Making a difference
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| 3 Tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) | |
| End-of-course assessment | Includes residential school |
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This course is available for study in the countries shown. Fees may vary by country.
Summary
This course consolidates your ability to make a real difference to organisational performance as a manager or leader. It should be studied towards the latter part of your study programme, as it builds on learning and assessment of previous courses. You’ll undertake some preliminary work on the integration of theory, practice and learning before embarking on a largely self-directed programme focusing on a management initiative of your own choosing, in which we’ll support you with resources and guidance. The course aims to enable you to make a difference in your own organisation and to enhance your own personal and professional development.
This course is offered with a combination of face-to-face and online tuition. If you would prefer entirely online tuition please use the course code BZX830.
Course content
This 30–point course provides a compulsory, personal and professional development component within several masters degrees. It is presented over one year, with two start dates each year. The high-level learning aims of the course include: to enable you to develop the skills to make a real difference to organisational performance as a manager/leader; to develop and demonstrate a capability for critical and self-directed learning; and to develop and demonstrate the capability to apply other masters-level theoretical and practical learning integratively to the problems and opportunities in your own management practice.
The teaching, learning and assessment of B830 are organised explicitly on developmental lines, with a clear focus on the processes of implementation in management. The first part of the course is a structured appraisal of your own experience, practice and context. It draws on core material on the integration of theory, practice and learning in making a difference. Arising from that initial work, you will be responsible, during the second, major part of the course for a largely self-directed and independently-managed programme of work and study based on a specific initiative in your own organisation/context that you will identify and progress up to and beyond the design of an implementation plan. You will be provided with guidance on how to choose, plan and undertake your initiative. Additional resources will be made available for you to draw on in order to work through the different stages and dimensions of your initiative. There are specific requirements on the use of theory from a range of areas in the course of your initiative, along with a requirement to submit appropriate evidence to support your work and your learning. You will be directed to the sorts of resources you will need to identify and access for yourself as part of the initiative. You will be given clear guidance on how to draw up, for assessment purposes, a proposal and plan for your initiative and a report on its progress and outcomes.
There is a compulsory residential school at an early stage of your initiative. This will provide additional support and inputs, alongside the individual and group support you receive from your tutor, the printed and web-based resources, online tuition and collaboration and face-to-face day schools. Throughout the course you will be expected to monitor your own learning and development; reflection on what you have learnt from the course will be an important part of the later assessment activities.
Vocational relevance
The course recognises the strong emphasis placed by students and their employers on the value of the effective practical application of course-based learning. B830 has, therefore, been designed to meet these requirements, particularly in relation to you developing and demonstrating a capability for critical and self-directed learning and a capability to apply masters-level learning integratively to real-world problems and opportunities.
It is anticipated that the content of this course, especially the requirement to undertake and report on an evidence-based initiative will make a significant contribution to a submission for accreditation by a professional body or to a portfolio for assessment. The course has been recognised by the Chartered Management Institute and gives exemption from some of the accreditation requirements in the Chartered Manager Programme. Some of your B830 work could be also used in the evidence required for a level 5 NVQ (in England, Wales and Northern Ireland) although we are not currently planning to provide a VQ Pathways Guide.
Residential school
The broad aims of the school are to provide you with:
- Opportunities to share the early stages of your initiative with other B830 students
- A supportive environment in which to do some shared work on the issues, challenges and aspirations that you currently face in your own practice as a manager
- Activities to explore further the core themes and approaches of B830 and their implications for you and your own organisational context.
- Space to take stock of your own development as a manager and to look forward to your continuing professional development
Satisfactory attendance is required at the residential school in order to gain credit for this course.
However, an alternative learning experience (ALE) will be available online for those students who have exceptional circumstances which prevent them from attending the residential school.
The cost of the residential school is included in the course fee. See our Residential Schools website for more information.
Entry
You must have studied a Stage 1 and a Stage 2 compulsory course of an OUBS masters degree before taking B830 (for example, Strategy (B820), Shaping public policy: contexts and processes (B856)). Furthermore, you should have studied a Stage 2 option course before taking B830. If not, when you start B830, you must also start a Stage 2 option course and complete this alongside B830. If you have any doubt about the best time to start B830, please contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service.
Qualifications
B830 is a compulsory course in our
- MBA (F02)
- MBA (Technology Management) (F03)
- Master of Public Administration (F44)
- MBA (Life Sciences) (F38)
Some postgraduate qualifications allow study to be chosen from other subject areas. We advise you to refer to the relevant qualification descriptions for information on the circumstances in which this course can count towards these qualifications because from time to time the structure and requirements may change.
If you have a disability or additional requirement
The course materials are available in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). Some Adobe PDF components may not be available or fully accessible using a screen reader. Large print versions of the course materials can be provided on request. Other alternative formats of the course materials may be available in the future. Our Services for disabled students website has the latest information about availability.
You will need to spend extensive amounts of time using a personal computer and the internet. After you have registered you will receive detailed information about the residential school site and the facilities available to help with the academic programme.
If you are a new student, or new to courses using a computer or the internet, you will need to inform us of your particular needs as soon as possible, as some of our support services may take several weeks to arrange. Details of how to do this and our range of support services are described in our booklets Meeting Your Needs and Meeting your residential school needs, which you can download or request from our Student Registration & Enquiry Service.
You can also find information about accessible course materials, financial support and the Disabled Students' Allowance, equipment and other services, on our Services for disabled students website. It also includes our contact details for advice and support both before you register and while you are studying.
Course materials
What's included
Course books, other printed material, online forums, course website, downloaded software, extensive electronic journal articles and book chapters and access to the full electronic resources of the OU library.
Computing requirements
This course includes online computer activities – you can access these using a web browser that can play Flash and Shockwave.
You will need internet access and a computer. If you have purchased a new computer since 2002 it should meet your course computing requirements. Check our Technical Requirements section if your computer is older than this or is otherwise unusual.
Teaching and assessment
Support from your tutor
You will have a tutor who will help you work through the course programme and mark and comment on your written work, and whom you can ask for advice and guidance. You will contact your tutor by telephone, correspondence, email and online forums. We will offer day schools that you are strongly encouraged, but not obliged, to attend. Where day schools are held depends on the distribution of students taking each course. In some instances, online day schools may also be provided. The course website enables you to have online interaction with your tutor and other students. Contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service if you want to know more about study with The Open University before you register.
Assessment
The assessment details for this course can be found in the facts box above.
You will be expected to submit your tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) online through the eTMA system unless there are some difficulties which prevent you from doing so. In these circumstances, you must negotiate with your tutor to get their agreement to submit your assignment on paper.
Given that much of B830 is self-directed, the assignments are the key milestones around which you organise your work on the course. The assessment timetable will support a degree of flexibility on your part, enabling you to make some adjustment to your workload to suit your own study pattern, and the specific demands of your own initiative. This may involve doing the majority of the work in the earlier or later stages of the course. You will be required in the first two assignments to set out your plans for organising your time across the whole course. The end-of-course assessment is marked by an ‘independent assessor’.
Students also studied
Students who studied this course also studied at some time:
Future availability
The details given here are for the course that starts in May and November 2010. We expect it to be available twice a year.
How to register
To register a place on this course return to the top of the page and use the Click to register button. For more information and advice about registration see OU Study Explained.
About this page
A postgraduate course in Business and Management and Health and Social Care.
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Student Reviews
Having passed B830 (with distinction) my MBA journey has come to an end. In principle, culminating the learning experience with ...
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I found B830 a challenging course but also a very good one. Challenging because it is designed to make you ...
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