DEVELOPING MANAGEMENT COMPETENCIES THROUGH THE USE OF CONTEMPORARY DIGITAL TOOLS AND LEARNER-CENTRED PEDAGOGIES

This poster presents aspects of a study exploring the expectations, practices and lessons learnt in introducing 100% e-documentation, coursework and assessment for 240+ first year students on a campus-based undergraduate programme. The functionality of the University Virtual Learning Environment and its integration with the web-based e-assessment application - Waypoint Outcomes - were fully utilised through the exploitation of wikis for project management and documentation, discussion boards for project support and guidance, and personal blogs for individual diaries and personal reflective accounts.

The work is highly innovative in the way it combines blended learning with experiential project management and reflective group evaluations and individual diaries to support the development and assessment of management competencies.

The experience revealed some surprising results related to the way the students, all representing Generation Y, used the online resources. Despite their confidence in using mobile communication technologies and social networks, the student’s ability to locate and identify key points fell short of the expectations of the tutors. This was also the case with their competency in presenting information in a logical, user-friendly way. Subsequently, the time taken by tutors to complete the assessment process was affected and these issues were highlighted during the project debrief lecture.

The e-assessment and feedback were highly commended by the students and through various communication channels they have requested a wider adoption of these practices across their programme. Similarly, the students have identified and initiated further uses of wikis and blogs to support them in their studies.

It is our intention to extend this study in a longitudinal manner.