Memo
To:
From:
CC:
Date:
Re:
2007 Curriculum Working Group
Martin Sullivan
Sandy Love, Mark Roberts, Lubna Nasir, David Logue
28-06-06
2006-06-27 meeting NOTES
Outcomes:
Review of work to date:
Intercalated Masters by Research would form an option alongside the intercalated BSc
Final Year
Will commence in term 3 of whatever academic year structure the University decide, but would run for 8 weeks to
allow the core to be delivered. The impact of this on SA final year to be flagged as an issue to TJA. (I discussed
this with Jim after the meeting and he is not averse to the proposal).
LA wish to bring this change in as early as possible. Therefore CICI & CAS will have to visit their lecture structure
and load to see if this is achievable ahead of the timescale for the 2007 course, which would be (2011-2012).
Final year exam (Pre-registration):
Discussion threw up a number conflicting issues eg logistics of tracking, having strands LA/SA that did not match
assessments SA/EQ/Food. The need to address the student number issue with regard to overall organisation and
Lanark.
It was noted that this is an exit examination and must be able to demonstrate omnicompetence, and
provide confidence to the public. Following discussion on Day 2 after consulting Jim Anderson, it is proposed that
Final Year will have a single OSCE-based examination composed of 3 independent assessments weighted as
follows:
Eq [25], Food Animal Health & Production [25], SA [50].
Each assessment must be passed to allow graduation. Students failing an assessment/s in June will be allowed to
carry passed assessment/s as provisional passes to Sept resit.
Students failing in September will be expected to repeat the whole of final year. The argument being that only
studying the failed assessment/s will lead to skill loss in the passed assessments, which would have implication for
Day1 competencies (RCVS & AVMA).
Thus a student failing an assessment in June will immediately be
timetabled into the new final year on the assumption that they are repeating final year unless the outstanding
assessments are cleared in Sept. The carry forward of the Public Health SDLA will be depend on what form it
takes, if group work no carry forward.
Logistics: we would have to stop teaching new final year in week 25 for one week to allow for the pre-registration
examination.
Advantages: objective, defensible, reduced examination load for staff & students, allows us to cope with larger
final year numbers, able to map to AVMA clinical & RCVS Day1 competencies
Examinations: In line with University policy, it was agreed to broaden instruments of assessment, but also to
reduce the length of examinations.
Other Examinations:
For years 1-4, in each year a course would have a degree examination and 1 class written examination, the latter
contributing to the degree grade). The timing of the class examination will depend the new academic year.
However, a number of other assessments will contribute to the degree result.
The degree examination would have the following assessments contribute to the final grade
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End of year written
Class written examination
Report (modified essay)
Practical (up to year & course)
SDLA (up to year & course)
100
25
25
25-100
25-50
End of year written degree examinations
MCQ (90mins): it was agreed that it would consist of 100 questions.
T/F would have negative marking. However, there is evidence that many subjects to do not lend themselves to this
method of examination, because the knowledge is not black and white. Some discussion as to whether these
should be abandoned.
It was agreed that negative marking is not well received by students and comes across as punitive, that the effect
of abolishing negative marking and raising the pass mark be looked into. MS to model the impact of applying
different pass marks on the 4th Yr CAS MCQ examinations over the last 3 years. It is assumed that MCQ
examinations are likely to be delivered from computers in the future. (attached file 4th Yr CAS MCQ.xls)
Short Questions (90 mins): It was agreed that this paper would consist of 9 questions.
Pass/Fail Orals; There was considerable discussion over these in terms of objectivity, validity and defensibility as
students are not all asked the same set of questions. It was argued they had a pastoral role in identifying
borderline students. Agreed proposal: P/F orals for students in band E only in years 1-3.
Distinction Orals: would be abolished. All students obtaining the secondary banding equivalent to 75% or over
would be automatically awarded a distinction.
Essays: following discussion it was agreed that the examination room essay should be abandoned. As Essays
should be reflective rather than regurgitation of material, it was felt that the length of time students have for this
method is too short. The essay would retained as an examination tool but in a different format ( See below)
Class examinations would be composed of 50 MCQ (45mins) and 4 short Questions (40mins). The exact timing
of the class examinations would be dependent on the chosen academic year, eg in the Edinburgh model the last
week of first term, other models mid-January.
