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Customised executive education, designed for and delivered to individual client companies by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), differs in important ways from award-bearing courses. One area in which these differences are surprisingly extensive is in the use of technology. We explore the impact of technology-enhanced learning (TEL) on course design, delivery and evaluation of customised executive education. In doing so, we contrast this form of learning with MOOCs, which use TEL in a different way, for a different audience.

We begin with the ‘two-client’ problem. In customised executive programmes, course design is done collaboratively between the HEI and the corporate client, reflecting the particular learning needs of the selected participants as perceived by the commissioning client. We find that the level of TEL in any programme will reflect the learning needs, and also the level of TEL sophistication, of both client and academics.

We then consider the successful integration of TEL into customised executive education. TEL can enrich a course great, but will also mean a loss of academic control, as a significant amount of the learning will be peer-to-peer, and much of the information-gathering can take place outside the classroom.

We conclude with the outcomes and success measures of customised executive education. The institutional disruption of TEL to the HEI is considerable, as their traditional business model is based on rewarding academics for research and for classroom-hours. This needs to be rethought where the classroom element is reduced, but there is constant online interaction with participants.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a case study that identifies the practical issues and implications of employer engagement through course design, delivery and employee commitment in a higher education course delivered in the financial services sector.

Using a case study the paper draws on the course team (employer and university) experience of a higher education course delivered at a financial services institution over a two cohort period. Student application data and student feedback are used to identify the practical issues arising from course.

The paper emphasises the importance of understanding the business of the employer, bespoke delivery models and employee commitment for increasing employer participation in higher skills in the work place, particularly for employers not traditionally engaging with universities for course delivery at undergraduate level.

The paper explores issues for employers and universities for design, delivery and sustainability of higher skills in the work place.

The quality of academic programs is drastically affected by the design of the courses within the program. The design and delivery of courses are the most essential elements for building quality in academic programs. The purpose of this paper is to customize the techniques of quality function deployment (QFD) for designing courses and demonstrate its use in the design of a basic statistics course in the Department of Systems Engineering, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals. In this study, organizations from industry are used as external customers. Faculty members and students are utilized as internal customers to identify the course technical requirements. Then QFD process planning matrices are used for developing several alternative course design concepts. Then based on a simple decision criterion the design concept that closely meets customer requirements is identified. The result of the analysis is a balanced basic statistics course.

Most educational institutions worldwide have shifted to online teaching and learning approaches to mitigate risks imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. This causes several issues, particularly in delivering the construction management (CM) courses which require site visits, interpreting technical drawings and developing 3D building models. This paper aims to identify the key strategies for online learning and teaching adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic and to investigate the implications for construction management education.

The research approach is twofold. First, the study presents a systematic literature review (SLR) through a synthesis of the existing literature to identify the key strategies and lessons learned about online education during the COVID-19 pandemic in tertiary programs. It also discusses their implications in the context of the construction management (CM) sector in particular. Secondly, the authors shared their hands-on experience as construction management course facilitators – using the autoethnography approach – during the COVID-19 crisis.

In addition to identifying the key strategies such as online course delivery and assessments, the paper critically discusses the barriers to online learning and teaching, including (1) the technological and infrastructure barriers; (2) required online teaching skills and competencies; (3) issues surrounding mental health and wellbeing; (4) lack of consistency in the online delivery of various courses in a given program (5) difficulties around students' engagement and (6) the course characteristics and requirements.

The study offers some implications and recommendations not only for educational institutions and staff but also for vendors of online course delivery software. To prepare educational institutions for future online course delivery, the paper proposes several strategies. These include developing a set of guidelines for online course delivery, incorporating online teaching training modules into the recruitment process for academic staff, applying agile and resilience teaching and learning methods, wellbeing and mental health support and continuously improving course features to adapt to the online environment.

HyFlex course design is an effective instructional course design that combines active and transformative learning techniques. HyFlex course design encourages active learning by focusing on interactive activities, discussions, and collaboration. It also allows learners to collaborate effectively and flexibly as a community, providing peer support and opportunities for authentic dialogue and learning experiences. HyFlex course design provides the opportunity for transformative learning through its ability to offer personalized educational experiences to individuals. It facilitates greater customization of the learning experience, allowing individual learners to access tailored educational modules, offer personalized educational experiences to individuals, and effectively develop and build independent and critical thinking skills. This conceptual review, supported by implications from HyFlex literature and triangulated with experts' views undertaking a Delphi study, facilitates understanding the current state of research in HyFlex course design and future application strategies. Existing research has identified HyFlex courses as a promising means of engaging students in active learning. Allowing students to learn through flexibly predesigned mixed online and in-person experiences enables higher levels of student autonomy and supports students in taking more ownership of their learning. This approach can facilitate an understanding of how HyFlex courses can improve active learning practices in higher education. The review study findings identify the reported alignment issues and challenges, suggest four strategies and actions for policymakers and stakeholders, and provide a suggested research agenda for bridging identified research gaps.

Future research can provide evidence of the benefits of HyFlex course design and how flexible course design can address the challenges of traditional face-to-face courses, such as reduced student engagement, lack of student-centered approaches, and limited support for different learning styles. Further research can focus on strategies that can be used to promote active learning in HyFlex courses. Moreover, research can investigate how this kind of course design can equip educators with the skills and knowledge needed to design and implement effective and meaningful active learning experiences. Finally, research can assess the potential impact of HyFlex course design on student outcomes, including performance, satisfaction, and engagement.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the lived experiences from the voice of the authors (a science professor, an instructional designer, a distance learning doctoral intern, and a distance learning director) in the process of transitioning a face-to-face science course to online modality at a large, research university.

