Day 1: Echoes of Protest - Carol Hartmann, Aashay Roop, Lato Sele, Angelina Chabalala

[Music]

Good afternoon everyone. My name is Lu

Si and together with Angelina Chavala

and Asher, we would like to share our

work which is titled charting a path

forward. lessons from health sciences

curriculum development

which reflects our collaborative efforts

to enhance curriculum development and

delivery in the faculty of health

sciences. So we grounded our work with

the integration of two key frames.

We grounded our work with the

integration of two key frameworks um the

ADI model and the SIP evaluation model.

While Addi guided our overall

instructional design process, we

specifically applied the SIP model

during the analysis and design phases of

our our uh work and to ensure our

curriculum improvements decisions were

informed using our context, input,

process and product aspects. The S model

developed by Stafle Beam includes four

branches. context where we looked at how

effective

uh the curriculum is being delivered to

students and staff input. This involves

selecting tools like UAZI, Moodle, uh

REDCap and Loop. The process phase is

the core focus of our presentation today

where we

evaluate how the curriculum is being

delivered to improve the actual teaching

and learning. The product in this phase

will then be able to to assess the

outcomes and impact of the curriculum

such as student success rates and

long-term improvements. We aim to

provide a focal perspective of the

process we went through to develop our

curriculum and mainly the virtual

learning environment pedagogy, the

statistical analysis and the curriculum

mapping on Tulum.

Let's begin with two questions that have

guided our inquiry into digital teaching

and learning. Firstly, what defines a

high quality online learning experience

from the students perspective and how

consistently is this delivered across

our courses? The second question, where

are the hidden strengths and silent gaps

in our digital pedagogy and how can we

use this insight to innovate?

To answer these, we developed a tool, an

audit tool designed to monitor and

evaluate online course content across

the faculty of health sciences. This

tool takes the form of a structured

survey or checklist created on REDCap

and focuses on eight key aspects of

online pedagogy, namely the

introduction, navigation, basic content,

communication, interactive or

collaborative items, assessment,

marking, evaluation, and feedback. and

lastly evidence of blended learning. The

audit is conducted on courses hosted on

learning on the learning management

systems like I mentioned earlier and

Moodle and the data is analyzed using

redcap or Microsoft Exile. The following

example

show two hypothetical courses which we

compared using the audit scores of the

selected sections of the audit form

where each section was scored based on

specific criteria and the results were

averaged to produce an overall audit

score.

So for the first course which is pres

which presented a low score of 23.1%

compared to the second course which had

a higher percentage um in the basic

content category indicating that fewer

types of learning materials were

available um compared to the second

course in the marketing evaluation and

feedback section. The second course

achieved a 69% audit score reflecting

more consistent evidence of grading

practices, evaluation mechanisms, and

feedback provided through the LMS.

Similarly, the assessment section showed

stronger performance in the second

course at 58.3% and greater frequency of

assessments uploaded to the LMS.

Finally, in terms of blended learning,

the second plot against Gorda

demonstrating clear tier integration of

online activities with in-person

learning environments, including spaces

such as the EO.

This indicates that there is no official

mental course overall, but there is room

for improvement required across all

courses in the online spaces. These

findings help us identify areas of

strength and weakness in digital content

delivery and they directly inform the

process phase of our curriculum

development helping us answer the

questions that we began with. Thank you

very much. And Ash will follow with

insights from statistical analysis

showing how data informs curriculum

effectiveness and equity.

Yeah. So good day everyone. As L

explained, today I'll be explaining the

statistical application um during our

curriculum development phases. Um when

it comes to curricular data, we often

faced with variable multiple variables

and factors that influence the data that

we receive from students or from a

particular curriculum. As such, my job

is to use statistic to help navigate

this complexity for both students as

well as the curriculum. The goal of this

is not to dictate decisions but to help

inform decisions and allocate limited

resources much more effectively within

models like statistics supports

evaluation at every stage ensuring that

curricula remains responsive and

effective within models like atti they

strengthen the analysis and evaluation

bases ensuring that design development

and implementation directly address the

real challenges that students are facing

and within the curriculara rather than

assumptions that make this promotes a

more equitable and effective curriculum

for the diverse students at births. So

how do we use statistics?

