1. Shaping the curriculum through
curricular, co-curricular and extracurricular activities.
Linda Johnson, Helen Pokorny and
John Curran
London Metropolitan University
Derek Browne
Entrepreneurs in Action

2. CURRICULAR
EMPHASIS
Encourage participation and attendance through peer working and
active engagement in seminars with ongoing feedback.
Vary delivery methods – minimising lectures.
Mapping of a subset of 15 skills to be introduced, practised and
assessed through the curriculum.
Including the less visible skills of reading and note-making as a part
of the skill of writing.
Mapping a variety of assessments, no exams in first semester, no
more than two summative components,limited group assessment
A course team approach to the student experience was developed –
including module leader meetings

3. Ethnicity Profile
BABM
Non BABM
White 24%
Black 29%
South Asian 21%
Asian Other 11%
Other 4%
Not Known 6%
Mixed 6%
White 43%
Black 23%
South Asian 9%
Asian Other 8%
Other 3%
Not known 8%
Mixed 5%

4. Expectations-week 3
79% BABM students expected to be
working mainly with other students in
class as opposed to 48% of ‘non BABM’
25.2% of BABM students saw other
students as source of feedback as
opposed to 7.5% of ‘non BABM’ sample
and 85.3% of BABM students would ask a
friend first if stuck

5. Week 10 Questionnaire
I have a good sense of what is expected.
(92% BABM) (93% Non BABM)
My experience has been a positive one.
(89% BABM) (85% Non BABM)
Feedback opportunities are available.
(89% BABM) (72% Non BABM)
Support is available.
(92% BABM) (70% Non BABM)

6. How confident do you feel about
your studies? (end of first term)
BABM % Non BABM%
Very confident 1
6%
7%
2
36%
25%
3
39%
43%
4
18%
14%
1%
11%
Not at all confident 5

7. Self-reported
Attendance
Average Number of sessions missed
across all modules by BABM students is
1.36 sessions per student.
The average number of session missed
by non-BABM students across all
modules is 3.96 sessions per student.

8. BABM student comments
•
I was thinking university was going to be like so
complex in the sense that everyone’s just busy,
helter skelter, here and there. If you don’t come
to uni, no one is going to bother you. But I
found it quite different because if you don’t
come to uni, you get e-mails from tutor saying
why is your attendance not this, not that. So to
be honest, kind of like college
the seminar is basically , it’s smaller and you
can interact more with the tutor or you can
express your feelings. And a lecture there’s so
many people so often sometimes you get
distracted or you are shy to ask questions.

9. BABM student comments
I think there is a lot of support because after we
spend time in the computer room and then the
teacher shows us, helps us with the process.
And also there’s a peer support group that you
can go to… I went to one of them. I think that’s
very helpful.
We give support to each other. For example if
someone is not able to do something or doesn’t
understand there will be someone there who
has already done that. And then, they will be
more than willing to give them advice

10. CO- CURRICULAR
Derek Browne
Entrepreneurs in
Action
‘Week 7 activities’
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=aVO8yayBy6o

11. EXTRA CURRICULAR
Student Leadership project
(training, coach and
Community project)
Student Newsletter
Competitions
e.g. IBM Business
Challenge,SIFE

12. EXTRA CURRICULAR
STUDENT LEADERSHIP PROJECT
This training made me review myself
and the way I go about things – feel more confident
Gave me self belief
Learnt about commitment
Learning more about myself
Training very inspiring

13. Module Analysis
Initial analysis of the pilot cohort shows
an improvement in pass rates between
previous and current versions of the same
module.
This appears to be particularly so for
BME students.
Further investigation of the data will be
undertaken to explore this outcome
further.

14. References
Curran,J. Djebbour, Y. Johnson J. and Pokorny H. (2000) Look who’s
here: engagement and attendance initiatives.
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/business/projects/detail/trdg/200809/0809trdg_Linda_Johnson_LMU
Djebbour Y Johnson, L. and Pokorny H, (2008) ‘Re-visiting the first
year experience’ Presented to the Higher Education Academy,
Business, Management and Accountancy Subject Centre Annual
Conference, April, Edinburgh.
Hand, L. and Bryson, C. (2008) Student Engagement, SEDA Special
22.
Kember, D., Lee, K. and Li, N. (2001) ‘Cultivating a sense of
belonging in part-time students’, International Journal of Lifelong
Education, 20, 4, 326-341.
Pokorny, H. and Pickford, P. (2010) ‘Complexity, cues and
relationships in student feedback.’ Active Learning in Higher
Education, Volume 11, Number 1.