Presentation to the 2012 UCISA Support Services Conference at Crewe Hall outlining Manchester Metropolitan University's work to transform its undergraduate curriculum, business processes and IT systems to enhance the student experience. The slides describe MMU's "Core+" Distributed VLE model and illustrates how its core has been delivered using Moodle and web services that aggregate information frequently requested by students, such as deadlines, timetables, reading lists and past examination papers.

1. Great Expectations: a story of
development & discovery at MMU
UCISA | Crewe | July 2012
Professor Mark Stubbs
Head of Learning & Research Technologies
m.stubbs@mmu.ac.uk http://twitter.com/thestubbs
http://slideshare.net/markstubbs
Wednesday, July 11, 2012 1

2. An interesting place to work!
• Large, popular, multi-campus university
– 37,000+ students | 1,000+ courses | consolidating from 7 sites
• Pursuing an ambitious transformation initiative
– New Buildings, New Curriculum, New Admin Processes & Systems,
New Learning & Mobile Tech, New Quality Processes…

3. Student Experience: mixed?
And how do I assure you
you find the parts of it are
student excellent !
experience?
Learning
Learning
Environment
Environment
Corporate Systems
Admin Systems 3

4. Student Experience: varied?
37,000+ students
1,000 + courses
1,500+ tutors
7 sites

5. Student Experience: declining?

6. Doing something about it…
1. Listening
• Recurrent messages from diverse experiences
– Focus groups: consistent, easy to find info
– NSS analysis: course organisation determines Q22
– Mobile surveys*: deadlines, timetables… (m-admin)
• Great (and not-so great) expectations
– “engaging, well-organised courses”
MOBILE
50%+ smartphone
Age-gender device
ownership patterns
Easier to find Rufi Franzen Email > FB use
than your tutor, class, deadlines? Low twitter use

7. Doing something about it…
2. Planning a response
In the current climate
Diminishing unit of resource
Everything depends on everything else
>DVC “Out of patience”
error at line 1 We are large and risk averse

8. “Who dares wins”
 In the current climate
?
vc Diminishing unit of resource
θ
Everything depends on everything else
We are large and risk averse

9. EQAL
In the current climate
• A coordinated strike for step-change improvement Diminishing unit of resource
New Curriculum Everything depends on everything else
• designing new units, … We are large and risk averse
New Admin Systems & Processes
• personal timetabling, …
New Virtual Learning Environment
• Moodle & myMMU web/mobile, …
New QA & QE Processes
• facilitating curriculum transformation

10. MISSION:

11. Cut-down Unit (module) web form

12. Getting the experience back
Learning
Environment
Admin Systems
New Systems,
Processes & VLE
Admin Systems

13. This work is licensed under a Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence
Our Core+ DVLE model
Learning technologies not isolated :
interaction with personal and
administrative systems and underlying
infrastructure are major determinants
of the quality of the overall experience
Recognised: watch & learn how staff
use tech
Recommended: staff set up & we train
to integrate
Arranged: we set up & train staff to
use
Core: we set up & train staff & tell
students it’ll be a consistent front door
http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/ltreview

14. This work is licensed under a Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence
Wrapping the institution around the learner
14

15. This work is licensed under a Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence
Wrapping the institution around the learner
Student ID
Timetable
Sync to
personal
device
15

16. This work is licensed under a Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence
Wrapping the institution around the learner
Student ID (+ Unit code)
Hand-in dates / extensions / marks
Personalised submission sheet
16

17. This work is licensed under a Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence
Wrapping the institution around the learner
Unit code
Resource list
Relevant resource
17

18. This work is licensed under a Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence
Wrapping the institution around the learner
Unit code
Past exam papers
Past exam paper
18

19. Listening carefully to the student voice
• Personalised online survey on portal homepage
– Nov 2011: 10,716 left 58,000+ comments
– Mar 2012: 7,106 left 33,000+ comments
– All data tagged with unit / course codes
• Unit/Course leaders see their anonymised feedback
– Statistical analysis ranked predictors of overall
satisfaction
1. Course organisation
2. Building confidence
3. Teaching quality (explanation, feedback, advice)
4. Learning resources
5. Age

20. Find out more …
• Our initial drive for responsive curricula
– http://jiscdesignstudio.pbworks.com/w/page/29224166/Supporting%20Responsive%2
0Curricula%20%28SRC%29%20project
– http://www.celt.mmu.ac.uk/src/
• MMU’s EQAL curriculum transformation
– http://www.celt.mmu.ac.uk/eqal/index.php
• Our review of learning technologies
– http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/ltreview
• How we built our integrated VLE
– http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/w2c
• Where we’re going next with Assessment & Feedback
– http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/traffic/
• UCISA Mobile presentation
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X17yrTbdTHs