R3 Project

Algonquin College has approximately 385 program offerings of full-time, funded post-secondary and graduate programs. Several of these offerings are the same program offered at multiple campuses or through different deliveries, spread over our Ottawa, Pembroke, Perth, AC Online, and other campuses. Ultimately, Algonquin College offers approximately 240 unique programs within these 385 offerings. 

In current state, we maintain separate Program Narratives and Programs of Study for all 385 offerings – doing our best to manually maintain alignment. 

With approximately 47 programs having multiple offerings, there is an opportunity to reduce workload by introducing efficiencies which are supported by Thesis SM. Having system-supported curriculum alignment can streamline our practices by reducing duplicate information and efforts, with the potential to have a positive impact in over 35% of our programs. 

Currently, because the work of curriculum alignment is manual, it is possible that two students in the same program at different campuses may not be offered the same curriculum experience, they may have different expectations on their course outlines, and they have limited flexibility and clarity when seeking to enroll in a course offered at a different campus or via a different delivery. 

Now, when we launch our new SIS, all offerings of a program across our campuses will have one common Program Narrative and Program of Study. All campuses can now utilize common course codes and course outlines, and apply consistent pre-requisites, co-requisites, and equivalencies for students progressing through the program.

What can this mean for our employee community?

We see this continuing to foster and strengthen a collaborative approach to multi-campus deliveries, while reducing redundancies. With less time spent on maintaining separate course codes, narratives, and programs of study, we eliminate the duplication of work, and the opportunities for mis-alignment during curriculum review and delivery, and we also gain efficiencies in course outline creation and management.   

What can this mean for our learners?

This work also creates benefits for our learners. It will create clarity in student transferability – providing greater flexibility to our learners. They also receive a consistent, college-wide message for each program. Lastly, as we celebrate our graduates at Convocation, we will be confident that regardless of campus, they received the same curriculum experience, and met the same learning requirements – preparing them all for their next step. 

The Curriculum Stabilization Project is intended to provide support for curriculum changes in preparation for Thesis SM.

• Two faculty members have been seconded to this initiative (about 1.5 FTE) and will work with programs to identify any curriculum revisions to be implemented over the next two Annual Curriculum Review (ACR) cycles. 
• Areas of priority for 2022-23 academic year include multi-delivery programs and programs identified as eligible for Annual Curriculum Review.
• List of programs and timeline will be confirmed in collaboration with the Chairs and Academic Managers.

Elimination of Annual Curriculum Rollover

Explanation: No new version of each program every year; changes only as required in alignment with curricular or program review.

Benefit: Saves staff additional work when changes aren’t being made to a program.

Program Version Format Change

Explanation: Currently, a new version is provided for each ACADEMIC year and uses dates.

Future Change: Thesis SM uses a numeric version system. Most program offerings will be created in Thesis as version 1.0.  

Major program revisions will result in a new whole number – for instance, 1.0 moving to 2.0. Meanwhile, minor revisions will result in a decimal point increment. For example, moving from version 1.0 to 1.1. 

Benefit: This adoption will reduce future maintenance.