When when we begin with statistical

analysis, our first step is to gain an

overall picture of what's happening

within the curriculum and to identify

patterns and challenges within it. This

is done through historical analysis of

the course of curriculum or since

curriculum implementation.

We begin with descriptive statistics

such as throughput and path rates to see

how well our students are progressing

through the course. This helps those

involved in the process to identify bot

index. For example, a module will

consistently high failure rates or

demographical explanations such as piles

that are failing. Descriptive statistics

helps us to summarize complex data into

understandable outputs like averages,

central tendencies, and percentages.

Instead of working with a long list of

raw marks, we can see clear patterns

such as high attrition rates or patterns

of high attrition, which cohorts are

most at risk and where interventions may

be needed for specific courses.

This provides a solid foundation for

decision making and long-term planning.

Beyond description, we as well use

inferredial statistics to make

predictions and test different variables

within the curriculum. Inferential

analysis allows us to move from what's

happening to why to why it is happening

and what might happen next. For example,

predictive modeling using linear and

logistic regressions can forecast

student outcomes based on specific n

subjects or combinations of it.

Similarly, kaiquare tests and t tests

can help us explore the impact of

specific factors. These an these

analyses enable us to pinpoint find

specific variables more strongly linked

to student outcomes of curricula and

guide targeted interventions grounded in

statistical evidence rather than

assumptions. When descriptive statistics

show for example that quile one to three

schools are failing. We use inferential

statistics to dive deeper into the

specific variables impacting this such

as quiles n subjects such as buildings

or life science marks.

It's important to stress that statistics

highlights our problems but does not

dictate solutions. For example, if a

course consistently has high failure

rates, that does not mean we should

remove the course entirely. Instead, we

cross check with our curriculum mapping

and workload where we might find that

that the course is overloaded with

quantity in a short time frame. This

places excessive pressure on students

and becomes a reason for the high period

or that the course is out of sequence in

the curriculum disrupting systematic

learning. In this way, statistics guides

us towards the right questions.

So why does stats matter in curriculum

development? Statistics matters because

they ensure resources are used much more

wisely based on evidence that is

difficult to dispute. By identifying

bottlenecks through throughput,

descriptive and inferial statistics and

analyses and then triangulating with our

other processes of curriculum mapping

and workload, we can focus interventions

where they have the most impact. Whether

that means tutoring support, curriculum

sequencing adjustments, or reducing

content overload. I thank you and I hope

you have increased your knowledge around

statistical application during

curriculum development and hope you can

apply to you all faculty. My colleague

will now explain the third process

during our curriculum development phase

here at the NPHS through the loop system

that we employ to map our curriculum by

Andrew.

Good afternoon everyone. I'll be taking

you through one of the tools that we use

for our curriculum developments which is

curriculum mapping. So curriculum

mapping helps us bring together the

different parts of a curriculum into a

single usable picture. So it is defined

as a process of visually representing

what is taught, how it's taught and how

learning is assessed to make the

curriculum more transparent. Um so what

do we use for our curriculum mapping? We

use a platform called group. This stands

for learning opportunities, objectives,

and outcomes platform. This is a um a

web a web based platform that maps and

aligns curricula in real time. So the

types of questions that loop can help

you answer include what is our staff and

student workload? How can we better

align the outcomes and teaching

assessments? Um what are our teaching

methods? And what are the gaps and

overlaps in our programs? So loop

supports um the quality assurance and

curriculum changes. It reduces

unnecessary repetition and it links

learning events to learning objectives

and learning outcomes as well as

frameworks.

So um how do we do our curriculum map?

So we first start by collecting course

packs from lecturers and then we

download a mapping template from loop.

Now we will start inputting things like

learning events, periods, teaching

formats um as well as

um departments and lecturers as well.

Anyone who teaches or also the course

coordinators.

Um now I'll show you an overview of how

loop looks like.

So this is an overview of loop. So as

you can see here we have the first view

which is the learning events view. So in

our learning events view we have the

learning events the course code the year

of study department periods and teaching

format. So what you can do with this you

can also download this to do things like

um departmental workload. You can also

check the teaching methods across um

departments courses as well as programs.

