The
Workshop is now open for online and in-class teaching
and Learning, Business/Management and Research curriculum
and learning contents subscriptions, and available to International
Business Schools, Universities, Management Development and
Training Centres and their Students and Staff throughout
the world.
Finntrack
and its consultancy partners, British
Consultancy Ltd and British
Consultancy Charitable Trust, today offer business, management
and IT curriculum, learning contents, staff training programme and
free learner support units together with online and in-class teaching
services.
The
fully customised, module specific teaching and learning resources
include comprehensive learning contents and learner support units
which are available to all recognized business schools, colleges,
universities, training centres, corporations and public sector organisations
throughout the world from the 'learning centres' listed on the Online
Campus page and the panel above.
Trans-national
education (TNE) refers to the delivery of educational programmes,
award or credit bearing, by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs)
in countries other than their own. The study aimed to identify the
scale and pattern of current and planned trans-national education
(TNE) offered by UK HEIs.
The
UK-China-Hong Kong trans-national education report represents
the culmination of a significant research project undertaken
by Ning Tang and Andrea Nollent from the Centre for Education
Research and Social Inclusion at Sheffield Hallam University.
The research was commissioned by the British Council under PMI2
and was funded by the Education Sector Skills team at UK Trade
& Investment (UKTI).
As
a major global phenomenon, trans-national education (TNE) is
predicted to grow significantly over the next twenty years.
The UK government's interest in TNE, reflected in the PMI, emphasises
the importance of UK partnerships with overseas institutions.
It includes a wide variety of delivery modes, including: distance
and e-learning; validation and franchising arrangements; twinning
and other collaborative provision. In recognition of the importance
placed on TNE by the government, Mr Bill Rammell, Minister for
Life-long Learning and Higher Education, agreed to be interviewed
for this research.
The
intention in commissioning the research was to build a picture
of TNE between the UK and mainland China and Hong Kong, through
both market information and the experiences of institutions
and policy makers. In order to build a successful partnership,
it is important to understand the regulatory context in which
it is to develop, the motivations of the partners, the nature
of the partnership, and any potential pitfalls and obstacles.
This report will equip institutions with the information they
need when planning new partnerships. It is also hoped that the
research will help in some way in the long-term development
of TNE between the UK, mainland China and Hong Kong.
The
British Council would like to thank Ning Tang and Andrea Nollent
for their hard work and dedication to this project, and Richard
Parry and UKTI for their support in funding this research.
More
details of the partnership and collaborative agreements and their
implementation can be found
here.
Teaching
Plans and Learning Contents Design and Delivery
Finntrack and BCL/BCCT's business, management and related
programmes, courses, learning contents, learner support
and staff development units are designed to support in-class
teaching and self-direct study or can be customised to the
user institution's own syllabuses and/or adapted to distance
and open learning purposes for recognised universities,
business schools,colleges and corporate learning centres
throughout the world.
Programmes,
Courses and Workshops for Business Schools, Universities, Colleges,
Corporations and Training Centres
Undergraduate
Centre -
Undergraduate and Postgraduate Degree Courses for International
Institutions with Recognised Degree Awarding Powers
Postgraduate
Centre -
Undergraduate and Postgraduate Degree Courses for International
Institutions with Recognised Degree Awarding Powers
The
module specific learning contents are best described as e-learning
based support material for in-class teaching and learning. The current
material can be adapted for distance and open learning. All the
material is either based on our original, tried and tested output
or obtained from recognized sources, such as major publishers, acknowledged
authors and scholars who have placed their work freely accessible
online and intended
for the faculty backups and students' self-directed study support
without attempting to become a straight jacked or infringement of
academic freedom and creativity.
Each
module specific indicative teaching plan is linked to the relevant
downloadable material, such as text documents, Power Point or other
multimedia based presentation and include teaching
strategies and schedules, lectures and tutorials, assignments, assessments,
case studies and comprehensive learner support and staff development
units.
The
is also a range of subject specific workshops freely available for
classroom use, student revision, corporate training and development,
further reading, etc. purposes.
The
student/faculty ,
Strategios, has
provided free strategic management and research methodology courseware
for over 10 years. The major users of the Strategios resources appear
to be the students and teaching staff from universities and business
schools throughout the world.
Lectures
and Tutorials are conceptual instructor/lecturer inputs and
usually available from more than one subject specialist author.
Workshops
are intended as discussion topics and/or alternative lectures/tutorials,
student, faculty and instructor self-directed study and research,
further readings, etc.
Readings
are normally sourced from externally published abstracts, articles,
research report, etc and in this context, used for further readings,
lectures/tutorials and workshop updates.
Recommended
text books and journals,
mostly available for purchase from Amazon.com or campus based
bookshops. Some of the featured texts and publications may also
be available from a public library. Lecturers and students are
free to select their own reading material and substitute the recommended
texts according to the local availability, requirements of their
customised teaching plans, level of the course/module, institutions/learning
centres' specialization, personal interests and other individual
needs.
Assignments,
Assessments, Exercises
are offered as appropriate and may be varied by the lecturer/s
and instructors concerned.
Learner
Support and Staff Development Units
are intended to compensate for the diverse academic and experiential
background of the users. Apart from the induction periods at the
beginning of each semester, these resources, including Strategios
Courseware Library, are considered voluntary,
'dip-in' or self-directed study and revision resources.
