About the course: the first steps curriculum

The curriculum is realised through a resource-based learning approach. In addition to the induction week (week 0), there are five topics:
  1. Teaching (Week 1)
  2. Reflective practice (Week 2)
  3. Learning (Week 3)
  4. Designing (Week 4)
  5. Assessment (Week 5)

Each topic is structured around three main components:

The idea is that you should listen to, or watch or read the introduction, engage in the discussion about the topic, browse the resources, reading more deeply those that interest you, and contribute your resources that you have found helpful. Your own contributions to the course are important. You should feel free to add items to the discussions.

Resource based learning

Our resource-based learning approach is conceived around

Dialogue is learning from each other, in conversation. Learning is not just being told something, it involves questioning and reflecting back on things: having a conversation with the ideas themselves.

By “autonomy” we mean individual agency and responsibility. And, of course this can be read simply as taking responsibility for one’s own learning and encouraging our students to do the same.

Finally, our approach is conceived around open educational resources (OER). Openness is a challenging issue currently in higher education both in terms of what it means for universities and for what it might mean to us as academics.

So, dive into the curriculum and make it yours.