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Teaching

You are taught through a combination of synchronous and asynchronous online teaching. The asynchronous learning will involve engaging with pre-prepared presentations and materials at a time that is convenient to you. The synchronous learning is all online and will be scheduled on fixed days, enabling you to engage with this course around other employment. The synchronous learning allows you to be a part of the learning community at the university.

The synchronous teaching will all take place during term time. The University places emphasis on enabling students to develop the independent learning capabilities that will equip you for lifelong learning and future employment, as well as academic achievement. A mixture of independent study, teaching and academic support from Student Services and Library Services, and the personal academic tutoring system enables you to reflect on your progress and build up a profile of skills, achievements and experiences that will help you to flourish and be successful.

Location of teaching

Course is delivered fully online.

Contact time

The courses are front-loaded, so you would receive synchronous online teaching for 2 hours per week, followed by 6 hours of directed study using the online course materials. As you progress through the course, the teaching reduces to give you time to prepare for your assessments.

Independent self study

In addition to the contact time, you are expected to undertake around 16 hours of personal self-study per week. Typically, this will involve completing online activities, reading journal articles and books, working on projects, undertaking online research in the library, preparing assignments and presentations.

Following the initial teaching input, there will be 40 hours (spread over 4 weeks) of independent study time to complete your assessments.

Independent learning is supported by a range of excellent learning facilities, including The Hive and library resources, the virtual learning environment, and extensive electronic learning resources.

Duration

One year part time

Timetables

Timetables are normally available one month before registration.

Teaching staff

You will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course. Teaching is informed by research and consultancy, and all of the lecturers who teach on the course have a Higher Education teaching qualification and hold Qualified Teacher Status. The majority of lecturers have their Masters’ qualification or higher and some are Fellows of the Higher Education Academy. You can learn more about the staff by visiting our ‘Meet the Experts’ pages.

Assessment

The course provides opportunities to test understanding and learning informally through the completion of practice or ‘formative’ assignments.

Each module has one or more formal or ‘summative’ assessments which are graded and count towards the overall module grade. Assessment methods include a range of coursework assessments such as essays, reports and presentations, dependent on the optional module you choose. There are no examinations.

The precise assessment requirements for an individual student in an academic year will vary according to the mandatory and optional modules taken, but a typical formal summative assessment pattern for each year of the course is one 30 credit assignment in semester one, and two 15 credit modules in semester two.

You will receive formative feedback on your assignments which you will use to inform your summative assessments. Formative feedback will be provided within 20 working days of hand-in.

Feedback is intended to support learning and you are encouraged to discuss it with personal academic tutors and module tutors as appropriate.