Upload
peter-godwin
View
516
Download
0
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
Presentation given at Online Exhibition at Olympia, London, December 2008. Concerns new Business School curriculum at University of Bedfordshire and how subject librarians work with this.
Citation preview
Supporting Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs Today
Peter Godwin
University of Bedfordshire
/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/plentyofants/203275559
Peter GodwinUniversity of Bedfordshire
Supporting Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs Today
The challenge of today A new curriculum in the Business School The first year of its delivery in the Pods How Information Literacy fits in Project support for Business students Lessons and Conclusions
What they need to become
Collaborators Synthesizers Adaptors
Yolanda by Micheo flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jiscinfonet/291372899
“One university has placed employability and the realities of the world of work at the heart of their business studies course for undergraduates.”
Higher Education at Work : High Skills: High Value. 2008.
(Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills)
Our challenge
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jakebouma/109039319/
The content has left the container Electronic books Institutional repositories Google Decline of scholarly
monographs Open access journals
http://www.flickr.com/photos/artolog/37733153/sizes/m/
All the literacies
Media literacy
IT literacy Information literacy Language literacy Visual literacy
E literacy Information fluency I-skills Information skills
What is Information Literacy?
“Information literacy is the adoption of appropriate information behaviour to identify through whatever channel or medium, information well fitted to information needs, leading to wise and ethical use of information in society.”
(Sheila Webber and Bill Johnston)
SCONUL Seven Pillars framework
SCONUL 7 Pillars
Recognising need for information Distinguishing sources and access Constructing search strategies Locating and accessing Comparing & evaluating Organising, applying and communicating Synthesising and adding new knowledge
The MEGO effect!
“Most instructors have stood in front of a class only to wonder if their only purpose on that day was to serve as a sedative for the majority of the class.”
Payne, et al (2006)
My eyes glaze over
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27261720@N00/91147636
We should seek to change their habits and help to improve the quality of their questions
“It’s about student learning, stupid!”
Active Auditory
Constructivist Collaborative Kinesthetic
Visual
Contextual
Conversational Reflective
Opening the Pods, 18 Feb 2008
“The skills and talents that students are developing here using the business pods
will be highly sought-after by prospective employers."
Bill Rammell
Enter!
Our Pods
The Pods at UB Business School, Luton.
Project Hall Staff Room
IT area
Relaxation lounge
Brainstorm room
Boardroom
How it works Learning is meant to be as much like work as possible
• Students are “employed” by real businesses
• The podders are their “boss”
• At work everything matters: everything is directly or indirectly assessed
• About 180 students into cohorts of ≤ 50 students, divided into working groups of 5 students with two staff
Two sessions of three hours per week in the Pods,and two one-hour lectures
Workshops to support numeracy, Excel, Powerpoint etc
Curriculum delivery in the Pods
Student learning is structured around substantial projects
These aim to achieve learning outcomes within a “real-life” context and with involvement of external organisations.
Other inputs include occasional lectures and workshops which are aligned with the tasks.
Underpinned by customised textbook Replaces previous skills unit.
First Year Business Students in the Pods
Five cohorts in 3 hour sessions
We participate for about an hour with each cohort at relevant times in the project-driven curriculum
1. Vauxhall Recreation Club
First piece of work was a collaborative venture with Vauxhall Recreation Club
Students were given the task of attracting more members
The club is a partner of the University and provides sports facilities for University students
What we did … Short presentation in Project Hall and working with
groups Add context to the assignment, by looking at the
broader picture Recommend students to use electronic Key Note
Reports about Leisure and Recreation Centres Talk them through a SWOT of the market and
encourage them to relate it to the specifics of Vauxhall
Recommend relevant government statistics ( local area health stats )
2. Explore Adventure Holidays
• Students tasked with finding a market for an adventure holiday
• Understand Explore’s position in the industry and market
• Analyse the Explore data
• Identify an unserved segment, a gap in the market, a new holiday
• Develop, plan, price and cost a holiday
• Recruit a tour leader
• Propose the idea in a presentation and report
What we did…
Short presentation in Project Hall and working with the groups
Advised on sources giving broader picture for Adventure holiday market
Use of full-text databases (e.g. Business Source Premier)
3. Music Industry
“Are writers, musicians and other creative artists worth their pay?”
3000 word essay
What we did…
50 minute lecture to over 200 students about scoping the topic
Worked with groups in the Project Hall : Formulating 5 sub-topics related to the
question Keyword selection, and finding
information Importance of different sources
PLAN
RECORD
REFLECT
ACT
The research process
Future developments in the Pods
More use of the separate rooms to work with individual groups
Web access in the Brainstorm Room Work with academics to reflect on what worked
and how to improve the student experience Pod active learning is spreading to other years
as the whole curriculum is re-shaped into longer, larger units and terms.
I’ve really enjoyed the pods. They’re much better than other modules.
HRM Student
This is what I’ve always wanted to do.
Peter Godwin
LRC Podder
The pods have restored my enthusiasm for teaching. I was bored doing the same thing
over and over again. This is completely different – and I know the students!
David Wright
Academic Podder
[In my focus group] I couldn’t get the students to say anything negative!
Derek Barnsley
Academic Podder
Challenges Successes
Group work We really know the
students! Passing all the
assessments IT Details
• Assessments
• Things we forgot or got wrong
Happy staff Happy students Higher pass rate
(86% over the year) Featured in a
government green paper
Other uses of the Pods: Management projects
Final year dissertations have been replaced by a 5,000 word project
Students are assigned a question and one journal article to get them started
They work in small groups ( about 6/8 students initially ) for 3 weeks and after 12 weeks submit a final individual piece of work
Example Question…
“ You can’t learn to be Alan Sugar at business school. You are either an entrepreneur or you’re not. Discuss”
The Pods at UB
Project Hall Staff Room
IT area
Relaxation lounge
Brainstorm room
Boardroom
What we did
Discuss and select
keywordsAdvise on type of
information found
Demonstrate databases
Search tips
Lessons from our experiences
Forced us to review our purchasing priorities, as learners require access to journal articles and data rather than books
Led to new database purchases Blurred boundaries between academics and
LRC staff Moving from formal teaching toward
facilitating student learning, using more ‘improvised’ techniques
Conclusions Enables us to work with Business students in a
project based curriculum Advantages of small group contact in a flexible
environment Building block approach to skill development ( e.g.
getting used to accessing databases through the library catalogue )
Use of databases in one project may encourage use in others
We’re moving toward changing habits, creating a way of thinking, rather than imparting a set of skills
Mobiles –the ultimate portable computer