intro guide pc 32011
TRANSCRIPT
JOINT DISTANCE LEARNING MASTER OF ARTS IN TOWN
AND COUNTRY PLANNING
PLANNING COURSE 3, 2011
Joint Distance Learning Consortium FEBRUARY 2011
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CONTENTS
0. Addresses and main staff contacts 3
1. General Introduction 6
2. Objectives 6
3. Course Structure 6
4. The OU “Specialism” module 8
5. The Dissertation 12
6. The Study / presentation day 18
7. Topic / Methodology paper 19
8. The final submission 20
9. Assessment 20
10. Right of Appeal 22
11. Syllabus Content 23
12. Course Timetable 25
13. Submissions 29
14. Form for recording
extenuating circumstances 32
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Appendix A Open University module statements 33
Appendix B Open University Further
Study Options 58
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0. ADDRESSES AND MAIN STAFF CONTACT
UWE Bristol
Department of Planning & Architecture (Joint Distance Learning MA in
Town and Country Planning)
School of the Built and Natural Environment
Coldharbour Lane
Frenchay
Bristol BS16 1QY
John Allinson - Course Director Nancy Campbell–
Course Secretary
Tel: 0117 328 3517 Tel: 0117 328 3200
Fax: 0117 328 3346 Fax: 0117 328 3346
E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected]
Leeds Metropolitan University
Faculty of Arts, Environment and Technology,
(Joint Distance Learning MA in Town and Country Planning)
The Northern Terrace
Queen Square Court
Civic Quarter
Leeds LS2 8AG
Harvey Pritchard – Centre Manager Clarissa Molloy
Tel: 0113 8123222 Tel: 0113 8127605
Fax: 0113 8121958 Fax: 0113 8121958
E mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected]
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London South Bank University
Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences (Joint Distance Learning MA in Town
and Country Planning)
London South Bank University
103 Borough Road
London
SE1 0AA
Phil Pinch – Centre Manager Rabia Ghuznavi
Tel: 0207 815 7349 Tel: 0207 815 8340
Fax: 0207 815 7330 Fax: 0207 815 5799
E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected]
University of Dundee
School of the EnvironmentSocial Sciences
Town and Regional Planning (Joint Distance Learning MA in Town and
Country Planning)
Perth Road
Dundee
Scotland DD1 4HT
Dumiso Moyo - Centre Manager Alda Ritchie
Senior Programme Secretary
Tel: 01382 385240 Tel: 01382 385236
Fax: 01382 388588 Fax: 01382 388588
E mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected]
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The Open University
For information about courses and registration first go to
www.open.ac.uk/courses
For information about credit transfer contact the Credit Transfer office.
For other queries about the OU components of the JDL MA contact:
Dr Joe Smith
Faculty of Social Sciences
Walton Hall
Milton Keynes MK7 6AA
Tel: 01908 654473
Fax: 01908 654488
E-mail: [email protected]
The Royal Town Planning Institute
41 Botolph Lane
London
EC3R 8DL
Tel: 0207 929 9482
Fax: 0207 929 8196
E-mail: [email protected]
Ms Sue Percy
Director, Education & Qualifications
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Planning Course 3: Specialist Focus
1. General Introduction 1.1 Planning Course 3 seeks to provide a specialist focus on ideas,
perspectives and debates that set the context for planning and enable
you to develop a substantial and genuine expertise in a specific field,
which you then may pursue throughout their careers through future
programmes of life long learning. We recognise that planning specialisms
cover an increasingly wide and varied field and we aim to keep our
offered specialisms under continual review.
2. Objectives
2.1 The objectives of Planning Course 3 are as follows:
To appreciate the position of planning in an inter-professional and
multi-disciplinary environment;
To develop specialist skills in the context for planning through study
within the subject areas of „environmental policy‟, „management, decision
making and leadership‟ or „social policy‟;
To engage with theoretical and practical debate about the interface of
planning with broader societal concern;
To develop and apply research skills, including hypothesis-building,
methodology, data gathering and reporting;
To produce a substantial piece of original written work;
To provide a basis for continuing study and professional development
through life-long learning after the conclusion of the formal course.
3. Course Structure
3.1 The objectives are delivered through the following programme of
modules:
Module 3.1: The Specialism (30 credits) module is offered by the
Open University and is selected by the student from an approved list.
It forms a specialist area of knowledge to which the Dissertation will
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be linked. You will choose an Open University provided course from a
menu, which in turn falls into one of three specialist subject areas:
„environmental policy’; „management, decision making and leadership’
and ‘social policy’ (see further discussion below and Appendix A for
course details):
Environmental Policy Modules
TD866 Environmental responsibility: ethics, policy and action
T835 Integrated Safety, Health and Environmental Management T862 Enterprise and the Environment
T863 Environmental Decision Making: A Systems Approach
Management, Decision-Making and Leadership Modules
TU870 Capacities for Managing Development
TU871 Development: context and practice
B822 Creativity, Innovation and Change
B823 Managing Knowledge
B827 Strategic Human Resources Management (from Nov 2011)
Social Policy Modules
D864 Youth Justice, Penality and Social Control
Module 3.2: Dissertation with Research Methods will complete your
specialist programme of study. This will involve producing a 30 credit
Dissertation. You will need to develop and justify a topic and research
proposal to your personal tutor. You are strongly advised to seek a
relationship between your topic and proposal and the knowledges and
concepts covered in your Specialism, which are then applied to the
practical purposes and practices of planning. Your tutor will also be
looking for an advanced understanding of research skills and
techniques covered in the preparatory Research Methods module.
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4. The Open University ‘Specialism’ Module (UBPMAX-30-M (P)
4.1 The link to Open University Specialism represents a unique and innovative
element of this programme and it is appropriate at this point to further
elaborate the rationale and its relationship to course philosophy.
4.2 We believe that it is important that the Course produces critical and
„reflective practitioners‟ prepared to engage with knowledges and
insights that may lie beyond what might appear to be traditional
boundaries of planning procedure and thought. Planning practice reaches
deep into social and economic life, often in unacknowledged ways. In this
respect, we believe that the Specialism will enable you to engage with
academic ideas and concepts which in turn can provide fresh insights and
applications for planning practice, and planners appreciation of their
important roles in providing a better society.
4.3 The range of skills and knowledge required by planners in their
professional practice has expanded enormously and through the
Specialism we have sought to deliver:
Transferable skills in Masters level study in Specialisms that
complement and extend your planning focused studies
A foundation for structured lifelong learning in arenas relevant to
planning practice
A depth of understanding of the wider institutional, political,
environmental and social context within which planning decisions are
made.
4.4 The specific learning outcomes for the individual courses and the
programmes they lie in are too diverse to offer here (see Appendix A
for course outlines), but in general, following study of this module, you
will be able to:
Appreciate the position of planning in an inter-professional and multi-
disciplinary environment;
Develop specialist skills in the context for planning through study within
the subject areas of „environmental policy‟, „management, decision making
and leadership‟ or „social policy‟;
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Engage with theoretical and practical debate about the interface of
planning with broader societal concern;
Demonstrate knowledge of policy and management science in society as a
whole.
