How to approach course design for inter-professional collaborations

This following are the key takeaways we have learned for developing and delivering qualifications with employers or other non-educational bodies.

Ensure you have the right people in the room

The course team at MACA are all in senior ranks of the Commission with extensive experience in anti-corruption work. It is important that your course development team includes people who are in or have recently been in the profession; they need to be close to what is happening on the ground to know what graduates need to know, do and how they need to behave.

Start with the end in mind

We committed a significant amount of time to considering the questions of:

• What does a ‘gold standard’ anti-corruption officer look like?
• What do they know and what can they do?
• What does a typical week/month look like in the work of an anti-corruption officer?

Through these discussions, we developed a list of the key skills and attributes which included things like:

• Knowledge of the law/legal framework and case law
• How to design and undertake an investigation ethically and legally
• How to interview witnesses and suspects
• How to build a legal case, present and defend it in court
• Behave ethically and make ethical decisions

This step was crucial in informing the design of the course, not just the learning outcomes and the content, but also the teaching, learning and assessment methods. We spent some time discussing different methods of  teaching, learning and assessing the knowledge, skills and behaviours specified to identify which would be the most effective. This list was also crucial in helping to determine what to leave out from the original basic training course to make room for the independent study required in a higher education qualification.

Occupationally relevant assessment is key to preparing graduates for the workforce

The rich range of assessments has been commended by the external examiner as a strength of this course. However, it can be difficult to move away from familiar methods of assessment such as essays and exams. Going back to the list of key attributes is crucial here. Assessment should mirror, as closely as possible, what graduates will need to do in the workplace.

We used the following steps:

• Introduce the concept of occupationally relevant assessment
• Provide resources to show the range of assessment methods possible and when and why they might be used.
• Leave it to percolate overnight (or longer) – some people need time to adjust to new ideas and reflect on them.
• Ask the course design team to pick the assessment methods that are most relevant – they can decide where to use them later on in the process.

Take time to develop your partner’s understanding of ‘level’ in UKHE

This is perhaps one of the more difficult elements to grapple with when developing courses with non-HE professionals. What does a level 5 look like? What differentiates a level 7? To support the development of this understanding, we used the Framework for High Education Qualifications to inform the writing of course and module learning outcomes.

I would advise not tackling this issue too early in the course design process as it can lead to the course team becoming bogged down in language and the technicalities of course design rather than focussing on the end goal and the teaching, learning and assessment approaches needed to get there. Where the course will be delivered and assessed by the non-HE professionals it is important to provide training and development before the course starts to ensure a thorough understanding of this, but I would not advise doing this as part of course design.

Remember you are designing for a different type of student experience

The experience of trainee anti-corruption officers in Malaysia is radically different from the student experience that we are used to. The course is residential, delivered over 9 months with 3 months ‘on the job’ training. Days are long, with little down time. Developing a realistic timetable involved negotiation between the University and MACA staff. We insisted on scheduled independent study time and less physical training to ensure that trainees had the time and the energy to fully engage with the course. Whilst it is important to appreciate the context in which the partner works, ultimately we have a duty of care to all of our students, wherever they study and we must be comfortable with what is being asked of them.

Through this project, we learned that these types of collaboration require a high level of resource, particularly in the first few years and a pragmatic principles based approach to quality assurance from the start.

Whilst they are high-input, they also need to be thought of as 'high impact'. We know that our co-designed and co-delivered qualifications are extremely effective in delivering high-skilled graduates and improving the skill of the current workforce.

Feedback from managers and senior leaders of the MACC has been that the officers who have gone through the NTU programme are of an exceptionally high calibre, and this in turn has an impact on the effectiveness of the Commission in fighting corruption.