The renewal of curriculum design is an intentional, on-going, systematic process aimed at making informed curricular decisions to provide students with learning experiences that are transformational, inspiring, and intellectually stimulating. A number of entities at AKU are currently under-going curriculum review. To support this process, the Network of Quality, Teaching and Learning (QTL_net) organized a webinar on ‘Inspiring Change through Curriculum Renewal’ on May 28th, 2020.
The seminar was facilitated by Dr. Klodiana Kolomitro, Director of Education Development, Professional Development and Educational Scholarship in the Faculty of Health Sciences. She is cross-appointed to the Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences at Queen's University, Canada.
During the session, Dr. Kolomitro discussed different strategies that influence the way we approach curriculum renewal processes including, involving our stakeholders, establishing practices and timelines, and adopting evidence-based pedagogies with high-impact practices. The presentation was followed by a Question and Answer session, in which faculty members raised important concerns regarding curriculum review processes at AKU.
83 faculty members and staff - across 3 continents - participated in the session from the following entities:
- School of Nursing and Midwifery – Pakistan
- Institute for Educational Development – Pakistan
- Medical College – Pakistan
- Centre for Innovation in Medical Education – Pakistan
- Aga Khan Examination Board – Pakistan
- School of Nursing and Midwifery – Kenya
- Medical College – Kenya
- School of Nursing and Midwifery – Tanzania
- Medical College – Tanzania
- Institute for Educational Development- Tanzania
- Aga Khan Library - UK
- Institute for Studies of Muslim Civilization - UK
By the end of the webinar, participants felt engaged and demonstrated their willingness and motivation to apply some of the concepts they learned while designing their own courses. A participant wrote in their post-webinar, workshop evaluation, “I really appreciate the relevance of the content to our current issues. Dr. Kolomitro has strong content knowledge and I enjoyed her reflective and engaging style of presenting, as she included real examples from her experience. It really helped me!”
Overall, the webinar was a huge success, as it highlighted important issues around curriculum review with insight on best practices from around the world.
For more information regarding this webinar or upcoming webinars please visit: www.aku.edu/qtl. If you have any queries, please write to us at tl_netevents@aku.edu.