Well I met a couple of the PAMs in the Faculty of Health. They seem very keen to work with us but they are less convinced about the award itself. The big question lies around the market. We're all agreed that there's no point in developing an award nobody wants and FOH seem to be very on the ball about this. One PAM didn't like the health focus and thought we should make it more general. One of the factors I'd forgotten to take into account was the health professionals doing the PgcHPE also do extra modules to meet the nursing and midwifery council standards and then usually take a dedicated Health route which wouldn't differ substantially from the route we propose. Food for thought.
The PAMs have suggested we get in touch with "Business Evolution" to ask their advice on marketing. It would be useful to circulate a questionnaire to Health professionals to hone the focus of the award to answer the questions:
Who is the award aimed at?
What is the award trying to do?
This sounds like a great idea and I'll be contacting them. I was also told that they may have some cash to spare so definitely one to follow up!
Time doesn't seem to be an issue, Health are busy enough at the moment and are not rushing, so that's good news for us. There is no way we could get this award up and running before 2012 at the earliest.
The financial model was touched upon but not really discussed. There doesn't seem to be a clear model for cross faculty working but there is certainly interest in producing one. Reading between the lines I feel that if we were to embark on such a project that support from all the faculties would be no problem.
So, the door hasn't closed on the masters, we need to keep plugging away but I have other priorities and it may have to take a back seat certainly until I have re-written a substantial amount of the Principles of eLearning (PEL) module. Actually the PEL module is a part of the proposed MTEL so its not too far back a seat!
Tuesday, 21 September 2010
Friday, 10 September 2010
Summer is definitely over
Been ages since I've blogged mainly because I've been away most of August and some of Sept. I've been thinking a lot about the development of this award and I have serious worries about resourcing it. I have always had a slight doubt in my mind about whether we can resource this but other things have happened at work recently that means that my doubts have resurfaced.
I went to see my boss with my concerns earlier this week and after some discussion we have decided to go ahead and keep talking to the faculty of Health with a view to building up a business case to take to the powers that be to ask for help. A lot depends upon how enthusiastic the faculty of health are towards the award and how flexible they are about the development time. A luke warm response from the faculty PAMS at our next meeting won't do much for the project and in the current financial climate can we expect the purse strings to loosen?
I went to see my boss with my concerns earlier this week and after some discussion we have decided to go ahead and keep talking to the faculty of Health with a view to building up a business case to take to the powers that be to ask for help. A lot depends upon how enthusiastic the faculty of health are towards the award and how flexible they are about the development time. A luke warm response from the faculty PAMS at our next meeting won't do much for the project and in the current financial climate can we expect the purse strings to loosen?
Tuesday, 20 July 2010
Back to basics
Well the question has gone to Finance but so far nothing has come back, fingers crossed and carry on.
I've filled in a form for Health that's basically an official statement of intent and I have a meeting with a few of their Programme Area managers (PAMs) in Sept to discuss where this award will sit if it goes ahead.
On a related note, I'm re-writing a module for the PgcHPE that will also make up a module on the MTEL award. I've gone back to basics as the module was written about 7 years ago with a particular student in mind that it doesn't really need to cater for anymore. It's interesting to see how much the module has drifted. I'm converting it from a half-hearted blended module with a boring final written assignment to a full DL one with 4 different assignments. I'm hoping to make it challenging but not scary.
Having sat on many validation panels I keep thinking of questions I will be asked and how to answer them. Something that worries me is the market. We've investigated and there are no similar awards in the region. Does this mean the region needs this award or does it mean that there's no call for it? perhaps the PAMs will have some good advice, I have the idea that health has a particular demographic of student so getting it right may take local expertise. On the other hand is it something I just made up?
I've filled in a form for Health that's basically an official statement of intent and I have a meeting with a few of their Programme Area managers (PAMs) in Sept to discuss where this award will sit if it goes ahead.
On a related note, I'm re-writing a module for the PgcHPE that will also make up a module on the MTEL award. I've gone back to basics as the module was written about 7 years ago with a particular student in mind that it doesn't really need to cater for anymore. It's interesting to see how much the module has drifted. I'm converting it from a half-hearted blended module with a boring final written assignment to a full DL one with 4 different assignments. I'm hoping to make it challenging but not scary.
Having sat on many validation panels I keep thinking of questions I will be asked and how to answer them. Something that worries me is the market. We've investigated and there are no similar awards in the region. Does this mean the region needs this award or does it mean that there's no call for it? perhaps the PAMs will have some good advice, I have the idea that health has a particular demographic of student so getting it right may take local expertise. On the other hand is it something I just made up?
Wednesday, 7 July 2010
Complications
Just had a meeting with SD, University process guru. This could get really complicated!
I explained the ideas and asked her opinion. SD thinks that the idea of Health owning the students and LDI owning the award is not good, it fits no funding models and sounds unmanageable. We spoke about how I see the award and what sort of market I think we should aim for. I need to get this straight before I meet up with the programme area managers (PAMs) in Health.
