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Learning, Teaching and Employability

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 Project lead: Cardiff Metropolitan University

 


About this project

This QAA Collaborative Enhancement Project develops and pilots a Curriculum Visualiser Tool to support programme teams in designing, reviewing, and enhancing curricula. The project responds to sector challenges around programme coherence, assessment load, and the visibility of skills development across the student journey.

The tool enables teams to map modules, learning outcomes, assessment, and skills development across levels and terms using an interactive, visual interface. By making the structure and experience of programmes more explicit, the project supports constructive alignment, reduces unnecessary complexity, and enhances transparency for both staff and students.

 

Outputs will include the visualiser tool, an implementation toolkit, and sector-facing guidance to support wider adoption.

 

Collaborative planning with curriculum visualiser

Through collaborative workshops with academic staff, students, and partners, the project will test how visual curriculum mapping can:

 

  • strengthen programme coherence and progression
  • improve assessment design and distribution
  • support inclusive and student-centred curriculum design
  • enhance quality assurance and validation processes

Methodology

The project adopts a collaborative, design-based enhancement approach, combining tool development with iterative testing in practice.

Key stages include:

1. Discovery and Design

Review of sector challenges relating to curriculum complexity, assessment load, and student understanding
Co-design of the visualiser concept aligned to QAA Quality Code principles and institutional QA processes

2. Tool Development

Creation of a drag-and-drop visual interface enabling mapping of modules, learning outcomes, skills, and assessment across programmes
Development of multiple visual layers (e.g. level, term, skills, assessment) to support different stakeholder perspectives

3. Collaborative Workshops

Facilitation of structured curriculum design workshops with academic staff, professional services, and students
Use of the tool in real-time to map, review, and redesign programmes

4. Pilot and Evaluation

Testing the tool across selected programmes and contexts (including partner delivery where relevant)
Collection of qualitative feedback (staff and student experience) and analysis of impact on programme coherence and assessment design

5. Outputs and Dissemination

Development of a sector-facing toolkit, including workshop models, guidance, and visual templates
Sharing findings through QAA networks and wider higher education communities

Contributors
The project is led by Cardiff Metropolitan University (Cardiff School of Technologies), with contributions from a collaborative network including:
  • Vicki McMillan (Cardiff and Vale College), contributing further education perspectives and supporting cross-sector applicability
  • Academic staff (Programme Directors, module leaders) contributing to curriculum design and testing
  • Students and Student Coaches, providing insight into the lived experience of programme structures and assessment
  • Learning developers and professional services staff, supporting pedagogic design and implementation
  • Collaborative partners (including FE and transnational education partners), ensuring applicability across diverse delivery contexts
  • QAA Collaborative Enhancement Project network, providing sector insight, challenge, and dissemination opportunities

Project lead: Dr Jemma Oeppen Hill, Cardiff Metropolitan University

 

Since joining Cardiff Met in 2016, Jemma has been Programme Director in CSM, responsible for growing the BA (Hons) Fashion Marketing Management programme, and has since designed and validated the MSc Fashion Marketing Management and a second BA (Hons) in Fashion Buying and Brand Management. Since 2019 she has held a secondment role as Principal Lecturer in Quality Enhancement within The Quality Enhancement Directorate (QED), before joining Cardiff School of Technologies as Associate Dean Student Engagement in June 2021.


Project lead: Laura West-Burnham, Cardiff Metropolitan University


Project partner: Victoria MacMillan, Cardiff and Vale College 

 

Since joining Cardiff and Vale College in 2011, Victoria MacMillan has taught across Health, Care, Education, NEET and ESOL programmes from Entry Level 2 to Level 3. In 2016, she became Programme Leader for the FdA Childhood Studies, having previously taught on the FdA Learning Support programme, and went on to develop the FdA Youth and Social Care in partnership with the University of South Wales. She has since led the FdA and BA (Hons) Education, Learning and Development programmes. Since 2018, she has held the role of Higher Education Scholarship Lead and, from 2023, has also been Higher Education Course Development and Collaboration Lead. She is an NTFS reviewer and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. In her current role, she oversees quality, course development, funding, scholarly activity and partnerships across higher education provision at the College.