The Distance Learning Experience – Student Engagement For over 20 years I've worked with Durham University Business School on a number of Distance Learning (DL) courses, and supervised students during their dissertations. An issue for me and others who deliver DL courses is how best to engage students, what the benefits are for them, for staff, and for the academic institution. I've been preparing a paper to Read More

Digitisation has come in for a lot of negative comments. People worry as is always the case about their future. Let's go back in time to one of the earliest advances, the wheel. Without the wheel things had to be carried or dragged, requiring a lot of labour. When the wheel arrived, how many people’s jobs might have been affected? Where four people could carry something, if there was a wheel only two would be needed: one at each end Read More

People take time to accept and implement change. Many of us are familiar with the princliples behind the figure developed by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and adapted for change management as shown here. The sequence from first hearing about the changing situation and what is required is familiar:immobilisation while being unable to accept that the existing ways need to change; then denying a need for change, then being frustrated with Read More