The method of this qualitative inquiry involves a personal narrative approach in which the authors reflect on their experiences of this process and analyze it through writing.

The findings examine the challenges of moving a traditional course online and reiterate the value of a team approach to ensure its quality. The narrative offers clarity to the different phases of such a project and can enhance decision making among those involved in course design and delivery, as well as administrators incentivizing the conversion of traditional courses to the online modality.

Online education has emerged as a viable solution. The challenges and rewards of transitioning face-to-face courses to distance learning modalities are well documented, even for a senior science educator.

Universities face several modern day challenges, including reductions in state appropriations, lack of available space for classes, challenges of engaging a technologically savvy generation, and preparing students for a global marketplace.

To support faculty members’ transition to online education, universities offer instructional design support, where ideas are exchanged with faculty members to ensure pedagogically sound and engaging distance learning. The authors conclude with recommendations for both practice and future research in the area of practice and process improvement for diffusion of online courses at traditional universities, one course at a time. This is important to those beginning to transition course offerings online.

This article discusses the experiences of a university's business school in enhancing the preparation of undergraduates through the innovative design and delivery of Business Policy, the capstone course taken by all business students.

The case discusses the proactive approaches taken to explicitly align efforts between thinking and doing, for both faculty course designers and student participants alike.

Ten strategic areas of innovation and improvement are identified and discussed as areas for individual course alignment as well as the impetus for college and university business program development and delivery.

These innovations can be replicated by other institutions to enhance graduates' career preparation, pursue greater consistency with their organization's mission, develop external stakeholder engagement, and enhance internal collaboration with colleagues within the business school and across the university.

The unique value of this innovative and multifaceted approach was recognized by AACSB International, the elite accrediting agency for business schools, in several articles and at a conference on undergraduate program innovation.

This article aims to ask how Michael Porter’s seminal notions of generic competitive strategy may be applied to an emerging university industry where course design and delivery is conceived of as able to be undertaken using distinctive modes.

The study is principally a polemic piece. However, its method is to view course delivery modes as generic strategies and overlay these on Porter’s strategy grid. Each mode of course delivery is viewed as a strategy because it is associated with a rationale that can be reconciled with the axes of advantage that Porter has defined. These axes are “kind of benefit” and “target market”.

The study finds four generic methods of tertiary course delivery. These can be placed – largely without ambiguity – on Porter’s grid.

Further research may recreate findings using methods that draw on more data; possibly, survey evidence or multiple interviews, etc.

The work has implications for university administrators and strategic planners within the tertiary sector. It connects sector-specific planning with theory and research about Porter’s generic strategies.

The article has public policy implications. It offers a portrait of how public-sector education is likely to look in a deregulated context. It offers implicit advice of securing competitive advantage for individual institutions.

The article undertakes an exercise that has not been done before. The theory used for interpretation purposes is likely to be unfamiliar to those interested in planning within the tertiary sector (particularly, the public sector), although care is taken to justify new application of the theory.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the development of students’ commercial awareness within the curriculum of professional accredited courses. The targeted area of study is the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) accredited property courses. This paper also discusses how the curriculum of RICS-accredited courses can be designed to successfully incorporate commercial awareness within them and suitable delivery methods for developing this within the curriculum. Commercial awareness is one of the most important employability skills, however, employers have expressed dissatisfaction with graduates’ performance in this area.

This paper presents the research findings of two sets of questionnaire surveys, as well as interviews and e-mail discussions with the course directors and current students of the RICS-accredited property courses in the UK. Descriptive analysis was used to analyse the questionnaire data. Fisher’s exact test was used to identify the statistical significance between academics’ and students’ views on the development of students’ commercial awareness as part of the RICS-accredited property courses’ curriculum. Content analysis was used to analyse the texts in the questionnaire survey, interviews and e-mail discussions.

Academics and students involved with the UK RICS-accredited property courses agreed that commercial awareness is an important employability skill in the property sector and they mostly agreed on the definitions of commercial awareness, except in their “understanding of the wider business environment”. They also agreed that commercial awareness has three components: strategic, financial and process. Academics and students agreed that the commercial awareness components and process sub-components are largely incorporated into the curriculum of RICS-accredited property courses but they have divergent opinions on the level of incorporation of strategic and financial sub-components. A suitable way to deliver commercial awareness in RICS-accredited property courses is to incorporate it into the overall curriculum, ensuring that the components of commercial awareness are closely linked to the RICS APC and match relevant competency levels. They also commented that including practical experience in the curriculum is the most useful way to develop a student’s commercial awareness.

This paper is the first to discuss the development of commercial awareness in professional accredited courses such as RICS-accredited property courses and also identifies suitable methods to enhance students’ commercial awareness as part of the curriculum. The research findings can also be applied to other professional accredited courses that have a strong vocational focus, such as nursing, engineering and accountancy. These courses are usually accredited by relevant professional organisations and students studying these courses usually plan to embark on a career in a relevant profession. The design of the course curriculum has a strong focus on equipping students with the essential competencies to develop their careers within the relevant field.

While larger tourism enterprises benefit from a graduate management intake and continuing executive development, the owner of the small tourism operation is limited in continuing education and professional development opportunities due to resource poverty, lack of appropriate and available tertiary tourism education. This chapter details the pedagogical and technological challenges faced by the education team at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) in developing and implementing an innovative blended learning degree, customised to meet the requirements of the entrepreneur for a sense of involvement, relevance and flexibility. Understanding how to harmonise blended learning with face-to-face PBL was the cornerstone of success in the design and implementation of the programme and the insights gained will provide guidelines to educators who are responsible for the development of relevant and accessible business degree programmes for owner/managers of micro/small business enterprises.