The
Joint Finntrack and BCCT brief introductory Education Consultancy
projects (7-10 days) allow the specialist staff members to undertake:
business,
management and IT related curriculum, learning contents management
systems, and staff development needs analysis and recommend appropriate
strategies to enable the host institution to allocate and develop
their resources and practices to meet the international quality
standards.
learning management and instructional design seminar for the management
and staff at all levels
in-class
or online delivery of one of the following modules:
Finntrack
or BCCT's Advisory Assignments are normally short (4 - 6 weeks)
subject specific projects, whereas Finntrack/BCL Short or Longer-term
ConsultancyProject
Managed Education and/or Information Technology related fields
are carried out by the specialist staff according to a pre-agreed,
signed Terms
of Reference.
For
example, a consultancy project may involve areas
such as detailed in the following resources:
Instructional
Design is the practice of arranging media to help learners
and teachers transfer knowledge most effectively. The process
consists broadly of determining the current state of learner understanding,
defining the end goal of instruction, and creating some media-based
"intervention" to assist in the transition. Ideally the process
is informed by pedagogically tested theories of learning and may
take place in student-only, teacher-led or community-based settings.
The outcome of this instruction may be directly observable and
scientifically measured or completely hidden and assumed.
As
a field, Instructional Design is historically and traditionally
rooted in cognitive and behavioural psychology. However, because
it is not a regulated field, and therefore not well understood,
the term 'instructional design' has been co-opted by or confused
with a variety of other ideologically-based and / or professional
fields. Instructional Design, for example, is not Graphic Design
although graphic design (from a cognitive perspective) could play
an important role in Instructional Design. Preparing instructional
text by E. Misanchuk, and publications by James Hartley are
useful to informing the distinction between Instructional Design
and Graphic Design.
A
Virtual
Learning Environment (VLE) is a software
system designed to facilitate teachers in the management of educational
courses for their students, especially by helping teachers
and learners with course administration. The system can often
track the learners' progress, which can be monitored by both teachers
and learners. While often thought of as primarily tools for distance
education, they are most often used to supplement the face-to-face
classroom.
These
systems usually run on servers,
to serve the course to students as internet pages.
Components
of these systems usually include templates for content pages,
discussion forums, chat, quizzes and exercises such as multiple-choice,
true/false and one-word-answer. Teachers fill in these templates
and then release them for learners to use. New features in these
systems include blogs
and RSS.
Services generally provided include access
control, provision of e-learning
content, communication tools, and administration of the user groups.
A
Content
Management System (CMS) is a software
system used for content
management. This includes computer
files, image
media, audio
files, electronic
documents and web
content. The idea behind a CMS is to make these files available
inter-office, as well as over the web. A Content Management System
would most often be used as archival as well. Many companies use
a CMS to store files in a non-proprietary form. Companies using
a CMS file share with ease, as most systems use server based software,
even further broadening file availability. As shown below, many
Content Management Systems include a feature for Web Content,
and some have a feature for a "workflow process."
Instructional
Systems Design is the practice of arranging media to help
learners and teachers transfer knowledge most effectively. The
process consists broadly of determining the current state of learner
understanding, defining the end goal of instruction, and creating
some media-based "intervention" to assist in the transition. Ideally
the process is informed by pedagogically tested theories of learning
and may take place in student-only, teacher-led or community-based
settings. The outcome of this instruction may be directly observable
and scientifically measured or completely hidden and assumed.
As
a field, Instructional Design is historically and traditionally
rooted in cognitive and behavioural psychology. However, because
it is not a regulated field, and therefore not well understood,
the term 'instructional design' has been co-opted by or confused
with a variety of other ideologically-based and / or professional
fields. Instructional Design, for example, is not Graphic Design
although graphic design (from a cognitive perspective) could play
an important role in Instructional Design. Preparing instructional
text by E. Misanchuk, and publications by James Hartley are
useful to informing the distinction between Instructional Design
and Graphic Design.
Finntrack
and BCL are commercial organisations providing fee earning
consultants who undertake:
executive
responsibility when needed, and
assignments
of any duration, including those requiring relocation.
BCCT
is a voluntary organisation providing volunteer advisers who
undertake:
advisory
tasks
short
term assignments of up to four months.
BCL
operate throughout the world, particularly in BCL in
developing economies and has associations with a number
of specialists such as intergovernmental CABI BioScience
in agriculture, Edinburgh Risk in security and logistics,
and JM Parry in intermediate technology. We have around
300 consultants on our database. We can supply individual
Consultants or can manage small and large-scale multi-disciplinary
projects over long periods or can operate as a subcontractor.
We can arrange commercial deals for clients if required.
BCCT
offers Volunteers to clients unable to afford consultancy
fees. We operate throughout the developing world on
assignments not covered by our partner organisation
VSO who run specific programmes currently in 34 countries.
BCL
sometimes operate in the countries where VSO has programmes
but we make sure that we are not duplicating with each other.
BCCT currently draws most of its volunteers from VSO’s
BESO register
and is building its own database. Our link with VSO is helpful
to us in finding highly experienced people with an interest
in volunteering. Many such people are more than happy to be
a BCCT Volunteer as well as remaining available to VSO. For
further information on BCCT. If you wish to submit an application
for a Volunteer please click Client Applications on this web
site, and complete on-line.
The
two companies were formed in April 2005 consequent upon the
merger of BESO
with VSO. Within the first 6 months we had appointed 10 overseas
representatives and undertaken around 40 assignments.
If
you have good contacts with Business Schools, Universities, Colleges
and/or Businesses in your country or region and would like to represent
Finntrack, please contact our here.
We
would be pleased to hear from you.
