Learning Innovation Unit

Academic Framewor for Innovation (AFI) Update

Prof. Martin Henry, AFI Project/OVPLI

The first major component of AFI – the completion of award and module descriptors in terms of learning outcomes and an examination of the alignment between award and module outcomes – is in the final stages of implementation.

Over the first quarter of this year, the findings of the alignment exercise will become available, providing an overview of how well our current suite of modules meets the aims we have for the learning ultimately achieved by our graduates. This information should, in turn, inform reviews of our modules and awards and can be expected to lead to further development.

This milestone also marks the completion of documentation and information necessary for compliance with Bologna, and, while Bologna compliance has never been the principal aim of AFI, it is important to note that DCU now has its house fully in order from the Bologna perspective.

The ultimate aim of AFI – an academic structure with regulations and administrative processes that maximise student choice about the pace and pathway to graduation – remains to be achieved. Whether to prioritise AFI in order to realise the full benefits it could offer will be one major question for the university as it enters a new phase in 2010.