Abstract:

Nottingham Trent University and specifically Nottingham Business School are increasingly regarded as at the forefront of innovation within academia (The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide, 2018). This being ratified by a number of recent accolades and accreditations to include EQUIS and AACSB (The Guardian, 2018; Financial Times, 2018). The University’s strategic intent focuses upon ‘creating the University of the future’. Two of the principles of this strategy seek to ‘create opportunity’ and ‘connect globally’. A resultant action of pursuing these goals can be seen in the recent expansion of online learning, underpinned by a new structure which incorporates Flexible and Online Learning.

Over the numerous options available to an educational provider intending to establish online provision, the University selected to partner with a Higher Education Services provider, in order to contribute certain services to the partnership, to include; marketing, recruitment, project management and instructional design. The pilot programmes for this venture included three postgraduate programmes from three different academic Schools; an MBA, Msc in Construction Project Management and MA in International Relations. There are some notable implications of this decision, both positively and negatively; with the key concern being the impact upon student experience.

Subsequently, this paper seeks to assess the value of the relationship and share experiences, particularly with regard to student experience. To do this, a qualitative, interpretivist approach will be taken in which the author (who is also a programme leader) will draw upon in depth interviews with key stakeholders of the project in addition to various forms of student evaluation. It is hoped that by sharing these experiences, it will enable other academics and institutions, in a similar position, to make an informed choice regarding the benefits of partnership and collaboration for online learning development. To date, whilst there is a growing body of research from a pedogogical perspective that concerns the characteristics of online learning (Arbaugh, 2018), its challenges and its design (Arkoful and Abaidoo, 2015; Porter, 2015; Porter, Graham, Spring and Welch, 2014; Richey and Klein, 2014); there is an apparent lack of attention to the modes through which online learning can be established. Something that this research seeks to remedy.

Keywords:

Online learning, MBA, development, partnership, academic service provider.