Universities learning to learn? Inventing flexible (E)learning through first- and second-order action research

As higher education and universities become a more mainstream interest in society, pressures mount to invent new curricula and new and more appropriate ways to support the curriculum invention process. This article offers an account of the experiences of one such double-barrelled invention process associated with a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice offered by a research-intensive university. A coaching process was enacted within a first-and second-order action research framework involving central support from an academic development unit (ADU) for area-based teaching staff. It is suggested that: (a) approximately three or four iterations of course design, development and implementation are required to substantially complete the transition to a flexible (e)learning curriculum; (b) the provision and use of appropriate theoretical curriculum frameworks in combination with practical means for acquiring, interpreting and acting on formative student feedback in a timely way is central to this process; (c) the use of a curriculum consultant working in a ‘coaching’ capacity to support first-order action research may be a costeffective means to achieve substantive, sustained and valued educational change; (d) this second-order curriculum consulting process may, itself, benefit from being supported by an first- and second-order ‘coach-the-coach’ structure; and (e) there may be value in further exploring issues of academic and academic development identity as universities continue to experience increased pressures to change and adapt their teaching activities and functions.