Then we have our objectives view. So in

our objectives view here you can see the

learning. So here the learning events

are linked to learning objectives and we

also have um the verbs the action verbs

for each learning objectives. So here

you can see the right verbs used for

each learning objective and we also have

assessment as well. So um this helps us

understand how learning events are

connected to what is taught and how

we've assessed.

So the next

Okay. So the next view I wanted to show

you guys is the post outcomes view. Um

so the outcomes view is the same as the

objectives view. This just links our

learning event and objectives to course

outcomes and this will give us a bigger

picture of how the objectives and

assessments will all contribute to the

final competencies and outcomes that

learners are expected to achieve. Um and

the last view is the objectives by

framework view. So here we have

different objectives such as frameworks

such as NQF um SEPA and HBCSA.

So here this shows how our curriculum

aligns with broader institutional and

accreditation frameworks. And um this

will so linking all of this together

will allow us to search our curriculum

against external and internal um

standards and requirements such as our

um cases and and skills list. So these

serve as parameters that guide how we

design the current curriculum and

determine what is important. And in

doing this we are able to track, monitor

and ensure that these requirements are

constantly included in the curriculum.

So essentially loop allows us to see the

curriculum from different perspectives

and how they are all interconnected.

So in conclusion, the faculty of health

sciences curriculum development process

embodies a robust and ongoing endeavor

that leverages an integrated flow to

drive continuous improvement.

The cyclical system integrates three

interconnected components that we have

just explained. Statistical analysis

using STA to process data and uncover

trends in the curriculum performance and

identify bottlenecks.

curriculum mapping through the loop

system to align content with learning

outcomes, identify gaps and ensure

coherence as well as our virtual

learning environment auditing to provide

structured data collection, tracking and

evaluation of digital platforms.

Together, these processes foster mutual

contributions and benefits with relation

flowing continuously to inform dividends

based decision making.

While this model is not perfect, its

iterative adaptive nature constantly

evaluating and monitoring programs

enables proactive refinements addresses

emerging challenges and enhances

educational quality in response to

evolving demands. If you would like

these slides,

you can scan the QR code. And I thank

you guys for listening to our team of

health sciences and we look forward to

the question that you guys might have.

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question you refer to both the

objectives and the outcomes. So can I

just get to what

how you differentiate those? What in

your case were the outcomes and what

were objectives?

So by learning objectives we mean the

ones that so um if you have a different

topic maybe that you will be lecturing

today in a class um for that learning

event or for that topic you have your

objectives that you expect students to

um know about after this

>> like what the teacher is expecting

to get out of this

>> interaction

>> right um they have verbs which is um

maybe apply students should be able to

apply.

>> So those will be your objectives

>> and then we have our learning outcomes.

Um so by that it's so we have our exit

level outcomes for the particular phase

program

>> for the program the exit level outcome

for the program that for for um once the

students by the end of this program

>> to be competent to the next the student

should accomplish all all those. So your

outcomes there are the exit level

outcomes for the program and then where

you referring to objectives you mean the

intended learning outcomes basically for

the learning.

>> Thank you.

>> Thank you. Any other questions?

>> Thank you very much for for sharing with

us your experience of mapping. its

courses.

May you kindly share the the challenges

of doing an exercise such as this? Uh

because I I can see the benefit

but what could be what challenges could

be there in doing it.

So the challenges would be getting you.

So Mike just

um the first challenge would be getting

course packs from staff

and as well as maybe um so you know how

payments change, right? So

training um so we have to train staff

members how to actually map because as

like I mean some fields are always

changing so people should be able to go

on to loop and make the changes so that

the current stays updated. So I think

the challenge is there um getting cost

as well as getting getting updated time

tables and information to hold on to.

