Big Data is Ubiquitous

We are living in the era of Big Data, where a wealth of data is being generated every minute, every second, even every nano second. Thanks to the astounding technological revolution, everything around us is being captured in some way or the other, stored in some form, and this has the potential to make business sense. Big Data refers to any data set that is too big to be efficiently worked in real-time with traditional database tools. Modern businesses generate huge volumes of structured and unstructured data in both traditional and digital forms. Many firms have realised that these data could hold promise to give deeper insights into their customers, partners, and other stakeholders.

Want to boost your employability opportunities while studying? Put your ‘hands on’ experience through University!

University is a great experience for all students but what shouldn’t be ignored is that this is the best time to plan and prepare for their future career. We should start thinking and take advantage of every opportunity that comes across, particularly when still at Uni. Yes, you may be surprised but our Business School is undergoing a transformation of the way teaching is delivered, focusing on a contemporary practice-based higher education. If you do not know yet, this is all about teaching and learning based on ‘real life’ projects. Experience gained through university aims to develop your skills set and broaden your employability prospects. And I think for most of you, this is the primary reason for getting into higher education, or not?

What a two and a half year old can teach us about Strategy

Those of us who have children well remember the thrill of hearing them utter their first word. It is something that we had anticipated for a long time and signals yet another astonishing phase in their development.  You will probably also be familiar with the next phase a parent goes through which is "why can't they shut up!" as the child reveals its mastery of language by constantly asking 'why?' and 'how?'. Unless your child is Einstein whose first words (at the age of four) were allegedly "this soup is too hot", then you will recognise this all too clearly.

Visit to KAOSPILOT Business School Denmark

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.

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.

Chinese Change

A Chinese proverb for you this morning:

It is dangerous to try to leap a chasm in two bounds.

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.