[In collaboration with the Office for Institutional Effectiveness, University of Johannesburg] The Creative Dialogue Space: Curriculum development and review dialogues and assisted articulation of principles to support international collaborations

The workshop will deploy a process of ‘Assisted Articulation’ where participants will engage in critical interrogation of work in redesigning Outcomes Based Education (OBE) curricula at the University of Johannesburg. Learning outcomes will include engagement of participants and workshop leaders with issues related to professional development of colleagues designing for OBE. Importantly the dialogue and experiences of participants will also be used as a vehicle to ‘ground out’ a set of 10 guiding principles to inform and enhance international collaborations. The genesis of this workshop was collaborative work undertaken with Edge Hill University, UK. This focused on professional development and support for redesign of the University of Johannesburg’s curricula to confirm alignment with national standards legislation and to benchmark internationally. Collaboration involved workshop delivery by UK colleagues which is being followed up by research and evaluation of the process of ‘re-curriculation’; the experiences of participants and notions of ‘impact’ and development needs. Early analyses indicate the efficacy of collaboration and the richness of mutual learning. The collaborators offer this workshop to the community as a vehicle for further generation of ideas and opportunities for collaboration. A 10 minute input will explain perceptions and experiences of stakeholders and the approach adopted in ‘re-curriculation’. A chair and scribe will be appointed from the attendees and a supportive ‘interrogation’ and dialogue will commence with the collaborators, with attendees adding their own experiences. The chair will encourage engagement using the following questions: What worked and why? How do you know? What may you have done differently? What works and why from experiences of others’ international collaborations? What principles are emerging that may contribute to success? What else have we or are we learning about international collaboration? What foci could stimulate international collaborations in the future? The event will be a vehicle for deliberation on current good practices in curriculum development in a period of rapid change in SA.