On the 10th February we had out first project steering group and were pleased to introduce a number of external people to our project – John Sloman from the Economics Network, Malcolm Ryan, our critical friend, and Betty Collis, a consultant in technology for strategy, learning and change in corporate learning and higher education – as well as internal representatives from the Business School, the Business School student body and Education Enhancement.
This was a key meeting for the project and marked a milestone for us in as much as were able to reveal the results of the mapping exercises that underpin our project plan. A number of documents were tabled at the meeting and are summarised thus:
Interim Report Stage 1 – this report summarises the the mapping and prioritising processes we undertook to inform the writing of our project plan. It covers where we looked for information and who we consulted; institutional developments in technology enhanced learning that could inform the project; external sources of expertise we will be learning from; and internal and external aspects informing our project.
Appendix 1 Mapping and Prioritising – this document goes into more detail about the mapping and prioristising phase of the project, listing who we talked to and what specific actions arose. Linked to the actions are timescales and deliverables. This pahse of the project was aimed at better understanding the pedagogic and management aspects of curricculum deliver in the Business School.
Appendix 1i Institutional Background – this document summarises the institutional context informing the project, such as our involvement in the HEA Benchmarking exercise, a recently completed audit of WebCT and results from both the NSS and internal module surveys.
Appendix 1ii Module Mapping – this appendix provides headline information about each of the modules the project is working with, along with a review of the technologies currently being used and the technologies being considered for use in each of them.
Appendix 1iii Preliminary Survey Findings – analysis of the survey undertaken with the first year students in December. By the time these preliminary results were released, 110 responses to question 1 (What types of information and communication technologies have you made use of in your home and personal life) had been input to SPSS for analysis.
Appendix 1iv Key Aspects – summarises the key factors faced by the Business School the project will seek to address.
The meeting was a success and generated the kind of discussion and debate about the project we were looking for. The planned activities were agreed to and meant the project plan had successfully passed through a key stage on its way to being signed off and accepted by all key stakeholders.