Teaching and learning methods:
Course books, other printed materials, audio CD, DVD.
All of the course assignments are expected to be submitted via the online
eTMA system
Course website (where available), online forums, online library, an OU email
account and the facility to complete administrative tasks, like booking and
paying for a course and changing your personal details.
Access to a tutor who will help with the course material and mark and comment
on written work, and whom students can ask for advice and guidance. It may
also be possible to offer group tutorials or a day school that students are
encouraged, but not obliged, to attend. Where tutorials are held depends on the
distribution of students taking the course.
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Reading strategy:
If students feel that they lack experience of distance learning or want to
improve their study skills, the following are recommended:
A. Northedge (2005) The Good Study Guide, Open University Worldwide,
£12.99(2009 price)
P. Redman (2006) Good Essay Writing: A Social Sciences Guide (Third Edition),
Sage/The Open University, £10.99(2009 price)
Students might also like to read a few examples of the research literature –
journal articles, for instance – in the study line that they intend to take after
this course. That will give you some insight into the ways in which social
scientists go about investigating and explaining their subject areas.
Whichever OU course is chosen, students may want to prepare for their
dissertations by reading
C. Hart (2001) Doing a Literature Review ( 2nd edition), Sage, £20.99 (2009
price)
Assessment for UBPMAX-30-M (P)
Weighting between components A: 100 B: 0
ATTEMPT 1
First Assessment Opportunity
Component A Element weighting
Project - P/F 0
Component B Element weighting
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Second Assessment Opportunity
(Further attendance at taught classes is not required)
Component A Element weighting
Project - P/F 0
Component B Element weighting
It is relevant here to draw out the reasons for selecting the Courses in
the approved list among the many OU Masters options:
none require a specialist (e.g. science or technical) background, and
they all permit flexible patterns of study that can be undertaken
without disrupting professional work
each develop an in-depth specialism in an area directly relevant to
professional practice either in terms of subject area (cultural and
political diversity; social policy, social exclusion, regeneration /
environmental problems, environmental decision making, environmental
economics / development management) or career development (as
team workers, managers and problem solvers seek creative and
effective decision-making solutions in the context of complex
problems and changing patterns of governance).
4.5 We are also keen to encourage you to treat the Specialism as a first step
on a programme of life long learning. Through credit transfer
arrangements the (30 credit) Specialism module will provide advanced
standing with a range of Open University masters qualifications (see
Appendix B) and in combination with the Dissertation, access to life long
learning programmes in other planning schools or graduate programmes.
As such it represents a starting point for continuing professional
development beyond your completion of the Masters qualification.
4.6 You will need to enrol direct with the Open University for this element.
Please note that some courses commence in November and others in May: details can be obtained from the OU‟s web site at www.open.ac.uk.
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4.7 If you want to study a course that has a start date of November, then you will have needed to enrol by the end of September of last year; that is, as you completed Planning Course 2. The other option is for you to study a course with a May start date; you would need to enrol for this by the end of March of this year.
4.8 OU courses that start in November conclude the following April; OU
courses with a May start conclude the following October. It is up to you to consider what would be a preferable work programme. Studying November to April would mean that you could concentrate on your Dissertation during the summer and autumn of next year; but you would not get a Christmas break! Please keep the Course Director informed of your plans.
5. The Dissertation (UBPMAW-30-M (PM)
5.1 You will commence work on your dissertation in the spring: you can start
thinking of a topic as soon as you like, but we would recommend that you
leave it no later than 1st April. Your first task will be to follow the study
materials for the Research Methods element. This is not assessed, but
should give you useful guidance for your dissertation work programme.
5.2 Aims
To enable you to carry out an advanced programme of research in an issue
or theme relevant to town and country planning and to produce some
conclusions and recommendations that contribute to the body of town
planning knowledge.
To enable you to develop and ultimately demonstrate your capacity for
considerable individual initiative and rigorous work organisation.
To encourage you to communicate ideas in a precise manner through a
variety of techniques.
To enable you to frame your work, in the context of other studies and
knowledge about a study area;
To enable the construction and use of a methodology as both a description
and a justification of chosen methods;
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To enable you to structure your work in order that you introduce and
conclude it satisfactorily, asking a question, and, as far as is possible,
providing the answer;
To acquaint you with the main methods of analysis and processing of
secondary data.
5.3 Learning Outcomes
After studying this module you should be able to:
1. Demonstrate extensive in-depth knowledge of one or more fields
of town planning policy and/or practice;
2. Demonstrate an appreciation of the role of specialist knowledge
within the processes of place-making and space-mediation;
3. Produce a substantial structured piece of original research that
may make a small contribution to the wider corpus of town planning
knowledge;
4. Reflect on the process of managing a research project;
5. Present and communicate ideas and conclusions in a clear and
accessible manner;
6. Construct a methodology for carrying out an investigation;
7. Make effective use of appropriate instruments for data analysis
and presentation;
8. Assess the roles, and value, of quantitative and qualitative
methods, and descriptive and explanatory research.
5.4 Skills
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The core or transferable skills developed through the module are as follows:
Researching an issue or question
Appreciating the importance of different approaches to research
Producing a methodology
Synthesising and summarising a range of literature
Carrying out data analysis
Producing meaningful conclusions
Appreciating the importance of theory
Understanding the importance of different “paradigms” or world views;
Appreciating the importance of theory and hypothesis;
5.5 5.5 Teaching and learning methods:
Introductory lectures at summer school in Course 2.
Early issue of brief.
Assignment of tutorial team support, including "specialist" tutor.
Study day at local study base.
Individual student presentation at study day.
Staged submissions of topic / methodology paper.
Telephone, email contact and informal tutor/student visits
5.6 Reading strategy:
You will be expected to have read widely around your chosen topic of study and
around the subject of research in general. You will be expected to have a
knowledge of academic sources as well as legislation and policy documents. Your
strategy should include familiarisation with current wisdom on your subject area
as informed by the views and findings of leading commentators; familiarisation
of legislative and policy background to their subject as informed by recent
central and local government practice and statements; familiarisation with the
research process as informed scientific and methodological sources which assist
in the justification of a chosen method of investigation.
5.6 Indicative Content
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You are expected to programme and manage your work over the substantial
period that is allocated to the completion of this work. Their choice of
subject for their dissertation is your own, but it will be guided by the advice
of specialist staff at one or more of the Consortium‟s constituent schools.
The criteria for choice are as follows:
It must be relevant to town and country planning;
It must come within the scope of a chosen specialism ;
You will need to specify how the proposed dissertation contributes to
demonstrating that you have achieved appropriate depth in your chosen
field of specialised study.
It will need to exhibit a considerable degree of depth of thought and
investigation, a well-developed analytical framework and a proper
methodology as appropriate to a Master of Arts Dissertation.
The Research Methods component comprises the following:
Unit 1: Introduction
Describes the aims, content and structure of the learning
materials, as well as how they interface with the Dissertation.
Unit 2: Research Philosophy and Principles
This Unit includes an examination of the nature of understanding,
research and research problems; different methods, philosophies
and assumptions; current issues and different research
perspectives; and the important areas of values and objectivity.
