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Expectations of students as they move from level to level

As you work your way through your undergraduate business and management degree, you will experience three separate levels.

Each level is approximately equivalent to a year’s study as a traditional campus university.

Each level builds upon the preceding level and in increases in complexity.

Students often struggle when they move from level 1 to level to and from level 2 to level three.

Understanding the different requirements and expectations is useful in making these changes.

To help make these expectations clearer we will explore learning outcomes at the three different levels.

The following learning outcome examples have been taken from the following modules:

Learning outcomes have been slightly simplified and modules specific tasks have been removed. The idea is that this will give you a sense of the range of knowledge and understanding you are expected to gain and skills you are expected to demonstrate that each level.

The following table demonstrates how the knowledge, understanding and skills gained at a level of then utilised and developed further by the next level.

Level 1 B100 An introduction to business and management

Learning outcomes

Knowledge and understanding:

Skills:

Level 2 B207 Shaping Business Opportunities

Knowledge and understanding:

·       Develop knowledge and critical understanding of the theories, concepts and models of different business functions.

·       Develop a critical appreciation of the interactions between business functions and the integrative complexity that shapes business innovation.

·       Develop a critical understanding of why new products and services are imperative to contemporary business practice.

·       Develop knowledge and understanding of external issues affecting the successful running of organisations, including how they compete in a global context.

·       Develop knowledge and understanding of the elements required to build long-term success in organisations, and how students can contribute to the fostering of long-term value creation.

Skills:

·       Evaluate and compare competing perspectives, theoretical models and concepts in the context of practical situations.

·       Select and critically analyse information relevant to a particular problem or issue related to business and management.

·       Gather and synthesise material from a variety of sources in constructing arguments applied to business and management.

·       Compare critically and use different approaches to issues and problems within business management.

·       Engage in critical reflection.

·       Consolidate an understanding of academic language and literacy practices in order to effectively engage with the academic knowledge and skills of Level 2 study.

·       Search for and use relevant digital and non-digital information from sources other than the module materials.

·       Communicate in a professional manner in written work, face to face and online.

·       Plan, monitor and review progress as an independent learner, including a focus on personal skills development.

·       Develop an awareness of ethical issues and professional standards relevant to business and management.

Level 3 B327 Creating futures: sustainable enterprise and innovation

Knowledge and understanding:

·       Create and manage sustainable forms of innovative and entrepreneurial ventures within a range of specialist areas, such as Engineering, science and information technology; Creative, leisure and cultural industries; Health and social care.

·       Research entrepreneurship and innovations within a specialist real world setting, recognising that specialist areas have to be explored at multiple levels of analysis.

·       Apply core theories, concepts and frameworks of innovation and entrepreneurship to understand the strategy, process and operations of enterprises at different stages of their life cycle.

·       Discuss the impact of innovation and entrepreneurship on society, both at a conceptual and a practical level, including ethics and sustainability, economic and social benefits to you, the economy and local communities.

Skills:

·       Differentiate the distinctive roles played by start-ups and established enterprises in the process of developing and commercializing various forms of innovations.

·       Distinguish the responsibilities of founders, managers, employees and directors within particular types of sustainable enterprises and innovations, including roles and rewards.

·       Use concepts from enterprise and innovation to critically analyse and evaluate solutions to a variety of societal challenges.

·       Select and apply conceptual thinking for the process of enterprise development.

·       Critically analyse and design competitive and sustainable strategies for developing and introducing innovations into particular markets.

·       Negotiating, influencing, and agreeing roles and rewards within founder teams in entrepreneurial settings, doing so in a legitimate ethical manner.

·       Appropriately plan and solve problems in entrepreneurial and innovative settings.

·       Work independently and as part of a collaborative virtual team to develop attributes and capabilities for entrepreneurial success in a complex and changing environment.

·       Undertake independent research to inform practice within your area of specialism.

·       Critically evaluate and reflect on your own career development objectives.

In the following table, learning outcomes have been slightly simplified and modules specific tasks have been removed.

This will give you a sense of the range of knowledge and understanding you are expected to gain and skills you are expected to demonstrate that each level.

The table demonstrates how the knowledge, understanding and skills gained at a level of then utilised and developed further by the next level.

