All courses will have a course leader who takes overall responsibility for the management of the course, working with the course team and their managers to ensure that the provision is delivered effectively and according to the University's policies, its validated form, and to the benefit of the students' learning, well being and progression. The University's Management of Academic Provision Framework sets out the responsibilities and duties of those involved in course management; here we outline some of the key factors that might impact or guide course teams as they prepare course proposals.
A module's leader is responsible for overseeing the planning, delivery, assessment and evaluation of the module. This includes responsibility for managing the provision of teaching and learning sessions and the associated Brightspace module area, providing students with information on the modules' delivery usually through the Brightspace area and usually also through a module guide, managing the assessment processes (from the drafting and moderation of briefs to the marking, moderation and reporting of marks to the assessment board), ensuring provision of academic tutorial support for students on the module, and completing and reporting on end of module evaluation activity.
As noted above, a course leader holds overall responsibility for the course's delivery and management. For larger course teams, these responsibilities might be shared out within the team, and it is expected that teams support the course leader in fulfilling duties associated with, for example, course promotion and marketing, and admissions processes.
One key aspect of the course leader role is as the public face of the course. Where external bodies wish to make enquiries about the course, or the University needs someone to talk about or promote the course, it is usually the course leader who is approached. The course leader needs to have a good knowledge and understanding of all aspects of the course's delivery, including how content is distributed across the curriculum, which technologies are employed, and how placements operate and with which organisations that occur.
Course administrators are responsible for the maintenance of student data, supporting the production of course handbooks and the population of Brightspace modules and course areas, and the clerking of assessment boards. They are often the first point of contact for many students, and should be seen as an integral member of each course team.
Each course should hold a Student Voice Forum twice a year to review student feedback (both collated in the lead up to the meeting and at the meeting from course representatives) to inform actions to address concerns and enable the enhancement of the course, to monitor the progress of perviously planned actions, and to take a more general view of course development and maintenance activities. It is usual to have a course representative elected for each cohort of a course (usually each year group or level of a course), with the election process managed by the Students' Union.