What would you do if your town had a persistent problem with people dumping cars? Write to your MP? Complain to the council to encourage them to increase spending to sort the problem out? Write to the paper? Moan to your friends? Get an agreement with the council to allow an arrangement for you and some friends to take the cars to a space in town where they could be used as seats for a drive-in cinema before they are then taken to the breaking yard? The latter is the unlikely solution created by students at KAOSPILOT Business School in Denmark. Other projects involved exporting scrapped bicycles to African villages and monitoring the resultant development of mini industries based on bicycle repair or making tow trolleys from scrap. One Translation service company is doing well in Sweden and Norway but poorly in Denmark and so they asked some KAOSPILOT students to design an awareness programme for the area.
Thursday 29 November 2012
Technology, does one size fit all?
Technological advancements have enabled a wealth of opportunities for learning opportunities to be delivered in an online context without the need to be physically in the classroom.
A recent BBC article, How do you stop online students cheating?, suggested that in the near future students may be able to take exams at home without the need to be a formal exam setting. In addition to issues such as how to effectively invigilate exams of this nature, it also raises the consideration of how the environment of a formal exam room has an influence on performance. For some who respond well to pressure, the heightened pressure of an examination room can only increase performance. For others, the anxiety created within an exam room can inhibit performance and an exam set within the comforts of their own home may help to increase performance.
This brings into consideration the wider discussion of the role of face to face interaction within learning and how this might affect the learning experience for participants with different learning preferences.
A recent BBC article, How do you stop online students cheating?, suggested that in the near future students may be able to take exams at home without the need to be a formal exam setting. In addition to issues such as how to effectively invigilate exams of this nature, it also raises the consideration of how the environment of a formal exam room has an influence on performance. For some who respond well to pressure, the heightened pressure of an examination room can only increase performance. For others, the anxiety created within an exam room can inhibit performance and an exam set within the comforts of their own home may help to increase performance.
This brings into consideration the wider discussion of the role of face to face interaction within learning and how this might affect the learning experience for participants with different learning preferences.
Wednesday 28 November 2012
Chinese Change
A Chinese proverb for you this morning:
It is dangerous to try to leap a chasm in two bounds.
Friday 23 November 2012
Management by Talking About
Another process innovation this week as people were off on vision visits, teaching and doing marking at times when I had suggested we have UG Review Group meetings. At least I hope that's what they were doing, otherwise I would have to take it personally.
Anyway, we still needed to get the second year outline done by the end of this week with or without meetings. And we've done it. The process was a series of one to one conversations, usually with coffee, often by chance, once with someone I didn't even know but turned out to be one of our VL's. A few ideas to start with, some changes here, accretions there and off we go.
We knew we couldn't design a structure for the second year in the way we have outlined for the third year as it will be more focused on the requirements of the distinct degree programmes. So what we have is some principles which we will be proposing for what needs to be in each second year to express the vision and values we want for the Faculty. We are also seeing the patterns emerging which can characterise the programmes - in how we manage transition for example, not just into university but also from one level to the next and from university into work.
Next step is to pull together the scrappy pieces of paper into some notes to discuss with the group and with Mark Atlay next week and then more drop-in sessions.
About the Author: Elizabeth Parkin
Elizabeth had a 25 year career in management before joining the University seven years ago as Manager for “Pod” Programmes. She also held the post of MBA Academic Director before moving on to becoming Head of Department for Management and Business Systems.
Anyway, we still needed to get the second year outline done by the end of this week with or without meetings. And we've done it. The process was a series of one to one conversations, usually with coffee, often by chance, once with someone I didn't even know but turned out to be one of our VL's. A few ideas to start with, some changes here, accretions there and off we go.
We knew we couldn't design a structure for the second year in the way we have outlined for the third year as it will be more focused on the requirements of the distinct degree programmes. So what we have is some principles which we will be proposing for what needs to be in each second year to express the vision and values we want for the Faculty. We are also seeing the patterns emerging which can characterise the programmes - in how we manage transition for example, not just into university but also from one level to the next and from university into work.