Unit 3: Managing the Research Process
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This Unit, through the use of examples and case studies, centres on
the planning and management of a piece of research, from choosing a
subject, through asking and answering a specific question, clarifying
concepts and developing indicators, to evolving a methodology.
Unit 4: Research Practice
This Unit looks at different research practices, methods and
information sources upon which the student is invited to reflect in
the context of their applicability to their own study.
Unit 5: Research Strategy
This Unit focuses on your work on the JDL MA Dissertation,
considering issues like how to carry out a literature review, how
to produce a methodology, how to perform analysis and provide
a reflective conclusion.
Unit 6: Research ethics
This Unit considers the power of the researcher, and explores
ways in which this power should be used responsibly. Examples
of good and bad research practice are considered, and the issue
of plagiarism and assessment offence is covered in detail.
Unit 7: The JDLMA Dissertation: Logistics
This Unit considers the Dissertation assessment scheme, the
requirements to prove a Specialism and details of the
programme, including the Study / Presentation Day. The RTPI‟s
education guidelines, which have been followed in the design of
the entire course, are examined in detail.
There are two “staged submissions”, both of which are assessed; these are
as follows:
A presentation at the May study day on the research undertaken to date;
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A 3,000-word Topic and Methodology Report, to be submitted in the
middle of June.
The hand-in date for the Dissertation is early in December.
Assessment for UBPMAW-30-M (PM)
Weighting between components A: 100 B: 0
First Assessment Opportunity
Component A Element weighting
Topic/Methodology paper (3000
words) 1
Dissertation (12000 – 16000 words) 9
Component B Element weighting
Attendance at Study Day - P/F 0
Second Assessment Opportunity
(Further attendance at taught classes is not required)
Component A Element weighting
Topic/Methodology paper (3000 words) 1
Re-submission of Dissertation (12000 – 16000
words) 9
Component B Element weighting
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Key Sources
Bailey, Kenneth (1994) Methods of Social Research London: Free Press (4th
edition)
Bell, J. (2010) Doing your Research Project: a guide for first time researchers in
education and social science McGraw-Hill / Open University Press (5th edition)
Denscombe, M. (2007) The Good Research Guide for small-scale social research
projects London: McGraw-Hill Education (3rd edition)
de Vaus, D.A. (2002) Surveys in Social Research London : UCL (5th edition)
Greenfield, T. (Ed) (2002) Research Methods: Guidance for Postgraduates
London: Arnold (2nd edition)
Preece, R. (2000) Starting Research: An introduction to academic research and
dissertation writing London: Pinter (2nd edition)
6. The Study / presentation day
6.1 The first formal occasion on your work towards the Dissertation is the
Study / presentation day, which takes place in early to mid-May at your
local study centre. This is a compulsory part of the course. You attend
together with all of the students from your local cohort and carry out a
30-minute presentation to students and a member of staff. You should plan
to talk for 15 minutes, with a further 15 minutes for discussion.
6.2 You should use this as your opportunity to “crystallise” your early thinking.
No doubt you will want to prepare yourself by focussing on the
presentation and how it will demonstrate the progress you have made to
date. You will want to talk about the topic, some current issues and
debates, maybe some tensions, a little on history, a little on prospects for
the future. You may also want to air your question in public, describe and
justify your chosen methods of investigation and gain feedback from staff
and fellow students on how you should proceed with your research.
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Likewise, you should plan to make a contribution to the debates about other
student‟s work.
6.3 Visual aids will be available for your presentation; you may also wish to
produce hand outs. Attendance at the Study / presentation day is
recorded, but a percentage mark is not given.
6.4 You will also be allocated a dissertation tutor by your centre manager, and
will have the opportunity to use the libraries.
7. Topic / Methodology Paper
7.1 Your presentation should help to provide the basis for the first submission:
the 3,000-word paper describing your research topic, research question
and how you are going to investigate it. Please submit this by mid-June to
your local centre manager. This should prove a useful early stager on your
progress towards final submission, and describes the stage that we feel
you should have reached by early summer. You should have engaged with
academic and other literature on the subject; you should have coalesced a
general interest into a fairly tight, research-able question; and you should
have an idea about the methods that you are going to use to answer the
question, and why they are the appropriate ones.
7.2 This submission should also justify the ethics of your research; not only
should a research programme be rigorous, it should also be conducted with
respect for privacy, confidentiality, honesty and dignity.
7.3 Further advice on the Topic/methodology paper will be given in the module
materials, which will be circulated in the spring. Suffice at this stage to say
that this should not be regarded as an extra “minor nuisance” for you to
get out of the way before you concentrate on your dissertation. Not only is
it worth 10% of the marks for the Dissertation, the material therein could
form the first two chapters of your final piece.
7.4 You will continue to have contact with your dissertation tutor as and when
necessary for the rest of the year. Most staff are happy to engage in email
or face to face discussions at mutually convenient times.
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8. The final submission
8.1 Your final dissertation submission should be some 12,000 – 16,000 words
long. We are looking for a good knowledge of your subject and a sound
investigation that produces valid conclusions in answer to a definable
question or hypothesis. We are also looking for an appropriate depth of
analysis and an ability to reflect upon limitations of the research. High
standards of presentation are also appropriate.
8.2 The final submission is worth 90% of the overall marks for the
Dissertation. You should submit your work to your Centre Manager by 4th
December. It will be double marked. An agreed mark will be awarded.
Samples of dissertations will be sent to the External examiners at the end
of the year.
8.3 The Dissertation will be assessed at the February Exam Board.
9. Assessment
9.1 Planning Course 3 is assessed in the following way:
OU masters Course Pass
___
Dissertation 100%
9.2 You must also attend the compulsory study / presentation day at your local
centre in early May.
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9.3 The Mark bands used are:
% age Performance Standard
70-100 Distinction
60-69 Merit
50-59 Pass
40-49 Bare Fail
0-39 Clear Fail
N.B. Work that is submitted late, resubmitted or referred will normally
receive a maximum mark of 50%. All late work must be received by
January 1st to be considered by the February Examination Board.
9.4 Your Dissertation mark is made up of the following:
Topic / Methodology paper 10%
(3,000 words, submitted in mid June)
Final Dissertation submission 90%
9.5 You have the right to one attempt at the Dissertation, within which there
are two assessment opportunities; an original submission and a referral.
Unless there are extenuating circumstances, the mark for the referral
shall be capped at a bare pass. Unless there are extenuating
circumstances, a student who fails both opportunities will be required
to leave the course.
9.6 Where there are valid extenuating circumstances, a student failing both
assessment opportunities may exceptionally, and at the discretion of the
exam board, be allowed a second attempt of two opportunities. No
further attempts will be allowed.
9.7 You forfeit the right to a second assessment opportunity within an
attempt if you do not submit the dissertation. Where there are valid
extenuating circumstances, a student who does not submit the
dissertation as outlined here may be exceptionally, and at the discretion
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of the exam board, be allowed a second opportunity. No further attempts
will be allowed. A fee is payable to the University for re-enrolments for
referrals.
9.8 The exam board shall have discretion to condone failure in the
dissertation where overall performance indicates that this was an
aberration.
