing a smooth and intel­li­gent application/initial accred­i­ta­tion for new programs. So the deci­sion to start devel­op­ing and conduct­ing final special­iza­tion years (3th or 4the year depend­ing on the foun­da­tion program) was a very good one. And we really appre­ci­ated the approval of the Euro­pean Commis­sion to do so.

In Septem­ber 2022 the first 2 special­iza­tion programs were conducted: at Karelia UAS: Sustain­able Commu­ni­ties in Energy Tran­si­tion and at Van Hall Laren­stein UAS the special­iza­tion Inte­grated Land­scape devel­op­ment. The eval­u­a­tions showed that students were satis­fied with the includ­ing of, and contact with the profes­sional prac­tice. Bridg­ing the gap between educa­tion and prac­tice offered both students and teach­ers a valu­able learn­ing environment.

Conclu­sion

It seemed quite simple: from jointly devel­oped vision and concepts, to work together in a struc­tured way towards a common agreed goal. And of course, step­ping off the beaten path requires courage and boldness.

We can conclude that it was and is a fasci­nat­ing and inter­est­ing process, in which great results have been achieved in a very colle­gial way. Our results could perfectly be foun­da­tion elements for a real future Euro­pean university.

At the moment we hope, that a large number of students will be able to make use of this achieve­ment and develop into true Euro­pean professionals.

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Refer­ences:

INVEST Deliv­er­able 3.7 Descrip­tion of a joint peda­gogy, 2021

INVEST Deliv­er­able 3.8 Descrip­tions of the modules of joint bach­e­lor and master degree courses, 2022

INVEST Deliv­er­able 3.17 Regional Living Labs, 2021

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Author:

Tanja van Heuve­len, MSc, Van Hall Laren­stein UAS, The Netherlands

Image by Freepik