What market are we aiming at and does it exist?

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!

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?