Design and development of a large Business School core interdisciplinary unit to foster blended learning during the Pandemic

Abstract

The paper provides a process and design overview of a large Master of Commerce unit (from hereon referred to as 'The Unit') at a University in Australia. The skills flowing from a creative and analytical mindset have been noted as crucial in the future. The Unit develops these two mindsets as complimentary by taking a multidisciplinary approach to curriculum design. By outlining the theoretical frameworks applied in the curriculum design and development and the approaches to teaching and learning, especially during the Pandemic, it is hoped that other academics and learning design teams will be able to draw inspiration that they can apply to their contexts. It is possible that the challenges that have arisen during this process may be applicable and have been experienced by other teaching teams in higher education institutions and certainly during the emergence of online learning during the Pandemic. This paper first discusses the approach we took in the curriculum design, informed by the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Principles and Biggs' 3P's model of teaching and learning. The paper then focuses on design principles utilised to create the online learning management system for students.