Matthew France

Curriculum design and development is a vital higher education (HE) agenda item at both departmental and institutional level. Issues of internationalisation, widening participation, sector competition, oversight as well the increasingly market focused culture of the HE sector have placed a challenge on academics to be reflective, creative and open minded in how they approach curriculum development. A well-documented area of curriculum development involves the increasing use of technology as a pedagogic tool. Through a small scale quantitative study, this paper will seek to examine the impact of technology (Socrative) on the learning experiences of eight business management students at a UK university. Feedback from the respondents indicates that Socrative can have a positive impact on students' comprehension of the curriculum materials. The purpose of this study is to help promote best practice and explore new strategies for technology supported pedagogy in management education.

The modern higher education learning environment has become increasingly underpinned by virtual pedagogic tools, which are able to enhance the learning experience of students. This study seeks to investigate the effectiveness of social media app Whatsapp in helping enhance the postgraduate student experience. Through a qualitative approach, feedback was gathered regarding the lived experiences of twelve management postgraduate students at a UK university during the course of 2018. The feedback of the students in the study indicated that whilst Whatsapp does provide several positive benefits and opportunities for postgraduate students e.g. a more interactive and accessible learning context as well quality and speed of feedback; the use of Whatsapp as a learning tool does raise some important questions regarding issues of in-class tension, communication barriers and privacy.

The degree apprenticeship was introduced in 2015 and touted as one of the biggest developments in the higher education sector in several decades (Rowe et al., 2016). A key aspect of the rationale for its introduction is the critical need for the UK to produce more commercially aware graduates. This approach is dependent on collaboration between Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and key stakeholders such as employees, employers and professional bodies. HEIs need to be effective in how they identify potential partners and opportunities; in addition to identifying new partners, the HEI will seek to establish the partnership with the partner organisation, this involves identifying the relevant skills gap (s) and developing the appropriate academic content, material, schedule and platform of learning to meet stakeholder needs.
These challenges have presented HEIs with a number of questions to be considered. In particular, is it the role of the academic staff to identify commercial opportunities and then to build and maintain those relationships? If it is the role of academic staff, then how are they being managed and developed in order to carry out these seemingly less academic but more commercial activities? Through a series of semi-structured interviews with an academic responsible for leading a newly developed Chartered Management Degree Apprenticeship (CMDA) at a UK university, the project has sought to investigate some of the opportunities and challenges experienced during programme development and delivery. Respondent feedback suggested that the degree apprenticeship represents a meaningful and dynamic delivery model but that any benefits must be balanced against some of the issues and anxieties potentially experienced by staff when transitioning into their new roles.