University systems can be complicated places. You’ll often find geographically distant campuses, colleges, and departments with unique curriculum design processes. You may find different personnel types working on the curriculum – professors in some departments and professional staff in others. This complexity can create silos that stifle collaboration and innovation.
Bottom line: A university system loses scalability when each campus, college, or department is a curriculum world unto itself.
The University of Missouri System faced the challenge of scaling initiatives across four campuses. They sought a common curriculum design platform to shift toward a learner-centric culture. Their goal was to build a collaborative community around curriculum design. They wanted something to help their campuses, colleges, and departments work together without sacrificing their individuality. They needed a tool to capture what was working well in one part of the system and scale it system-wide.
That’s where Coursetune comes in.
Coursetune’s gorgeous visual curriculum maps uncover the strategy behind course design. It supplies flexibility so universities can support standards and accreditation requirements changes. Faculty and staff can use Coursetune to build a connection to anytime, anywhere learning and discover skill gaps or missing measures. Coursetune’s beautifully designed interface serves as a common platform to foster communication, empower innovation, and nurture curriculum design collaboration.
Laying the foundation for curriculum design collaboration
The University of Missouri System uses Coursetune to drive innovation and collaboration. In a talk at Coursetune Camp 2020, Danna Wren, Senior Director of Academic Technology, and Jonathan Cisco, Former Associate Director for the Teaching for Learning Center, discussed some of the strategies they applied to drive Coursetune adoption throughout the UM System. They also wanted to foster genuine collaboration among campuses, colleges, departments, and programs.
To put things into perspective, The University of Missouri System has about 70,000 students distributed across four campuses with 6,000 faculty and researchers and more than 17,000 staff. To encourage Coursetune adoption, Danna and Jonathan developed specific approaches to reach the UM System’s right people.
Building relationships and Coursetune champions
Jonathan started by finding a program with a unique case where Coursetune would be a good fit. Typically, these programs have accreditation reviews in the upcoming year. Within that program, he looked for a champion who would be receptive to discussing curriculum design. He held an informal first meeting called “Coffee and Coursetune.” In this session, Jonathan and his newfound ally discuss the program’s learning objectives in “plain speak.”
Coffee and Coursetune’s informality allowed the conversation to move past jargon and arrive at the nitty-gritty of what the program was trying to achieve.
Afterward, Jonathan and his Coursetune champion consulted all program stakeholders, which could vary widely across different colleges or departments within the system. They also spoke about any obstacles the program is facing.
All of this culminated in a low-stakes faculty demo of Coursetune. At the demonstration, Jonathan notes that the visual nature of Coursetune “sells itself so easily.”
This process was successful because Jonathan always put the program’s needs first.
It’s not as much about software as it is about bringing the program’s goals to fruition.
Using innovation to generate value for students and stakeholders
Danna points out another way that the UM System is using Coursetune as a tool to innovate. Her team launched a project to replace the traditional student transcript, which often doesn’t display what a student learned, with a “Comprehensive Learner Record.” Coursetune will contribute data to this extended transcript about the course and program objectives. Students could then see particular skills and knowledge learned in courses as part of their transcript.
The University of Missouri at St. Louis launched a curriculum alignment program that ties more closely to strategic initiatives at other UM System campuses. This program produced a rapid migration of student learning objectives into Coursetune. Overall, the program has helped UMSL better decide the frequency and sequence of courses. Now, students have more opportunities to take required courses. In some cases, it’s reduced a student’s time to graduate.
During the height of the pandemic, the UM System used Coursetune to figure out the best way to deliver instruction across their curriculum. Whether in a traditional classroom, hybrid, or entirely online, Coursetune helped them find the way. As a result, they can better serve their students and swing more gracefully between hybrid and online.
For the University of Missouri System, Coursetune is more than a tool
Coursetune helped the UM System scale programs quickly. The result is learner-centered curriculum alignment through Coursetune. The result? The USML campus and the entire UM System can make its programs available to more significant numbers of students.
The UM System now has scalable programs that are a marketing differentiator!
Watch more of the UM System story
You can watch the UM System presentation from Coursetune Camp 2020. You’ll learn more about the ways they’ve used Coursetune across the system.
Additionally, Linda Lair, Associate Clinical Professor and Director of Clinical Education, Respiratory Therapy, and Diane Weaver, COO, and co-founder of Coursetune, Inc., presented at UM’s 2020 Celebration of Teaching event. You can watch their presentation to learn how the UM System uses Coursetune for course mapping.
Ready to make your programs scale?
Coursetune provides one place to design, manage, and plan your curriculum.
Our unique, patented, visual curriculum maps equip you with a common platform. One that helps faculty, staff, and leadership focus on the big picture while revealing how learning objectives, competencies, and standards impact student outcomes.
Coursetune supplies you with the communication and workflow tools that promote collaboration and unlock innovation across your institution.