In the section on differences in assessment, you will see how the progression in learning outcomes are reflected in the assessment practices, particularly when it comes to marks being awarded.

At the start of your university study there are some basic skills and knowledge you need to gain in order to progress. As you move from one level to the next there is the assumption that certain skills and knowledge have been gained and are available to use in the next level.

To explain this in a little more detail we will look at a model developed by Benjamin Bloom in 1956.

This is often referred to as “Bloom’s taxonomy” (taxonomy means  “classification”). Blue suggested that there are a range of educational objectives that should be met. There are arranged in order of complexity. In this discussion we will use a slightly adapted version of the model.

The most basic level we look at is “remembering” and that goes all the way up to “creating”. In the following discussion we shall have the three levels of the undergraduate business of management degree broadly fit onto this taxonomy.

Bloom’s Taxonomy applied to study levels

Based on Anderson and Krathwohl’s adaptation of Bloom’s Taxonomy cited in (OU nd)

OU, (nd) Open Learn ‘Facilitating learning in practice’ Week 3 4.1 Bloom’s Domains [Available online] https://www.open.edu/openlearn/ocw/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=20108&section=4.1

Accessed 25/08/2019

In many courses with the Open University you are asked to understate some sort of project or investigation. Many of these have something called a “cycle of inquiry” which is basically the process you go through in order to get something.

Students often come back to me and ask me how to discuss cycles of inquiry. This blog is essentially the advice I have been giving for the last seven years on how to explain and describe these cycles. This is my own personal model that I have shared with my students and if you want to use this approach then please cite this blog as your source.

What is a cycle of inquiry?

First of all a cycle of inquiry is a definite pro-active action that you initiate. It is not just you reacting to something. You may well need to react to something that happened but your reaction should lead to you taking some deliberate action. So any event might lead to a cycle of inquiry but your immediate reaction to an event is not necessarily a cycle of inquiry.

Second, a cycle of inquiry should always be undertaken to get something. That “something” could be tangible such as resources or money or labour. Or it could be something less tangible such as inspiration or confirmation or permission. The point is that any cycle of inquiry must have some sort of an outcome that you can measure.

Third, a cycle of inquiry should not be too big. “Build a new hospital” is not a cycle of inquiry. It is a project. Projects tend to be made up of lots and lots of cycles of inquiry.

In this example, suitable cycles of inquiry would be to “find out how many people live in the area” and “identify how many hospitals already exist in the area”.

Describing cycles of inquiry in a TMA.

When describing a cycle of inquiry it is quite possible that you can describe it without using any theory at all and without providing any substantive evidence. This is fine for a general conversation but if you are describing a cycle of inquiry for an assignment then you must include both theory and evidence. If your chosen cycle of inquiry does not include both of these things or is very limited then choose another cycle to describe.

Key questions to ask as part of a cycle of inquiry

What is it you need?

The answer to this question should indicate why the thing you need is important to the initiative or project you were talking about. There should be some evidence here and some discussion on how you expect this thing to change your situation.

How do you plan to get it?

When answering this question, you should consider any theories you have used or are using in the cycle of inquiry. There might be some stakeholder analysis also power theories as you identify the people to engage with. There might be theories on communication or maybe you’re using some creative problem-solving techniques. This is where you get the theory into your answer and possibly some application as well.

What happened?

This question let you provide some evidence to show what happened when you carried out the cycle of inquiry.

What did you learn from this?

Here we want you to think about how it went. Did everything work as you expected it to? If not why not? Did you get the results you expected? If not why not?

What difference has it made?

If everything went as you expected it to then the answer to this question is “take the next step” however it is rarely that simple. Often things happen you didn’t expect and things have changed as a result of your cycle of inquiry. It might be that the cycle failed and you need to try again so what has changed is your understanding of what works. Every real cycle of inquiry will ultimately make a difference of some sort.

What will you do as a result of it?

So what are your next steps? It might be you have to repeat the cycle of inquiry with different people with a different approach or maybe you’re going onto the next stage or maybe you’ve gone in a different direction so what are you going to do now that you’ve completed this cycle of inquiry. There is always something else to do, even if it is just “celebrate success.