9.9 Any claims for extenuating circumstances that may be considered to have
affected your performance in any assessment must be submitted on the
appropriate forms (supplied in the course guides), with supporting
evidence (e.g. doctor‟s notes) to the Programme Director. These will be
considered at an extenuating circumstances panel around one week
before the examination board. The decisions of this panel will be
reported to the examination board.
9.10 Should you withdraw from the scheme at any stage, either on a
permanent or temporary basis, you will automatically be credited with all
those assessments which you may up to that stage have passed. Any
subsequent re-enrolment would normally be on the basis of your only having
to pass these. You should note, however, that your start-of-course
enrolment fee covers study until the end of the calendar year only;
and, as stated above, a first submission and a re-submission for each
module.
10. Right of Appeal 10.1 If, at any stage, you should feel aggrieved at a particular assessment
within the Planning Courses or should you wish to have particular personal circumstances (e.g. medical or personal domestic problems) taken into account you have the right to raise this with the Examination Board. Your request should be made through the Course Director. It is not possible to appeal against individual marks. Full details of the appeals procedures are contained within the UWE student handbook.
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11. Syllabus Content
Module 3.1 The OU Specialism
(see Appendix A)
Module 3.2 Dissertation with Research Methods
Description
The Dissertation is the final part of the Planning Courses. It is the largest single
piece of work submitted; it counts for the half of the assessment of Planning
Course 3 (30 credits; the other half being made up by the Open University
masters module). However, the mark for Planning Course 3 is the same as the
mark for the Dissertation. You are expected to spend approximately forty weeks
on it. It is expected to run to between 12,000 and 16,000 words in length, when
it is "written up".
You should have already considered your choice of Dissertation topic in the
context of choice of specialist OU course. Choice of topic within this context is
guided by the advice of specialist staff and by student performance on earlier
stages of the Planning Courses.
You need to make it clear what they hope to achieve in the Dissertation and how
it achieves the required degree of specialism within a field of planning.
A key component of the Module is that devoted to research methods; the main
aim is to help you to develop research skills in preparation for their work on the
Dissertation.
It is felt particularly important that you know exactly what you should be doing,
what will be required of you, and what sort of challenges you may face, before
you commence work on your Dissertation. You will need to know how to frame your
work, paying due regard to other studies in the chosen area; you will need to know
how to construct and use a methodology for your study; you will need to know how
to structure your work in order that your introduce and conclude it satisfactorily,
asking a question, and, as far as is possible, providing the answer. Please note that
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we do not, generally, require a primary data collection exercise as part of the
dissertation.
The intention of the Research Methods component is to provide you with these
skills. But it is also important to provide you with a knowledge and appreciation of
the nature, the intentions and the values of research, in order that you may
better realise these attributes of your own study; and the different perspectives
that may be adopted in carrying out a piece of research.
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11. Course Timetable 2011
11.1 The timetable set out below is your guide to the study of this
course. It provides an indication of when you should be working on
which particular block and unit and is designed to help you and your
Personal Tutor in planning your work and checking on progress. It
should be clear that the onus to organise your work and liaise with
your tutor is on you. You should not expect continual reminders or
checks from your tutor. It is particularly important that you make
arrangements with your tutor for the Summer Vacation period.
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PLANNING COURSE 3, 2011 – TIMETABLE
MONTH WEEK
STARTING
STUDY
(PLANNING
COURSE)
STUDY (OU
COURSE)
November 1st 2010 OU course
commences
(Nov – Apr
presentation)
February 7th
14th
21st
28th
March 7th
14th
21st
28th Commence work on
Dissertation
April 4th Research Methods
11th Research Methods
18th Research Methods
25th Research Methods OU course
concludes (Nov
– Apr
presentation)
27
MONTH WEEK
STARTING
STUDY
(PLANNING
COURSE)
STUDY (OU
COURSE)
May 2nd OU course
commences
(May – Oct
presentation)
9th Study/presentation
day at local study
centre
(approximate date
only)
16th
23rd
May 30th
June 6th Submit
Topic/methodology
paper by 13th June
13th
20th
27th
July 4th
11th Topic/methodology
paper returned
18th
25th
August 1st
8th
15th
22nd
29th
28
MONTH WEEK
STARTING
STUDY
(PLANNING
COURSE)
STUDY (OU
COURSE)
September 5th
12th
19th
26th
October 3rd
10th
17th
24th OU course
concludes (May
– Oct
presentation)
31st
November 7th
14th
21st
28th Submit
dissertation by
December 2nd
February
2012
Exam Board
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12. Submissions
12.1 You should submit your Topic/methodology paper and your final
Dissertation submission to your Dissertation tutor at your local study
centre.
Addresses for submission
Bristol
Mrs. Nancy Campbell
Joint Distance Learning MA
University of the West of England, Bristol
Department of Planning & Architecture
School of the Built and Natural Environment
Coldharbour Lane
Frenchay
Bristol BS16 1QY
Dundee
Mr Dumiso Moyo
Joint Distance Learning MA
Dundee University
School of the Environment
Town and Regional Planning
Perth Road
Dundee
Scotland DD1 4HN
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Leeds
Mr Harvey Pritchard
Joint Distance Learning MA
Faculty of Arts, Environment and Technology
Leeds Metropolitan University
Queen Square Court
Civic Quarter
Leeds LS2 8AG
South Bank
Dr Phil Pinch
c/o Rabi Ghuznavi
Joint Distance Learning MA
Research & Business Development Office
Room 236
Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences
London South Bank University
103 Borough Road
London SE1 0AA
12.2 Please submit 2 paper copies of your paper or Dissertation . The top of the
first sheet should show your name and address together with your study
base and the name of your personal tutor there. A4 size paper should be
used (unless otherwise indicated).
12.3 We will aim to return your Topic / methodology paper to you, marked,
within 28 days of receipt. Your Dissertation will be double marked by your
tutor and a member of staff from his or her Consortium school. You will be
advised of the mark after the exam board in early February. Markers have
been asked to be as comprehensive and as positive as possible in their
written comments - please read these carefully! One copy of your paper or
Dissertation with comments will be returned to you, the second being
retained by the Consortium.
31
General Advice
12.4 We would suggest that you make every effort to submit your work on time,
so that your progress with the dissertation overall remains on schedule. If
for any reason you do not think that you will be able to meet a particular
deadline, get in touch with Bristol or Leeds as soon as possible.
12.5 If there is anything about the marking which you do not understand or feel
unhappy about, get in touch with your personal tutor in the first instance.
12.6 We would advise you to use first class post if submitting close to the "due
by" date and also to obtain a certificate of posting if you have difficulties
with the post in your area.
It is essential that you keep a copy of your submission in case it goes
astray in the post.
12.7 Please remember that under the assessment regulations, unless you have
valid extenuating circumstances, you lose the right to a second opportunity
if you submit nothing by the due date.
