Enabling a Modern Curriculum

As the role of education in society is challenged and redefined by changes in the global economy, the new nature of work, and rapid technological advances, enabling a modern curriculum is essential.

A modern curriculum is defined by lifelong learning, student success, digital dexterity, career readiness and new learning paradigms. University libraries are well placed to build national partnerships for innovation and to work with academics to lead the transformation of learning and teaching at their institutions. 

A modern curriculum can be achieved by re-imagining skill development, services, spaces and resources. Innovation can be driven through the development of sustainable, affordable and collective approaches to the provision of learning and information resources and the collective development of learning & information resources with access, equity, affordability, and diversity at their heart. 

By enabling a modern curriculum, CAUL is prioritising the needs of library clients and promoting the success and career readiness of current and future university students and graduates.

The Enabling a Modern Curriculum program will focus on three key areas in 2021-22:

• Enabling a Modern Curriculum through Open Educational Resources
• Enabling a Modern Curriculum through Students as Partners
• CAUL Conference.

Across these three areas, there are five projects, with three projects related to OER.

Project 1: CAUL Open Educational Resources Collective - Pilot

The CAUL Open Educational Resources Collective will provide a shared OER publication platform for CAUL member institutions (or member institutions who opt in to the Collective). The Collective will provide infrastructure for member institutions to publish a set number of titles of their choosing each year. Additionally, the Collective will support publication of OERs in targeted disciplines through a collaborative, cross-institutional authoring model, drawing on the strength of networks within the CAUL membership to encourage cross-institutional collaboration on OERs. This project will develop a model for and implement a pilot of the Collective.

Project brief (PDF).

Project 2: Open Educational Resources Professional Development Program

This project will develop a proposal for and implement a pilot OER professional development program. The program will comprise a range of activities over an extended period of time for an enrolled cohort, as opposed to ad hoc activities that are open for registration on an event-by-event basis.

Project brief (PDF).

Project 3: Open Educational Resources Advocacy

This project has three objectives:

• Develop an advocacy toolkit, including curation and/or creation of resources to support practitioner OER advocacy work.
• Design and deliver an advocacy planning workshop for delivery at the CAUL Conference.
• Undertake a stakeholder mapping activity to inform future strategic OER advocacy work.

Original project brief (PDF).

Revised project scope (approved by the Board in January 2022).

Project 4: Enabling a Modern Curriculum with Students as Partners

The focus of this project is on understanding current practice related to engaging students as partners, and developing mechanisms to support CAUL member institutions in engaging students as partners. This project will commence with a review of current practice related to students as partners in academic libraries in Australia and New Zealand, and internationally. The review will inform the development of an online toolkit designed to support CAUL member institutions to engage students as partners. The toolkit will be developed using a students as partners approach, with each project team member identifying and working with a student at their institution. Additionally, the Project Team will design a model for information exchange between CAUL member institutions related to students as partners for endorsement by the CAUL Board.

Project brief (PDF).

Project 5: CAUL Conference

This project will plan and deliver a face-to-face CAUL Conference that will take place in the second half of 2022. The CAUL Conference will provide a forum for 

• staff of Australian and New Zealand academic libraries to share good practice initiatives related to the theme of enabling a modern curriculum
• presentation of work in progress and outcomes from the CAUL Enabling a Modern Curriculum Program
• professional development for academic library staff.

The CAUL Conference will provide an opportunity for academic library staff to share their knowledge and experience related to the practice of enabling a modern curriculum. It will promote good practice, provide an opportunity for discussion of key challenges, and facilitate sharing of learnings from initiatives undertaken across the sector.

Project brief (PDF).