With less than three weeks to go until our new Curriculum Management System (CMS) goes live, staff are making the most of the training and demonstrations on offer to ensure they hit the ground running.
More than 40 staff members attended a CMS showcase last week, giving users and facilitators a broad overview of the new system, highlighting system benefits, key functionality and the support on offer before and during go-live. One of the main benefits called out by Alison Guerreiro from the Curriculum Planning team is the fact that the CMS will be a “single source of truth” for all things curriculum, creating a far greater level of efficiency and version control than we currently have.
“One of the most exciting features of the new CMS is that we are moving away from lots of little bespoke systems to one system, where you can propose, approve and view curriculum information…all under the same roof,” Alison said.
“Before this, we had to do each of these things manually so it really will make a difference to those of us who interact with the curriculum.”
Stuart Upton, Programs and Pathways Manager within DVC(A) also demonstrated how to use the Curriculum Manual, which is, simply put, a large bank of knowledge articles authored by Macquarie people and aimed at helping staff – at all levels – understand and maximise the new system. Offering examples, definitions and a glossary of terms as well as highlighting important considerations and benefits for users, the Curriculum Manual has been designed as a live ‘working’ document, so will be fine-tuned and added-to over time.
“The knowledge articles are not necessarily designed to be ‘how to’ instructions for CMS users,” Stuart said.
“The idea is that they offer guidance, tips and suggestions that they can use (or not as they feel they need) and also encourage knowledge-sharing across the user community. There’s also links to policies, pedagogies and wiki information to name a few and we’ll be building on this over time. In particular I think our Academic staff will be interested in the guidance offered around course and unit learning outcomes”
What’s next?
UAT (User Acceptance Training) of the new system was completed last week (5 July) and now, the Program Beacon team are moving into a more intensive training phase that’s tailored to individual faculty and team needs. The training will continue right up until go-live and support will be delivered as and where needed afterwards.
Dr Brad Windon, Director, Student and Academic Business Transformation, and Business Lead for Program Beacon opened and closed the Showcase and reiterated the importance of utilising tailored support on offer from the Program Beacon team, particularly in these last couple of weeks before go-live.
“We’re really keen to support you and your teams wherever you need it,” Brad said.
“Most important for us is that the implementation of the CMS goes smoothly for you and that you have understanding of, and confidence in the system. If you haven’t had the chance to talk to the team about any tailored training or presentations you believe would help with that, please make contact.”
For information about the Program or to access the slides from the presentation, visit our Program Beacon Hub or register for the monthly newsletter via beacon@mq.edu.au
If you’re interested in undertaking CMS training please complete the registration form.
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