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13. Form for recording extenuating circumstances
Name:
Nature of extenuating circumstance:
Dates of extenuating circumstance:
Work affected:
Please submit this form, along with doctor’s notes or other corroborating
evidence, to the Course Director
33
Appendix A
Open University Module Statements
Module co-ordinator Joe Smith Open University
Environmental Policy Modules
TD866 Environmental responsibility: ethics, policy and action
T835 Integrated Safety, Health and Environmental Management T862 Enterprise and Environment
T863 Environmental Decision Making: A Systems Approach
34
TD866 Environmental responsibility: ethics, policy and action This course seeks to promote innovative ways of understanding and taking
responsibility for actions in the context of our „natural‟ world through a
specifically designed course reader and study guide. TD866 provides sense-
making tools for appreciating and taking action with regards to the seemingly
intractable modern-day environmental dilemmas – including global warming, fossil
fuel consumption, fresh water quality, industrial pollution, habitat destruction
and biodiversity loss. The course draws on contemporary ideas associated with
environmental ethics, social learning, communities of practice, systems thinking,
ecological citizenship, corporate responsibility, fair trade and the connections
between environmental and social justice; configuring these ideas into practical
notions for responsible action.
The course consists of six blocks. Blocks 3–5 each conclude with practical
implications for skills development in environmental responsibility.
Block 1, Introduction, provides a mini case-study exploring the dimensions of
responsibility associated with economic and ecological relations between a
country from the global South and countries in the global North. This provides
an exposition of three attributes relating to environmental responsibility: (i)
What constitutes environmental responsibility? (ii) How might responsibilities
be recognised and who might constitute the key players? And (iii) Why is
environmental responsibility important? As well as contextualising these
attributes, the mini case-study is also used to explore two dimensions of
environmental responsibility – being responsible and doing responsibility – and
three traditions of discourse in which issues of responsibility are developed:
ethics, policy, and action.
Block 2, Ethical and cultural traditions of environmental responsibility, provides
an exposition of three broad philosophical traditions of ethics: (i) What is
good/bad/harmful? ('Utilitarianism', Bentham consequentialist ethics, e.g. green
consumerism and making external cost estimates such as those informing the
Stern Review); (ii) What is right/wrong? ('Rights/contracts' philosophy [based
on Kant deontological ethics] e.g. animal rights and principles of contracting
such as carbon trading); and (iii) the broad philosophical tradition identified
with a concern for virtues in the domain of „being‟ environmentally responsible
35
(Plato and Aristotle, and significance of spiritual worldviews), inviting questions
of character and attitudes, and drawing upon normative ethical traditions
associated with how we ought to be as a prerequisite of what we ought to do.
The block concludes with an emphasis on (i) the global span of these traditions,
(ii) non-exclusiveness of ideas slotting into one tradition or another, and (iii)
continual dynamic interaction between traditions in generating new variants.
Block 3, Nature matters: preserving and shaping environments, is the first of
the three core blocks and focuses more on the ecological („natural‟) world in
relation to human cognition and institutional practice. What issues of value are
at stake – i.e., what matters? What is this thing to which we profess
responsibility? Is it something to preserve or shape? More specifically, the
block covers: (i) values traditionally attached to nature (instrumental, intrinsic,
personal), (ii) how we perceive and construct nature (e.g., as an „other‟ world
external to humans or integral to our being), and (iii) implications of (i) and (ii)
for enabling responsibility. Attention here is on contemporary initiatives to
build on broad-based utilitarian traditions underpinning systems thinking and
environmental pragmatism in shifting from constructing natures as „resources‟
for economic development, towards constructing natures for socio-ecological
well-being.
Block 4, Individual and collective responsibility and action, focuses more on the
human world in relation to „nature‟ and institutional practice. Who is responsible
and how responsibility is enacted, including what conditions must be satisfied if
individuals are to be able to take responsibility? More specifically, the block
covers (i) personal values and environmental virtues associated with individual
and collective responsibility and action; (ii) the role of social learning in
fostering the multi-level interactions that can enable second-order change (i.e.
change that requires thinking and acting differently, including changes in ethics
and values, rather than continuing with „more of the same‟); and (iii) the role of
„communities of practice‟ and other social structures in enabling responsible
action, including ethical issues associated with „Commons‟ and rights traditions,
and discussion of some of the ethical assumptions concerning independence,
competition and collaboration.
Block 5, Ecological citizenship: social and environmental justice and corporate
social responsibility, focuses more on the political, social and institutional
contexts of environmental action, and thus links ethics to policy. It considers
36
how ethics, policy and action work together and how movements, NGOs, civil
organisation partnerships and private-public partnerships can provide the space
for enacting environmental responsibility. More specifically, the block covers: (i)
central virtues of ecological justice in relation to other virtues (hope, love,
wisdom, forgiveness, sadness, courage, obligation etc.); (ii) initiatives relating to
notions of corporate responsibility and ecological citizenship measuring up to
multiple values and requirements of 'virtue' as well as 'the good' and 'the
right'; and (iii) the politics of new types of citizenship where the framing of
ecological citizenship might enable appropriate dialogue between the public and
the private, the local and the global, the future and the present, acting and
thinking, rights and responsibilities, etc., bridging the gap between (a)
awareness of environmental injustices and development of environmental
responsibility, and (b) civic engagement with ecological citizenship.
Block 6 is Summary & project development.
As well as the course being assessed through three tutor-marked assessments
(TMAs), there is an end-of-course assessment (ECA) comprising of a small
project with a pre-set guided task in planning action invoking environmental
responsibility.
37
T835 Integrated Safety, Health and Environmental
Management Description including aims, learning outcomes, skills and indicative
content
Hardly a day passes without reports in the media of incidents in which there is
risk of harm to the environment or to people's health and safety. These risks
may result from industrial accidents, from food safety problems or other
causes. These incidents, and untold numbers of near misses, have significant
cost implications for organizations. The costs to employers of accidental injury
and work-related illness have been estimated at up to ten per cent of all UK
companies' gross trading profits. And there are other costs to do with legal
compliance, public image, and even continued business operations. The
consequences of large-scale catastrophes enter another dimension.
The breadth of health, safety and environmental issues is considerable, so the
course has to be selective in its coverage, but studying it will:
exercise your skills in making searches and critical analyses of the technical
literature;
give you a basic understanding of the principles behind the derivation of
standards for health and environmental protection;
equip you with the analytical skills to examine reports on such issues;
suggest a hierarchy for risk management in health, safety and environmental
protection;
show you how to develop integrated safety, health and environmental
management;
enable you to plan for an emergency
You will find the course invaluable if you are:
* a manager seeing an increasing health, safety and environmental
management role in your work;
* seeking to understand and support local management initiatives in these
areas;
* in need of the basic skills of risk assessment;
38
* looking for a hierarchical approach to risk management;
* working towards developing an emergency plan.
The course defines key components of management as:
Planning
Foreseeing problems and planning for prevention rather than remedy. A
hierarchical approach is fundamental both in health and safety and in
environmental protection. This approach starts by looking at the root cause of
problems. Block 1 presents some costs of mismanagement in these areas and
explores what we can learn from the resulting problems.
Integration
Safety, health and environmental management comprise a multidisciplinary area
embracing scientific, engineering, social, economic and policy issues. No one can
be expert in all of them, but the safety, health and environmental manager must
be able to appreciate the different perspectives, understand the technical
vocabularies and recognize the inevitable compromises. Block 1 introduces the
multidisciplinary approach, while Block 2 develops one of the specialized areas -
health and environmental effects - in more detail.