>> Hi guys. Um I wanted to know so with a

virtual learning environment audits

after you find out that okay this

blended learning course there's not

really much into the blend how do you

approach the lecturer to say I would

like you to improve or how do you go

about feedback giving the lecturer

feedback and seeing it come to life or

do we just give it and then

>> okay so part of our curriculum

development is the virtual learning

environment

And so far it's been

uh uh what can you say? We've been

monitoring and evaluating. We haven't

gotten to the stage where we've starting

to give exact feedback and implement

changes which would be the next step in

our in our whole process. But for now,

we just we've just been auditing and

working as many programs as we can.

>> Maybe I can just jump in there. Sorry, I

would oversee the team. Um, and so we

only actually started doing the audits

last year, I think around February. Um,

focusing on our undergraduate at

graduate courses to start with, of which

we have nine programs, and I think we've

done four so far. Yeah. Um, and so we

haven't started feeding it through to

our learning design team yet, but what

we are using or or we're kind of holding

the information in reserve. We've got um

four of our programs which are

undergoing curriculum review at the

moment. The lecturers are currently

looking at what is being taught and what

their outcomes are and therefore the

alignment with that and reviewing that

um and looking at some of the

bottlenecks that we've identified

through the stats um and through the

curriculum mapping. So we haven't gotten

to designing with those courses as yet.

But from the work that L is doing when

we get to the redesign of the course we

will be saying to them well you guys

aren't you're not communicating well

you're not optimizing the LMS in this

way and uh we've already started

chatting to our LXD team with Renell

over there about one of the programs in

particular about how we can actually

improve the navigation

uh because what we found is in within

the same course

one lecturer er will structure their

block according to concepts. Another

will structure it according to time and

a third one will find a different way to

do it and it makes it it increases the

extraneous load for the students in

terms of navigating the content in the

course. So it's a it's a big problem

that we have

a question. So I'm currently

struggling with the emotional arts in

terms of um the mapping process and I'd

like to know um maybe what is your

approach regarding that uh when you

approach the national hours because what

we find is that well let me speak for

myself my experience you find that um

it's the um the notional hours uh

indicates it is less than 120 hours or

whatever according to the credits

obviously at the end. You find that now

when the what is it the student or the

participant

um as the one experiencing the course

let's say the time spent on the activity

is 5 hours but when you experience that

specific

activity for another person it can be

actually 10 hours not actually five so

it's quite um subjective I wanted to ask

that are those maybe in the mapping

process and the design process actually

making those who are part of the process

actually quite conscious of such things.

So sorry guys.

Um so what we did with our um medical

program review we

didn't get the full putting into the

loop platform and mapping the objectives

against our exit level outcomes and our

HPCSA requirements and the other

cataloges the other things that we can u

map against in order to check for

alignment and check that we're producing

what we're supposed to produce. But what

we did do is from the timetables we

collected all the information in terms

of what was the timetabled time or that

the students were spending. And even

before we started adding on like you you

generally in the university people will

say well for every hour of contact time

at first year the student should spend

one hour at home studying doing stuff.

Even before we started doing that, we

were at about 3/4 of the of the notional

of the supposed notional hours. So, it

definitely made people a lot more

conscious of it. Um, and it's also a

great way to monitor and track because

particularly in our programs, we don't

follow things like diagonals and that

sort of thing. We've got a lot of

integrated programs um in some of our

professional courses and so people say

oh no we've got this new area which we

need to teach the students about this

this new genetic test well let's add on

a lecture um and so having that living

curriculum map and as Connie rightly

said the living is the difficult part

getting the start to buy is is very

difficult

um it allow you know it allows you to

monitor and track if I change if I

remove them or change the objectives of

this lecture, what am I actually

affecting in the third year of study or

in a different part of the curriculum,

what's the implication? It also allows

you to say, okay, well, should we bring

these two things together rather um and

plan in that sort of way? Um, and then

it does allow us to say, well, we're

over on our notional hours. What should

we cut? And one of the difficulties with

content that I've always seen is the the

conversation usually goes around

embryology in our factor in our faculty

which is the human development in the

womb. And so the conversation will

usually go there's way too much in

embryology when they're five lectures.

The students don't need to know

embryology.

