The Learning Technologies Unit website

This module examines what is meant by the "internationalisation" of higher education and its management implications. International students play a large, and often increasingly important, role in most UK higher education institutions, but "internationalisation" goes much wider than that. In a globalising economy, with active international markets for academic staff and research, to what extent does it make sense to look upon higher education as an essentially national activity? How might such concerns relate to institutional strategies and plans? This module will also examine the roles of European institutions in changing the landscape of higher education provision, and widen opportunities for institutional development.

The MBA in Higher Education Management has one residential week per term. This module represents half of one residential week. All teaching happens during the residential week, while students are working on their assignments while not at the IoE. E-learning is only used as a "reading pack plus", i.e. to replace a printed folder of study materials.

Most learning tasks are based on collaborative work in syndicate groups and represent standard face-to-face methods: read, attend, group work (such as role play, problem based learning), essay writing

Assessment is based on a 2,500 word essay. Drafts are submitted through email, and feedback provided by email as well.

"Online support is done by email. Each student is assigned with an academic adviser at the beginning of the whole course, who monitors the student's progress and acts as a point of contact for academic support.

Students have to set up their own online support network independent from the institution."

The course draws for academicians and administrators with management skills and holds responsibilites in Higher Education. Three years of prior experience in Higher Education is required.

The module leader has overall responsibility for the organisation and in running of the course. Other module leaders help out occasionally. Eight external experts provide face-to-face lectures, but do not engage in online sessions. The course administrator is also important in managing online materials, however not so much in this particular module.

Online materials are exclusively electronic readings and lecture notes, to be downloaded by students. The organisation of the materials proved to be a challenge, as some students may find it difficult to identify mandatory and recommended readings.

Main content formats

Main content producers

Main delivery formats

Online communication is primarily handled by email. Discussion forums are supplied, but only marginally used. Students communicate intensely among themselves through email, but may also contact academics and administrators for relevant support.

The attitude towards the Virtual Learning Environment is very positive on behalf of the module leader. The use of the VLE requires to spend more time on organising the module, which in turn provides more control of the module. E-Learning is convenient because of the flexibility in terms of time and location. It is fun to use and is a valuable learning experience for academics, but it needs to be taken further.

Create a clear and simple navigation and document structure that supports students to identify very important and optional materials.

Insert some content directly as text, and do not put it into a downloadable attachment (e.g. a Word file), although future editing processes may become more difficult.

An additional form of e-learning that should be further explored is the use of laptops in the classroom, which is more and more emerging as a standard.

Some modules in this course do not use online components at all, and some use it differently.