Measuring
'When you can measure what you are speaking about and express it in numbers,
you know something about it' is a saying attributed to Lord Kelvin. This is a
particularly important approach in safety, health and environmental
management. Block 2 introduces some of the difficulties of measurement in the
toxicological area and in setting standards. Block 3 takes a more quantitative
approach to risk assessment through real-time measurement, COSHH
assessments and predictive techniques such as dispersion modelling.
Control
When problems have been defined and possible solutions proposed, the next
step is to adopt implementation and control strategies to achieve the desired
outcomes. The safety, health and environmental manager must be able to weigh
up the possibilities and select the most appropriate. Block 4 examines some of
the technical options, including machine guarding, noise control, fire safety,
industrial ventilation and personal protection.
39
Organization
Working through the coordinated actions of all stakeholders is an important
role for any manager. Block 5 looks at ways of harnessing the combined efforts
of those concerned through training and other components of an integrated
management system. The block includes procedures for emergency planning in
case all else fails.
This course links with T862 Enterprise and the environment, but focuses on risk
assessment and management for environmental health and safety.
Assessment
Three tutor-marked assignments and an examination.
40
T862 Enterprise and Environment
Organisations around the world are changing the way they do business.
Changes are taking place in relationships between customers and suppliers, and
in the way businesses organise themselves.
Nowadays we are admonished to show concern for the environment – to save
energy, boycott environmentally harmful products and buy „green‟
ones, avoid waste, recycle. These principles are not just for individuals, but also
apply to organisations of all kinds. No longer can they simply take the required
pollution control steps: more comprehensive environmental strategies are
needed. Environmental management systems offer tools for this.
Any company‟s objectives, its internal organisation and its external environment
are continually evolving, so the risks it faces are continually changing. A sound
system of internal control therefore depends on thorough and regular
evaluation of the nature and extent of those risks. Environmental management
systems offer ways to deal with environmental risks and control associated
costs, such as waste management and clean-up costs. They evolve into a business
strategy that gives companies a „competitive edge‟. In the long term,
environmental management has a significant role in strategic business planning,
taking into account the local and global constraints on an enterprise. This course
emphasises sustainable production and product stewardship. A systemic
approach to the study of business operations leads to methods for quantifying
materials and energy use to ensure their efficient utilisation. In this way, legal
obligations under provisions such as IPPC can be met, at the same time cutting
costs and benefiting the environment. Organisations need to consider health,
safety and the environmental effects of new and existing products and
services, and to promote sound development, manufacturing, transport use and
disposal routes. Concepts such as life-cycle thinking are part of the suite of
environmental management tools that are covered in the course, as well as
corporate disclosure.
41
T863 Environmental Decision Making: A Systems Approach
Many of the decisions we make and actions we take either individually or in
groups affect our environment, yet economic and political considerations often
dominate. Integrating 'environment' with other factors in decision making is
vital for an effective outcome. In this course students will learn how to use
techniques and develop in systems thinking, modelling, evaluating and negotiating
for exploring environmental decision-making situations, formulating problems
and opportunities, identifying feasible and desirable changes and taking action.
The course features a case study on air travel and many other examples.
Students will also have opportunities to explore their own environmental
decision-making situation.
The end-of-course assessment is a 4,000-word project. Students identify and
explore an environmental decision-making situation in which they have some sort
of stakeholding and they are expected to draw on their own experience. As a
tutor for this course, you will be the first marker for projects of all students
in your tutor group and you will be expected to attend a Moderation Meeting in
Milton Keynes at the end of each presentation. You may also be invited to be a
second marker for other students.
This course replaces T860, which has the same title and covers broadly similar
content, and had its last presentation in November 2005.
42
Appendix A
Open University Module Statements
Module co-ordinator Joe Smith Open University
Management, Decision-Making and Leadership Modules
TU870 Capacities for Managing Development
TU871 Development: context and practice
B822 Creativity, Innovation and Change
B823 Managing Knowledge (last presentation November 2011)
B827 Strategic Human Resources Management (last presentation November
2011)
43
TU870 Capacities for Managing Development
Description including aims, learning outcomes, skills and indicative
content
What is development management? What do development managers do? What
are the skills and strategies necessary for social change and reconstruction?
These are some of the questions tackled in this course, designed for
development professionals in governments, non-governmental organizations,
international agencies and public and private enterprises, and for those who
have an interest in public action for development.
Development management is concerned with promoting the process of
development. The course provides a conceptual framework for analysing
development management practices, and develops skills and capacities for
analytical thinking and strategic action. Although it looks mainly at development
in 'developing countries', the concepts, frameworks, skill areas and techniques
are applicable to a wide range of situations and contexts. The areas in which you
will develop skills include:
• analysis of institutional and conceptual frameworks for development
management;
• planning, making a case for and appraising projects as processes;
• knowing how and when to use different investigative methods and processes;
• working with data, testing assumptions, and making cases for intervention;
• monitoring, evaluation and performance assessment;
• strategic thinking and coordinating action.
Recent processes of change have included globalization, structural adjustment
and the reduction of direct state involvement in economies, as well as
considerable social and physical disruption and displacement of populations
nationally and internationally. The course is primarily concerned with
development management as a means of bringing about reconstruction and
finding alternative strategies for development. It is divided into four parts.
Part 1
The story of development management explores changes in development
thinking and how they relate to different kinds of intervention and practice,
44
both in developing and transitional countries and in the industrialized 'North'.
It looks at the history of development administration and management and
examines the role of development management in the changing relationships
between the state, private sector and NGOs. Development management is
characterized as a process of management of interventions aimed at social goals
external to any one organization, subject to value-based conflicts, and involving
relationships between multiple agencies. An important aspect of this part of the
course is to enable you to locate yourself in these processes.
Part 2
Projects as development interventions Development has often been seen as a
set of 'problems' that can be resolved by setting up 'projects'. Managing such
interventions requires a dynamic approach to planning, as well as investigations
to build a case for intervention. This part examines the context in which
projects take place and introduces tools for aiding conceptualization, such as
problem trees and stakeholder analysis, to enable you to think and act more
strategically about interventions. It provides a critical introduction to
framework planning, currently the most important tool for the specification of
projects, concentrating on the logical structure of activities, outcomes,
objectives, goals and so on and the consequences of making assumptions explicit.
The aim is to give you both an understanding of the potential and the limits of
planning tools, and investigative skills within development processes.
Part 3
Evaluation introduces monitoring and evaluation, and relates them to the 'middle
columns' of a framework plan and to the investigation methods required. It
warns of the limitations of evaluating development interventions in a short-term
perspective and shows the importance of sustainability and the development of
capacities through social learning for longer-term processes of change and
reconstruction. It introduces an action learning approach to performance
assessment and teaches some relevant skills. It also looks at strategic skills for
relating longer-term change to wider socio-economic and political contexts.
Part 4
Strategic perspectives This part considers some of the problems of
fragmentation and integration of action that confront development managers
today. It reviews some of the teaching in Parts 1 to 3 from this point of view,
and examines how public action for development can be carried out more
coherently in an uncertain world. The part explores some different paths
45
towards coordination, including how one might investigate their desirability or
feasibility.