Practical Examinations style would be selected by course from
Laboratory based: this may take the form of workbooks, steeplechases etc
OSCE: With the expectation that OSCEs will be a mode of assessment in years1-5, it is probable that as many
different OSCEs are timetabled to run sequentially, so week 25 likely to be devoted to OSCE by staff and students.
Data handling: e.g. epidemiological, herd records etc
This assessment must be passed to pass the degree examination
Modified/Open Report
This would take the form of paper critique, problem solving report etc. These would be individual submissions and
would be expect to be of a high quality fully referenced and submitted electronically. Questions should be
structured in such a way as to encourage research of material, reflection and discourage plagiarism.
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Student Directed Learning Assignment (incs current library project, SelfDLA, CLA)
Year course
area/s covered
submission
1st
Biomedical Sciences
science and ethics
report & presentation
nd
Clinical Sciences AP
lambing
report
rd
3
Pathological Sciences
bioterrorism simulation
report & presentation
4th
Clinical Sciences SA
clinical case research
report & presentation
5th
Clinical Sciences PH
public health
report & ?
2
This would be considered a form of extended piece of coursework
Curriculum Hours:
Lectures:
An upper limit of 200 hours per year for lectures was established as working figure, which would approximate to 2
lectures per day. We agreed on the breakdown of the number of lectures per course per year. It was also
accepted that CAS, the course that emerged from Surg/Repro I&II and CIC2 had already instigated a significant cut
and that there would only room for minor tinkering and reduction in numbers e.g. Nutrition when merged with
Animal Husbandry. The effect of this would be that the burden for lecture loss would fall to content currently in
AHusb and CIC, with delivery of other aspects being transferred to one of the other 2 courses.
Other
All other methods of instruction were lumped together (with Self study excluded) and it was agreed that a rough
ration of 1:1 with lectures was a good starting point. (attached file 2007-Teaching hours-student.xls)
Methods of Instruction to include
Lecture, Tutorials, Practicals, SDLA, Experiential Learning.
Areas to be protected from reduction in hours
Public Health
Areas to be expanded as distinct and identifiable threads
Communication Skills (Vicki Dale/ Pam Johnson)
Biosecurity (Kathyrn Ellis)
Areas to be introduced as distinct and identifiable threads
Information skills (Maureen McGovern)
Population Medicine aka Research & Analytical skills
[biostatistics, research methods, epidemiology, analysis] Louise Matthews1, David Eckersall)
Bioterrorism (Paul Everest)
Business management (might this be an optional module run on a wed pm) MS to seek advice
Organisation and Administration of 2007 curriculum
Learning & Teaching committee
Associate Dean, 5 Course Leaders (inc 1 Masters CL), Educational Technologist, TU Administrator
Board of Studies
Regulatory and oversight role
Associate Dean and 3 course co-ordinators
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Each course to be lead by a Course Leader responsible for strategy and development
For each year a course will have a dedicated Course Co-ordinator. The co-ordinator will be responsible for day-today management of the course in that year e.g. timetabling, examinations, classes etc
Support for introduction of 2007 Curriculum
Following discussion it was agreed that an additional administrative assistant (1FTE) would be required for 3 years
to bed the new curriculum down (remembering that the old course will continue and repeat students will have to be
offered the old examination). The administrative assistant must have excellent IT skills. It was agreed that an
educational technologist would be essential in supporting the development of learning materials and tools, given
the thrust toward more student centred learning.
As there will inevitably be double teaching it was recognised that additional teaching staff would be required over
and above the obvious temporary increase in demonstrators (x2 in terms of cost) drawn from the post-graduate
and post-doctoral pool.
We identified 2 options
Option 1: employ term time university teachers for 3 years. Number = 4 (1BS, 1PS, 2CS). Second CS starting in
year 2. Major disadvantage recruitment
Option 2: create 6 part-time (2 years) MVM scholarships, preferably all vets. They will support teaching during
term time and research outwith. Major advantage: Faculty gets increased PG numbers. The stipend
would probably have to be set at Registrar level. The distribution and projects would be decided by the
Course Leaders.
(attached file 2007 curriculum-costs.xls)
Next Step:
It was agreed that this memo should be presented to FMG, and that agreement on resource commitment was
essential before any further progress possible.
Also agreed to circulate memo to current Learning & Teaching Committee.
1
Suggestion for names only
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