Next step is to pull together the scrappy pieces of paper into some notes to discuss with the group and with Mark Atlay next week and then more drop-in sessions.
About the Author: Elizabeth ParkinElizabeth had a 25 year career in management before joining the University seven years ago as Manager for “Pod” Programmes. She also held the post of MBA Academic Director before moving on to becoming Head of Department for Management and Business Systems.
Thursday 22 November 2012
Bedford Drop-In Session
Excellent drop-in session at Polhill on Wednesday. I particularly liked suggestions for the incorporation of entrepreneurial projects in the final year. And of potentially doing projects with other students from other disciplines at Bedford such as sport or dance eg how to market some dance classes.
Some valuable practicalities about the increased impact of missing a week through illness or any other reason when there is a practice week or other intensive week.
Very aware from this session that we must always be clear that practice-based education is not practice instead of academic rigour. We are a university and academic rigour is the point – or a large part of the point anyway. Employers want academic rigour and practice. Practitioners don’t leave their intellects and rigour behind when they graduate. They use them to help address problems just as much as PhD students are employing rigour. It's just that the context is messier.
About the Author: Elizabeth Parkin
Elizabeth had a 25 year career in management before joining the University seven years ago as Manager for “Pod” Programmes. She also held the post of MBA Academic Director before moving on to becoming Head of Department for Management and Business Systems.
Some valuable practicalities about the increased impact of missing a week through illness or any other reason when there is a practice week or other intensive week.
Very aware from this session that we must always be clear that practice-based education is not practice instead of academic rigour. We are a university and academic rigour is the point – or a large part of the point anyway. Employers want academic rigour and practice. Practitioners don’t leave their intellects and rigour behind when they graduate. They use them to help address problems just as much as PhD students are employing rigour. It's just that the context is messier.
About the Author: Elizabeth ParkinElizabeth had a 25 year career in management before joining the University seven years ago as Manager for “Pod” Programmes. She also held the post of MBA Academic Director before moving on to becoming Head of Department for Management and Business Systems.
The Right Price for Learning
Right at the moment, if there is one thing I would like our students to learn in the first year of our new courses, it’s that dropping the price is not the automatic route to higher sales, let alone to higher profit. They just automatically think that lower prices are better prices.
I more or less cracked teaching pricing to Exec MBA’s but I haven’t cracked it for first year undergraduates. Theory certainly isn’t the best route in. I have a marketing lecture for first years coming up next month and have to think more imaginatively about it but this reflection is prompted by having shared some marking of first year assignments this morning with colleagues at Preston University in Ajman, Dubai. Good quantities of reasonable quality theory but low prices ruled here too.
I know it’s rather dull to come home from visiting a country for the first time and be struck more by the similarities than the differences but there we are.
About the Author: Elizabeth Parkin
Elizabeth had a 25 year career in management before joining the University seven years ago as Manager for “Pod” Programmes. She also held the post of MBA Academic Director before moving on to becoming Head of Department for Management and Business Systems.
I more or less cracked teaching pricing to Exec MBA’s but I haven’t cracked it for first year undergraduates. Theory certainly isn’t the best route in. I have a marketing lecture for first years coming up next month and have to think more imaginatively about it but this reflection is prompted by having shared some marking of first year assignments this morning with colleagues at Preston University in Ajman, Dubai. Good quantities of reasonable quality theory but low prices ruled here too.
I know it’s rather dull to come home from visiting a country for the first time and be struck more by the similarities than the differences but there we are.
About the Author: Elizabeth ParkinElizabeth had a 25 year career in management before joining the University seven years ago as Manager for “Pod” Programmes. She also held the post of MBA Academic Director before moving on to becoming Head of Department for Management and Business Systems.
Leaping on the Neck of Ideas
I stole the idea of a blog about the process from a presentation a colleague was doing. Ever the magpie, I’m completely unashamed of the fact but will credit fellow magpie Eliot Lloyd here to avoid plagiarism.
