Over the last five years, Warwick has seen considerable change around curriculum data management, all with the aim of creating a single source of truth for course and module information.

Work that began looking at the course and module approval systems, and the publication of the Module Catalogue, was to have progressed to next steps - the production of a course catalogue and a University-wide module selection tool. However, it became clear that although considerable progress has been made, there are still major gaps and vulnerabilities in the existing data systems and processes.

All future work and ambition in this area depends on having stable foundations that can support greater innovation and flexibility in curriculum management and design.

The Curriculum Management Project Group was charged with looking into all of the issues, and over the past year has been scoping the options and understanding of curriculum management approaches across the HE (Higher Education) sector. The vision is to have a 'single source of truth and definitive record for all curriculum data, with efficient processes and policies aligned to course, module and partnership creation, approval, deployment, and archiving to ensure the student has an exceptional experience'.

There are many factors around our core data that impact on the curriculum lifecycle: policies and regulations, systems and their interoperability, quality of data, and the structure of the teams, roles and responsibilities involved.

As the discovery phase of the project progresses, many people involved with curriculum around the University are being asked to help understand the obstacles and problems with our current set-up and to shape the requirements for the future.

The full process to establish the firm foundations needed to progress will not be quick. The development, approval and deployment of our curriculum is so integral to the University that it is essential we take the time to get it right and find a solution that will be fit for purpose for the future.

The project aims to find a solution that will:

• Enable design of high-quality, relevant and attractive courses, which removes system-barriers to collaboration between departments and faculties.
• Enable effective, robust and appropriate scrutiny of all new and amended course, module and partnership proposals through a consistent approvals process.
• House course and module data, linking the two datasets together, and acting as the definitive record of these.
• Enable departments to update and change module and course data without triggering an approvals workflow (where appropriate).
• Maintain annual delivery related data, such as annual module diets, occurrences, assessment, and delivery modes.
• Publish course and module information, aiding departments in providing accurate and current information to students, thereby improving their experience.
• Support and better enable other institutional strategies, such as student mobility and interdisciplinarity.
• Ensure adherence to regulatory frameworks, including OfS Conditions of Registration and CMA legislation.
• Provide the foundation for future developments relating to, for example, module selection, and module and examination timetabling.

If you would like to know more about the project, or would like to input into the discovery phase, please contact Lauren Botham (EPQ).