Professional Practice Innovation
Department:
Management, leadership and Marketing
Title:
Adoption of innovative learning and teaching methods to reduce student anxiety, and enhance engagement and performance
Summary:
This case study outlines the development of an innovative module called ‘Managing Studies and Research Methods Module’.The aims of this module are: * To develop research, project management and consultancy skills to enable students to conduct a consultancy project related to management; * To equip students with a set of timeless management competencies; and * To enhance and further develop knowledge, intellectual, professional and transferable skills that will help prepare students for a career in management Summary:
3 This module sits on the MBA programme at Ulster. A full time Postgraduate course. The module requires students to develop an applied management project including a reflective portfolio (10,000 words) at the end of the module. This includes working in partnership with a company to solve a real need underpinned by the latest management thinking. However, before they complete this project, they must first develop a project proposal of 2,500 words outlining their idea. The group comprises a range of international students, typically from a wide range of countries. The last cohort included students from India, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Nigeria, Liberia and a handful of local students. This is their first module at Ulster and unlike other modules where the coursework ‘title’ is provided, they must provide their own title and idea. I inherited this module with poor feedback (46% satisfaction) and performance (25% fail rate) and poor completion (28% not completing on time) - highlighting that this module needed redesigned to achieve its aims.