Monthly Archives: January 2016

S4B: A new Blended Learning module for students of Business

S4B: Academic and Professional Skills for Business

This month’s blogpost is by Sarah Winspear, Senior Teaching Fellow and Assistant Director of the Pre-Sessional Programmes for international students in Modern Languages:

The Southampton Business School (SBS) has over 1,100 postgraduate taught students, and developing their academic and professional skills is essential to help students prepare for success in both their studies and future employment.

The large size of this cohort means that a new approach is needed for effective delivery of these skills alongside taught Business modules. A blended learning solution has been developed by the English Language Section in the Centre for Language Study in collaboration with SBS. The new blended learning module ‘Academic and Professional Skills for Business’ (S4B) combines face-to-face and online (Blackboard) delivery and includes self-study activities, videos and interactive presentations built using Articulate Storyline.

Students can choose, and mix and match from:
1. Online learning activities (available at any time)
2. Face-to-face workshops and lectures (places booked in advance online)
3. Face-to-face tutorials (booked in advance online)
4. Practice assignments (graded and with feedback).

2015-2016 is a pilot year during which the module is offered as an option. Initial feedback from students has been very positive, and module evaluation so far is as follows:

1. Online learning activities
These will be relaunched for future deliveries to reflect clearer pathways for students; resource delivery will be time-released to map with student needs (e.g. academic writing in September and exam preparation in December).

2. Face-to-face workshops and lectures
Advance online booking appears to ‘add value’ and encourage participation; session timetabling will be extended to the early evening to meet all students’ needs; further content development is needed to suit home students and the two types of international students with different skill awareness levels (post pre-sessional and direct entry).

3. Face-to-face tutorials
These will be offered as early evening or early morning slots in future to ensure all students have the opportunity to attend; an online booking system is still in development.

4. Practice assignments
Evidence from students who undertook these short assignment tasks and received feedback clearly suggests they benefit considerably; promotion of the benefits is needed to increase student take-up of this part of the module package.

Finally, a fuller evaluation is planned during S4B delivery in semester 2 with the aim of improving the module and providing students with the skills needed to succeed in their studies and in their future employment.

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