Course teams are encouraged to work together in a series of two hour workshops spread over a number of weeks. All those involved in the teaching of a unit should attend the sessions. You will also need some critical friends or 'reality checkers' to work with you (we will advise you on this).

Individual academics who teach units by themselves may also be interested in the process and can also register their interest (see below).

There are three compulsory face-face elements: a pre-meeting, and two workshops ('Aims and outcomes', and 'Storyboarding'). There is an expectation that you will undertake some additional work outside of the workshops both on and offline. You may also need to arrange to attend additional training workshops to support the development of your course.

Participants will need to commit at least 15 hours to this process.

‌‌The HeLD model was developed from the Carpe Diem model. See  the ALT-J article "Building Institutional Capability in e-Learning Design" for more information.

At the end of the process you will have:

• explored critically the learning aims and outcomes for your course unit
• identified appropriate student activity and assessment methods
• designed and planned out your course (or parts of) in detail using a storyboarding technique
• developed online activities (in Blackboard or elsewhere) to include in your course unit

We also hope that throughout the process you will engage in some degree of reflection on your own teaching and teaching development. This dimension of HeLD can help you map out your development to the Advance HE Professional Standards framework and will assist you to choose to pursue an Advance HE Fellowship.

You can read up-to-date information on the Humanities Size and Shape project here:
https://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/humanities/about/size-and-shape/

Download the Size and Shape Services information sheet here:
https://documents.manchester.ac.uk/DocuInfo.aspx?DocID=64120

"I was impressed by the breadth of coverage, the process and potential outcomes."

"Extremely useful and enjoyable course."

"It was like going into the unknown - I wasn't sure what to expect from the process before we started. I have found lots of elements from it very helpful though."

"It has helped me to view aspects of teaching and learning in a different light and see things which are already there but not utilised fully or as well as they could be, in addition to helping me design and think about new activities both online and face to face."

"I will make the blended learning elements a part of my planning for the classes at the first stages and through-out the courses. I have found a new attitude and approach to the whole idea and am keen to try it out now."

"I would highly recommend these workshops to my colleagues, and look forward to implementing the changes to the course with my colleagues. I have also found the workshops useful with regard to other courses I teach and will be able to transfer some ideas to these."

"I especially liked the format of the sessions, i.e. tailor made for my needs, and I was extremely impressed with the skills of the facilitators and how much they put into it. I felt very supported and listened to. I found the exchange on the subject of blended learning in general especially useful, rather than just learning new technical skills."

Insights from Caitlin Henry on working with the Learning Design Team on developing the Urban Studies Programme

Caitlin has been leading up the development of the Urban Studies Programme along with Kevin Ward, Cecilia Wong and Deljana Iossifova. They are designing an interdisciplinary programme that's delivered by staff across SEED, but also across the Faculty.

Here are some of Caitlin’s reflections on the programme design elements and the module design elements and how it's been to work with learning development team, which, in her words, has been a really very positive experience.

Programme design

• It can be overwhelming to design a new programme, and often totally confusing – working with the learning design team has made it easier, more fun, and collaborative, as well as helping to demystify the process of creating a new programme.
• It’s also fun to work with people who are excited about your ideas and want to help you make them work.
• Learning design provided Programme level oversight – it can be really challenging to see the forest for the trees, so having the team be able to give you that overview and see how your program aims and ILOs fit with the unit level ILOs is really, really helpful in seeing where things complement each other and where there are redundancies.
• We had lots of ideas – learning design helps you think through operationalising them and also figure out what the pedagogic value is.
• Be imaginative! Try out new cool exciting things now! You can always reign it back in, and add stuff in later years of the programme, but think about adventurous things you can do
• Figure out the gaps and how you can fill them creatively and not be redundant.
• Learning Design ensured we were making progress and helped us see other issues/questions we needed to discuss; they set up meetings to keep ticking along.
• It’s helpful to have all of the conveners of core/compulsory units participating – then you have a clear sense of who is leading what units and why before you enter the process, and can think as a group how you can work together and complement each other and work together smarter.
• Come to the meetings prepared and also meet outside of the set meetings – that helps to be better prepared for those meetings and also give the opportunity to have additional discussions that were generated at those meetings or in anticipation of those meetings.

Module design

• Learning Design provided an infrastructure for us to get the program going in terms of modules. We know a lot about teaching, think about it a lot, have experience, and have designed lots of modules…but have never really had proper training! So this felt really special and what we should be doing for all modules that we teach.
• Very helpful to have someone who understands and justifies pedagogic decisions – but is also mindful of workload! This is especially true speaking as a convener of a co-taught unit. The process helped us navigate and mediate those discussions with people who have very different ideas, all teaching on the same module.
• Do your homework – do the prep for each meeting. Go in and do the prep work that you're assigned. It's not a lot, but it's really helpful.
• And it’s helpful to go in with an idea of what you want to do. Spend some time with your big teaching team for the whole program or with yourself, thinking about what you want to achieve in the units and overall in the program before you start the process. But also be flexible – don’t be precious.