Programme & course design

Resources and advice on designing programmes, courses and curricula.

Careful attention to how programmes, courses and curricula are designed can make a real difference to the student learning experience. Good programme and course design are not one-off events, these are iterative processes. You will need to try out an initial design in your particular context with diverse groups of students then adapt it based on your students’ learning and their feedback.

Programme and course design online resource

Please visit our new online resource dedicated to programme and course design at the University of Edinburgh:

New to course or programme design (or want a refresher)?

Here are some different options for getting support with your course and programme design work.

The IAD offer short two hour workshops on course and programme design within our “Practical Strategies For …” series of events.

Practical Strategies workshops - find out more & book

If you would like more structured support for designing new programmes and courses or to undertake a redesign of a programme or course, you might be interested in the Edinburgh Learning Design Roadmap (ELDeR) 2-3 day workshops led by IAD and Information Services (undertaken as a programme or course team). The Learning Design service in IS also offer some shorter course planning workshops.

Learning Design service (Information Services website)

If you would prefer to consider course and programme design as part of your broader development as a teacher and receive recognition as a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy then you could apply for the Edinburgh Teaching Award offered by the Institute for Academic Development.

Edinburgh Teaching Award - find out more

You could also sign up for the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice offered by the IAD and the School of Education. This is a 60 credit postgraduate level course which also gives Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy. This is the most time consuming of the options on this list but very useful if you have a deeper interest in learning and teaching.

Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice - find out more

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