Charles Sturt University selects CourseLoop for curriculum management

After an extensive market scanning and selection process throughout 2020, Charles Sturt University (CSU) has selected the CourseLoop Platform to replace their internally developed curriculum management systems and deliver a fully integrated, end-to-end solution to support curriculum design and governance as well as curriculum publishing via a modern online student handbook.   

CSU’s curriculum management journey began back in 2018 with a major piece of work to review and redesign their approach to curriculum design and governance, an exercise supported by DVE Solutions. With best practice processes defined, CSU recognised  several shortcomings in the technology which was currently supporting the university’s curriculum management processes.  This was characterised by a number of separate bespoke applications which had evolved individually over time that required a broad skill set and significant effort to maintain.  In going to market, CSU was looking for an integrated solution which could support their carefully considered approach, and deliver a range of benefits including:

• Improved compliance with both internal and external standards, policies and requirements;
• A reduction in effort needed to support the overall curriculum management capability;
• Improved agility in the design, development and delivery of courses and subjects;
• Improved ability to collaborate on course and subject design with both internal and external stakeholders;
• Improved understanding and visibility of key curriculum management metrics through enhanced reporting and dashboard capability.

The solution to be delivered by CourseLoop will enable these benefits through consolidation of all curriculum data within the CourseLoop Platform as the single point of data entry and source of truth as well as providing curriculum governance, workflow and curriculum mapping.  The Publisher module will be used to enable automated publishing of this data online for students to access via a new, modern and mobile responsive student handbook. 

The CourseLoop team commenced working with CSU in April with the solution targeted to go-live later this year.  In a very satisfying closing of the loop, DVE Solutions is helping to see CSU’s new curriculum management approach brought to life as CourseLoop’s implementation partner on the project.

"It was terrific to work with the Charles Sturt teams to review their course and subject approval processes prior to their decision to purchase a new curriculum management system. The process was improved from one that was highly manual, time-consuming with excessive workload, to a streamlined one with faster turnaround times and robust document management. It is exciting to see that CourseLoop will provide the university with the significant benefits the staff dreamed of in those early design stages, including optimum online workflow which will provide a more efficient and effective process in the future. In sector best practice, the inclusion of a range of Charles Sturt stakeholders in the early process design work, has led to a positive outcome for the current implementation."

About CSU

Established as a multi-campus institution in 1989, Charles Sturt University (CSU) is the largest university in Australia located outside a major capital city. Currently enrolling around 40,000 students from every state and territory in Australia as well as more than 110 other countries, CSU has nine campuses which are located in Albury-Wodonga, Bathurst, Canberra, Dubbo, Goulburn, Orange, Parramatta, Port Macquarie and Wagga Wagga in addition to study centres in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Wangaratta.  Within Australia, CSU is a leader in online and distance education, offering the most comprehensive range of programs of any university or private higher education organisation, with around 85% of courses offered through online and distance learning and more than 60 per cent of students enrolled online.

Main Photo by Photo by Megan Clark on Unsplash.