By the end of the course your analytical capacities and strategic skills for
facilitating change should be improved so that you can make a better
contribution to the environment in which you work.
Assessment
Four tutor-marked assignments and an examination. Assessment is an essential
part of the teaching, so you are expected to complete it all. But if you
unavoidably miss or do badly in an assignment some courses allow you a
'substitution score', calculated as a weighted average of all your scores for the
course. In TU870 this rule can apply to all assignments. You will be given more
detailed information when you begin the course.
46
TU871 Development: context and practice
Description including aims, learning outcomes, skills and
inactive content
What can be done to promote sustainable livelihoods and development? There
are few tasks more important or more challenging, few where the answers seem
so elusive. The course helps you to approach this question by teaching the
context - from local to global - in which development practice takes place. What
historical legacies shape the present? Why is an understanding of gender and
other social relations crucial? Why is an understanding of technology or culture
or the environment equally important? What are the processes of power and
public action that influence the making of development policy and its
implementation?
This course is intended primarily for graduates entering the development
management programme who have little or no grounding in development studies,
or who are in need of an update. You may be a development professional in a
government or local government department, non-governmental organization,
international agency or public or private enterprise, or you may simply have an
interest in public action for development. Many of you will be concerned about
the apparently insurmountable problems of development. The aim of the course
is to provide you with the analytical tools for understanding the complexity of
development and, ultimately, enable you to think about ways of meeting its
challenges.
The course takes a multidisciplinary approach. This is essential for grasping the
complexity of the development process. While one academic discipline, say
economics or anthropology, may have its own set of explanations for the causes
of and solutions to a development 'problem', there is in fact no single
explanation. Many factors - historical, social, economic, political, cultural, and
technological - combine to make the world the place it is.
The course is built around a textbook, additional reading, audio-visual material
and supporting study guides.
The text Poverty and Development into the Twenty-first Century focuses
primarily on the so-called 'developing' countries. It presents global poverty in
its many guises as an overriding concern for development, and introduces the
main issues. It places these issues in their historical context, with chapters on
47
pre-colonial societies, through colonialism, to contemporary 'post-colonial'
developments such as the apparently inescapable processes of globalization, the
rise of identity, politics and urbanization. Other chapters consider the
theoretical and historical accounts of the origins of inequality and poverty, and
the emergence of the field of development in response to them. The book also
introduces the range of concerns raised in this field, and the policy responses
that seek solutions to these concerns.
The additional readings are drawn from a variety of academic and other
sources. Within an overall framework of 'action for development' they provide
a deeper exploration of concepts and issues introduced in the textbook, such as
trusteeship and development agencies, accountability, participation and
governance. The focus of these readings, however, is on the different kinds of
development policy and action, together with a consideration of the many agents
who take part in such action. Some of the readings are case studies. They
include case studies in a northern context, in order to counteract the tendency
to reduce development to something that affects only 'developing countries', or
the 'South'.
The audio-visual material also provides 'armchair' case studies and discussion of
key concepts and issues. Like the readings, some are drawn from the experience
of the „North‟.
Although the course does not require you to use a computer and have access to
the Internet this will enable you to take part in the optional electronic
conferencing.
Assessment
Three tutor-marked assignments (the last of which is double weighted) and an
examination. Assessment is an essential part of the teaching, so you are
expected to complete it all. This course does not allow you a „substitution score‟
if you unavoidably miss or do badly in an assignment. You will be given more
detailed information when you begin the course.
48
B822 Creativity, Innovation and Change
Description including aims, learning outcomes, skills and indicative
content
This innovative and interdisciplinary MBA course helps managers to develop
their perceptions, employ creative skills, sustain a creative climate at work,
manage innovation and develop partnerships across organizational boundaries. It
offers techniques and processes designed to help develop opportunities and
manage innovation and change. The overall aim of the course is to help managers
develop and promote imaginative, flexible and practical thought and action by:
Developing a more creative attitude in themselves and others.
Improving their own and others' capacity to respond practically and
creatively to problems and opportunities.
Learning a variety of approaches designed to develop ideas, manage
innovation and transfer knowledge (including scanning the environment,
changing structures, improving systems, involving people).
Being better placed to help establish an organizational climate in which
creativity, entrepreneurship and innovation can grow.
Understanding a variety of approaches to restructuring organizations
(including the learning organization, the use of partnership, networks and
self-organization).
Appreciating the contextual nature of knowledge.
By the end of the course you should be able to:
Understand how cognition, style and culture affect thought, action and
policy.
Be better placed to relate effectively to the way different people
behave in organizations.
Understand the principles underlying creative thinking and problem-
solving.
Use a range of tools, procedures and behaviours as aids to problem-
solving, creative change and the management of innovation.
49
Appreciate the impact of information technology on problem-solving,
data access and networking, and have experience of appropriate IT
packages.
Help develop a more creative climate in your organization.
Use a range of structures, processes and systems (such as idea
screening, concurrent engineering, partnership) to help develop and
sustain innovation in your organization.
Adapt and apply the processes and approaches taught to involve people,
develop ideas, manage innovation, and share knowledge in a wide range of
organizational settings and cultures.
Initiate appropriate action towards organizational transformation and
renewal.
Appreciate the implications of environmental issues and organizations'
role in social responsibility.
The course offers a range of materials from which you select for detailed
study those most suited to your own needs and interests. It is divided into
three main blocks:
Creativity and perception in management offers an introduction to creative
approaches to management, focusing particularly on the individual level of
creativity. It examines how cognition, perception, style and role affect
managers' thought and behaviour, and traces the influence of cultural and
historical values on personal, organizational and global development. It also
discusses ways in which organizations can develop sustainably and responsibly,
and introduces complexity. A personality inventory is included. This block has a
psychological orientation.
Managing problems creatively looks at ways in which managers and teams can
approach problem management creatively. It describes a variety of problem-
solving approaches and frameworks such as staged problem-solving,
orchestrated debate, mapping, and narrative approaches such as storytelling
and the use of imagery and metaphor. It presents principles that underlie
creative problem management. The associated Technique Library (available in
print, web and CD-ROM versions) includes over 150 creativity, problem
exploration, mapping, idea generation, decision-making, acceptance-finding and
50
action planning techniques. There is an electronic technique selector to help you
choose between them.
Innovation, climate and change deals with ways of managing innovation,
developing a creative organizational climate, and attempts to transform or
revitalize organizations. It shows how ideas about innovation have changed, and
introduces ways of scanning the environment, such as scenario building and
benchmarking. It looks at organizational structures and systems designed to
help manage innovation (including idea elicitation and screening systems, ways of
sharing knowledge and involving people), and discusses entrepreneurship, climate
and culture change. Finally the block compares various approaches to
organizational change and restructuring, including the quality movement,
empowerment, reengineering, the learning organization, partnership and self-
organization.
Two accompanying readers, CD-ROMs and the website give you opportunities to
follow up the parts of the course that are most relevant to your situation. The
course as a whole has a slightly maverick quality
Assessment
Three tutor-marked assignments and an examination.