I need to decide whether to try to build a negotiated framework that has the potential to use modules from all the faculties with an LDI core. This would need a central base and I'm not sure we have one, or to concentrate on working with the faculty of Health and build an award that is health specific which could be duplicated in other schools or faculties. This may seem like a mad idea having 6 versions of the same award but I don't think it would ever come to that. I reckon it will take a good few years to set up, run and establish before others people may want us to duplicate it. By the time that happens it will be up for its 5 yr review and so we could re-think it then.
The idea is that we create an award using the 3 LDI modules already validated, 1 new LDI module plus at least 2 validated health modules and another couple of modules from other faculties all to create an award MTEL (Health studies) . As the new modules would be part of a Health award they would need a faculty and a university validation but they would also need an ADI mini validation though this would not be as much work as it sounds as it would only mean turning up to another panel to deliver the same material rather than reproduce any work.
The fundamental question is: If Health own the award and the modules are drawn from Health and ADI then how is the income from the students distributed?
Finace will say there is a procedure for this but nobody has managed to track it down. I'm hoping to meet up with a PAM from Health and will see what they have to say.
I'm going back to school.
If Fred takes the 180 credit award, 120 credits are from LDI modules, 60 credits from Health. The course costs £6000, how is this divided between LDI and Health?
The answer is not "It all goes to Health"!!!!!
I explained the ideas and asked her opinion. SD thinks that the idea of Health owning the students and LDI owning the award is not good, it fits no funding models and sounds unmanageable. We spoke about how I see the award and what sort of market I think we should aim for. I need to get this straight before I meet up with the programme area managers (PAMs) in Health.
I need to decide whether to try to build a negotiated framework that has the potential to use modules from all the faculties with an LDI core. This would need a central base and I'm not sure we have one, or to concentrate on working with the faculty of Health and build an award that is health specific which could be duplicated in other schools or faculties. This may seem like a mad idea having 6 versions of the same award but I don't think it would ever come to that. I reckon it will take a good few years to set up, run and establish before others people may want us to duplicate it. By the time that happens it will be up for its 5 yr review and so we could re-think it then.
The idea is that we create an award using the 3 LDI modules already validated, 1 new LDI module plus at least 2 validated health modules and another couple of modules from other faculties all to create an award MTEL (Health studies) . As the new modules would be part of a Health award they would need a faculty and a university validation but they would also need an ADI mini validation though this would not be as much work as it sounds as it would only mean turning up to another panel to deliver the same material rather than reproduce any work.
The fundamental question is: If Health own the award and the modules are drawn from Health and ADI then how is the income from the students distributed?
Finace will say there is a procedure for this but nobody has managed to track it down. I'm hoping to meet up with a PAM from Health and will see what they have to say.
I'm going back to school.
If Fred takes the 180 credit award, 120 credits are from LDI modules, 60 credits from Health. The course costs £6000, how is this divided between LDI and Health?
The answer is not "It all goes to Health"!!!!!
Thursday, 24 June 2010
Cross-faculty, cross staff? Well?
Hopefully the answer will be NO!
I'm starting to put together a Masters degree in Technology Enhanced Learning delivered via Blended Learning. I have designed modules before but I've never designed an award before nevermind taken the whole thing through to validation and hopefully to running the award.
The idea is to create a framework using our existing modules plus others from around the university with a few new ones to create a coherent degree. There have been various meetings with people from different faculties and schools around the university, some of which I've been involved and others not. We don't have the administrative staff or the experience to work on our own with this so our Faculty of Health were approached and we have agreed to work together. We will own the award and Health will own the students.
We have already drafted the aims and outcomes. We have a rough plan of modulers and where they sit in the award. We have a rough time scale, though I think this may be a bit ambitious now.
So deep breath and where to start?!
List of things to do:
I'm starting to put together a Masters degree in Technology Enhanced Learning delivered via Blended Learning. I have designed modules before but I've never designed an award before nevermind taken the whole thing through to validation and hopefully to running the award.
The idea is to create a framework using our existing modules plus others from around the university with a few new ones to create a coherent degree. There have been various meetings with people from different faculties and schools around the university, some of which I've been involved and others not. We don't have the administrative staff or the experience to work on our own with this so our Faculty of Health were approached and we have agreed to work together. We will own the award and Health will own the students.
We have already drafted the aims and outcomes. We have a rough plan of modulers and where they sit in the award. We have a rough time scale, though I think this may be a bit ambitious now.
So deep breath and where to start?!
List of things to do:
- email a process guru from quality and find out what has been done already
- Find out which programme area Health want us to belong in
- Fill in a Plan 1 form
- Fill in a Plan 2 form
- Get in touch will a colleague from another university who has agreed to act as a critical friend.
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