Then the next point is no they need to

understand how the septum the wall

between the chamber of the hearts

develop because that's an importantly

common anomaly that they'll see and then

they'll say okay so we need to teach the

students embryology when and it'll go up

to 10 lectures whereas actually only 15

minutes of one lecture might be to do

with the heart if that makes sense. So

it it helps to make those sorts of

general conversations a lot more

concrete because you can actually look

and say okay so what what's related to

this topic um and so that's one of the

real values of the curriculum map um

that we're finding even before we we we

map to catalogs. Did I answer your

question on hours

>> in Yeah, in

>> it it really helps you. Yeah, it helps

you to identify where a course is or

isn't within the notional, but you do

still need to establish within your

faculty what are acceptable norms for

one hour of contact to one hour of

assessment prep, self-study or what's

that individual's duty study time. The

way that we've done it in our faculty,

we said, "Okay, if you take an average

student, not even an average student, if

you take the borderline student, what

does the borderline student need to do

in order to to be successful in this

course?"

And that is always unfortunately going

to be a namac.

I have a question if if you're willing

final question because we do have um

five more minutes left of the session if

you want to keep to uh my question is

let me pull it up.

Okay. So uh so this process is iterative

and I want to know in practical terms

you already answered this um how do you

guys manage the constant state of

redevelopment without causing fatigue

among faculty and destabilizing the

program students?

I think um jam to answer your question

with learning um we we have a small team

within faculty of health sciences and we

are doing our task differently. So for

example I do the stats within the

curriculum it does virtual learning

auditing and does the curriculum loop

mapping. So like we said it's it's

there's no set model or perfect model

that we follow but we found in our

experience that just enough information

to get informed decision and when you

put that workload out like in the way

that we have and that we use statistics

or in my example use statistics to help

identify specific problems so that

limited resources can be used

effectively. That's the point I was

trying to put forward most importantly.

um it helps to reduce where our

attention is focused on and uh with that

I think um instead of focusing on the

whole program for example we focus on

specific problems and that's and that

helps us to be more much more effective

and reduces the the strain on on staff

themselves who are involved in this

curriculum development and when you say

that um it destabilizes the curriculum

for for pro it destabilizes the program

for students and staff I think um we

also involve of stakeholder analyses,

stakeholder engagement. So with that, I

think um it helps stabilize it much

more. Um but like it's not a top down

approach that we're trying to come from.

We're trying to come from a bottom up

approach. we identify challenges and

instead of using and a definitive answer

such as if test say this um like I said

the cost has high failure rates doesn't

necessarily mean that we remove the

course in time instead we see with our

workload analyses where the cost might

be out of sequence and then that helps

specify the problem and it helps resolve

the problem by identifying the specific

aspects of it that are affecting the

specific problem identified with these

stats not that was

>> maybe I so one of the first things that

we do when any program asks us uh to to

help them with a review is we we don't

actually start with much of this we

start with well why are you wanting to

make changes what are your problems what

are you trying to address um and so like

the team said they they do um

stakeholder focus groups with staff and

students to try and figure out what the

issues

And I think one of the big things that

stop staff burnout is often curriculum

decisions are made kind of on people's

gut feeling rather than on a documented

analysis of what the problem might be

and then you try and it's not perfect

but we try and check that against for

example the stats or the audit or

whatever it might be that we can use. Um

and so that stops staff going around in

circles quite a bit. Um and it also

means that the team does collects that

data. The team also does benchmarking

against other programs and other uh

information which then we can feed to

the academics who have to make the

decisions. Um and so the academics time

is focused usually for any given program

we ask them for two hours a week that

they are involved initially in deciding

what the changes will be to their

curriculum which then increases their

buy in. Um, and because they can see the

data, they then get why they're making

that change, which actually makes the

change management easier. There are

problems with communicating it beyond

the group that we're working with. Yes.

Um, and that's why we come up with other

issues. Um, but that then the the the

people within the team are motivated for

the change. For example, we've been

working with the dental program now

since uh about June and I think there's

15 heads of department and we've had at

least twothirds of them at every single

meeting. Um all one of their

representatives now that that's great

buyin from the departments. You know,

they're they're seeing and they're

identifying their problems and seeing

and coming up with the solutions which

means that they then are more motivated

to carry on and implement them.

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