Helping the Podders at Bedfordshire

Alan Bullimore and Peter Godwin

University of Bedfordshire

Helping the Podders at Bedfordshire

Who we are and where we are A new curriculum in the Business School The first year of its delivery How Information Literacy fits in Information Literacy for other Business

students Lessons and Conclusions

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/plentyofants/203275559

Alan Bullimore and Peter GodwinUniversity of Bedfordshire

The Pods at UB

Project Hall Staff Room

IT area

Relaxation lounge

Brainstorm room

Boardroom

Curriculum delivery in the Pods Curriculum delivered in a

“modern office” learning space

The learning space or pod is for 50 students who stay together as a cohort throughout the year.

Main space or project hall facilitates group working in teams of five.

Groups are altered periodically.

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.

Replaces previous skills unit. Professional behaviour expected

Curriculum delivery in the Pods

Gives experience of office environment Real-world tasks encourage student

engagement, assist monitoring and improve retention

Group work is fundamental It’s a constructivist learning

environment

Learning in the Pods : all the buzzwords!

ActiveConstructivist Collaborative Intentional

Complex

Contextual

Conversational

Reflective

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

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

Make the most of government statistics ( local area health stats )

Explore Adventure Holidays

Students tasked with finding a market for an adventure holiday

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 )

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 will spread to other years

as the whole curriculum is re-shaped into longer, larger modules and terms.

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

Support to other Business students

Management project framework requires us to work with small groups in order to help them focus on their topic and use the best sources

Management projects

Final year undergraduate 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”

Logistical issues this term

450 students in groups of up to eight in 6 hours teaching time, using the Social Learning Space in our LRC

We have needed to involve all available subject librarians

Information Assistants have helped ferry the students into our Social Learning Area…

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 first year 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