On the same day we had to come up with a solution to the fact that it was impossible to share our ideas with colleagues and gain feedback in the way we planned: A large open meeting simply wasn’t possible: no rooms available at times when a reasonable number of people could come. So, as my office seemed the only available option at Luton, what could we do? Small was the logical conclusion and drop-in sessions were born. Different members of the core group have met with groups of two, four, five colleagues. And it was quickly clear that this was in fact a better approach, more personal, more likely to generate a thoughtful response and application to specific courses. Feedback on the process as well as content has been good so far.
On the same day we had to come up with a solution to the fact that it was impossible to share our ideas with colleagues and gain feedback in the way we planned: A large open meeting simply wasn’t possible: no rooms available at times when a reasonable number of people could come. So, as my office seemed the only available option at Luton, what could we do? Small was the logical conclusion and drop-in sessions were born. Different members of the core group have met with groups of two, four, five colleagues. And it was quickly clear that this was in fact a better approach, more personal, more likely to generate a thoughtful response and application to specific courses. Feedback on the process as well as content has been good so far.
The Undergraduate Portfolio Review
The University of Bedfordshire Business School is taking its entire undergraduate portfolio of courses to periodic review. We are looking back at how well our current courses are meeting student needs and designing courses which will put us at the forefront of practice-based business education. This blog is intended to record the reflections of those involved in the process and invites comments on our posts.
This is a major exercise for the Faculty and a major initiative in combining management practice, business academic theory and sound, innovative pedagogy. We want to blog about this for two reasons. Firstly it helps us reach and gain responses from a wide range of people. Secondly it is part of the record of what we are doing which we will be able to use later when we write up our method more formally for publication.
We have already worked on the review process for some weeks. Two parts are running in parallel. The review of the current provision has started now that the Annual Monitoring Reports for the undergraduate courses are coming in and the Student Voice focus groups have been held by the Students Union. At the same time, a core group of course leaders and a few others have been working on the future course design. We have thought about what we want to focus on in the short term and the kind of graduates we want to develop. We have also designed the broad structure of the third year. Now we are trying out these ideas in a series of drop-in sessions at Luton and Bedford as we also embark on designing the second year.
So, that is the catch-up on what we have been doing before we started to blog. Now there are some posts of notes made before we set up the blog then can continue in something approaching real time.
About the Author: Elizabeth Parkin
Elizabeth had a 25 year career in management before joining the University seven years ago as Manager for “Pod” Programmes. She also held the post of MBA Academic Director before moving on to becoming Head of Department for Management and Business Systems.
This is a major exercise for the Faculty and a major initiative in combining management practice, business academic theory and sound, innovative pedagogy. We want to blog about this for two reasons. Firstly it helps us reach and gain responses from a wide range of people. Secondly it is part of the record of what we are doing which we will be able to use later when we write up our method more formally for publication.
We have already worked on the review process for some weeks. Two parts are running in parallel. The review of the current provision has started now that the Annual Monitoring Reports for the undergraduate courses are coming in and the Student Voice focus groups have been held by the Students Union. At the same time, a core group of course leaders and a few others have been working on the future course design. We have thought about what we want to focus on in the short term and the kind of graduates we want to develop. We have also designed the broad structure of the third year. Now we are trying out these ideas in a series of drop-in sessions at Luton and Bedford as we also embark on designing the second year.
So, that is the catch-up on what we have been doing before we started to blog. Now there are some posts of notes made before we set up the blog then can continue in something approaching real time.
About the Author: Elizabeth ParkinElizabeth had a 25 year career in management before joining the University seven years ago as Manager for “Pod” Programmes. She also held the post of MBA Academic Director before moving on to becoming Head of Department for Management and Business Systems.
Wednesday 14 November 2012
Eating Soup with a Fork: Teaching Entrepreneurship to Business Students
More and more people are getting aware of the benefits of “inventing a job rather than finding a job”. Across the world, universities and colleges are rushing to introduce entrepreneurship classes. This phenomenon has rekindled the age-old debate, whether entrepreneurship can be taught in business schools or one is better off learning it ‘by doing’?
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