Curriculum Evaluation and Research Framework: facilitating a teaching team approach to curriculum quality

The Higher Education Standards (HES) Framework prescribes the minimum requirements for provision of higher education in Australia. Standard 5.3 in particular functions as a driver for continuous evaluation informing ongoing curriculum transformation. This paper presents a conceptual approach and framework for embedding evaluation into course curricula. The Curriculum Evaluation and Research (CER) framework establishes a scholarly regime for routine collection of natural, grade and demographic data that is available for research purposes and quality assuring curricula against the threshold standards in the HES Framework. Additionally, the paper outlines a number of practical resources for use by teaching teams to address sector, institutional and academic expectations of renewal and transformation of curricula through evidencebased curriculum design and teaching practice. This paper reports the initial phases of developing and implementing the CER framework and enabling resources. The CER framework is a design-based approach to curriculum evaluation and research that can simplify data collection and analysis, by ensuring alignment of educational research questions with questions asked by external accreditation agents and questions asked by teachers of their units and the courses in which they teach. It has demonstrated capacity to ensure that scholarship informs and underpins course design, and routine evaluation assures the ongoing development of learning activities and assessment (HES Framework 3.1.2, 3.2.3). The CER framework provides a sustainable and effective approach to engage teachers in a collaborative endeavour of ongoing curriculum evaluation; evidencebased curriculum transformation and embedding educational research into teaching practice as a scholarly approach, ensuring regulatory requirements are met.