Computer and Internet access required
3.5-day‟ residential school
51
B823 Managing Knowledge
Description including aims, learning outcomes, skills and indicative
content
The course is for managers who have a role in managing the creation and
optimization of knowledge in all kinds of organization, from multinationals, small
and medium-sized businesses to the public sector and charities. The
management of knowledge is now high on the agenda of organizations in all
sectors, and this MBA course covers areas that will be of increasing importance
to managers over the next decade. The aims of the course are:
To explore the activity of managing knowledge from different
perspectives, providing you with conceptual frameworks, practical
management tools and guidelines within a critical framework for
effective and ethical management of knowledge, intellectual capital,
brands and other intangible assets.
To use advanced, student-centred, distance-learning techniques and
technologies to maximize learning benefits, tutor-student interaction
and exposure to current topics and ideas.
The benefits to you as a practising manager include that you will be:
more able to manage information and knowledge effectively at both
individual and organizational levels, through the processes of information
and knowledge creation, evaluation, accessing, filtering, accumulation,
categorization, measurement, assimilation, storing, processing,
communication, protection and application;
able to place the management of knowledge, intangible assets and
intellectual capital in historical, theoretical and ethical contexts in order
to appraise current practice and future options;
equipped to manage the interface between tangible and intangible assets
more effectively;
familiar with the key issues to do with the economics and value of
information and knowledge, and able to carry out a preliminary formal
audit of the intellectual capital in a chosen organization;
able to use information and communication technologies to navigate the
information environment, and aware of how information and
52
communication technologies can support knowledge management
processes effectively for groups, as well as within and between
organizations;
able to analyse and develop individual and organizational knowledge
management capabilities;
able to formulate a knowledge management programme for your own
organization.
The course makes extensive use of electronic media such as multimedia CD-
ROM, online databases, the Internet and World Wide Web, e-mail and advanced
conferencing using groupware with internet audio.
Assessment
Three tutor-marked assignments and an examination. 2.5-day residential school
53
B827 Strategic Human Resource Management
This course is for those who wish to understand and influence decisions about
the strategic deployment of labour and human capital.
It is not purely for specialists in human resource management. It will be of
interest to senior teams who make decisions about: design of organisational
forms; direct employment or outsourcing of activities, investment in human
capital development; employee engagement; organisational culture; work systems
design etc. Crucially, it is for those who seek to play a part in shaping the
overall strategy of the organisation and the decisions that flow from it in terms
of human capability.
The outline content of the course is as follows:
• An Introduction to Human Resource Strategy (including a comparison of
employment models)
• The Design of Organisational Forms
• Managing with and without an HR Specialist
• Building Employee Engagement
• Performance Management
• Shaping Organisational Culture
• Building Capability
• Evaluating HR policies and Practices.
The course is suitable for all managers who have an opportunity and/or a
responsibility to influence and shape HR policies. The audience scope therefore
includes, but is not confined to, those managers with some degree of specialist
responsibility for HR.
By the end of the course you will:
• know about the relevant and appropriate concepts, theories and
frameworks appropriate to this practice area
• understand the nature and importance of human resource management
decisions
• be able to make effective contributions to the design and
implementation of policy in a range of organisational settings
• be able to describe and explain the essential idea of what it means to
take a strategic human resource management approach
54
• be able to explain the key areas of SHRM including, for example,
commitment and engagement; organisational design; performance management;
learning and development, international HR practices; organisational culture
• be able to build and critically assess knowledge related to aspects of
SHRM
• be able to find, review and evaluate a variety of information relevant to
topics in SHRM
• be able to compile reports that are robust in both intellect and
practice-relevant terms
• be able to make appropriate use of ICT
• be able to work collaboratively with others.
You will follow a practice-based learning approach with the use of online
collaborative learning, including podcasts, video clips and wikis.
55
Appendix A
Open University Module Statements
Module co-ordinator Joe Smith Open University
Social Policy Modules
D864 Youth Justice, Penality and Social Control
56
D864 Youth Justice, Penality and Social Control
Description including aims, learning outcomes, skills and indicative
content
The terms 'youth' and 'crime' are often used interchangeably. Young people are
typically portrayed as some sort of threat: deficient, depraved, dangerous or
deprived. As a result it has become routine to employ numerous interventions to
effect their compliance, discipline, guidance, protection, control and punishment.
By the early twenty-first century such obsessive concern has crystallized in a
myriad of reforming programmes and policies designed to prevent anti-social
and undesirable behaviour, not only by punishing the law-breaker but by
intervening directly in parenting practices and everyday family life. Childhood
and adolescence continue to be the most intensely governed sectors of personal
existence.
The course examines the many complex and contradictory means employed to
achieve the governance of young people through social and criminal justice
policy. It first looks at how young people, both historically and currently, have
come to occupy a pivotal position as society's premier folk devils, with fears for
morality, discipline and order regularly surfacing over the past two centuries.
Moreover, historical research has revealed that the origins of a separate
juvenile justice system in the early nineteenth century are in themselves deeply
implicated in the construction of young people as a special and distinct social
problem. The development of the system, initially in the form of reformatories
and then through juvenile and youth courts, has always been embedded in a
rhetoric of philanthropic care and protection, while in practice allowing for the
imposition of intrusive and draconian forms of intervention. A
treatment/punishment dispute has been pivotal in much of its subsequent
history. As a result, youth justice is routinely criticized on various levels: as too
soft, too harsh, expensive, unwieldy and unprincipled.
The course provides the means to understand how these contradictory readings
of purpose and practice continue to play themselves out in welfare, diversionary,
human rights, punitive justice, managerial and crime prevention discourses and
strategies that occupy the field.
The course systematically examines the relationships among youth criminal
justice policy, social policy and social justice. In the first decade of the twenty-
first century such relationships will be crucial not only in responding to issues of
offending, but also in determining the degree of state intrusion that we are
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prepared to accept for a heightened sense of security. And at what price for
the civil liberties and human rights of our children?
The course is based on a reader, Youth Justice: Critical Readings. This is an
edited collection of classic theoretical and conceptual articles supported by a
series of specially commissioned commentaries by leading criminological and
youth justice analysts invited to reflect on the different rationales and
contradictions of the nature of 'justice' meted out to young people.
Assessment
Three tutor-marked assignments and an examination.
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Appendix B
Open University Further Study Options
Qualifications that the proposed modules can contribute towards:
You may choose to continue to pursue lifelong learning after you have
completed your Masters qualification. The 30 credit OU Specialism
module will allow you to start on a range of further degree study
routes with the Open University, including:
Postgraduate Certificate in the Social Sciences
Postgraduate Diploma in Manufacturing: Management and
Technology
Joint Postgraduate Diploma in Computing and Manufacturing
Advanced Diploma in Environmental Decision Making
Postgraduate Diploma in Environmental Decision Making
Postgraduate Diploma in the Social Sciences
MA in Environment, Policy and Society
MA in the Social Sciences
MA in Social Policy
MA in Social Policy and Criminology
Master of Business Administration (MBA)
MBA (Technology Management)
MSc in Environmental Decision Making
MSc in Manufacturing: Management and Technology
MSc in Research Methods for Educational Technology