This case study is part of the Enhancing Learning through Assessment Series supported by the Subject Centre for Hospitality Leisure SPort and Tourism.
Both employers and the Quality Assurance Agency for higher education (QAA) require that Business Studies degrees prepare students for the world of work (QAA 2007). Besides knowledge and understanding and critical engagement however there are softer skills that pose serious challenges for all institutions to deliver. Knight and Page (2007) call these 'wicked competencies' skills that are highly valued by employers such as effective team working on-line collaboration giving and receiving feedback. They are also deemed to be difficult to assess.
As a team developing a new course Business Organisations and Their Environments we wanted to take on this challenge and using new learning technologies find ways of developing and assessing these competencies in ways that would enhance students' employability. We were particularly concerned to engage students in deep meaningful learning about the relationship between business theory and their day-to-day practice. Rather than the more traditional notion of applying theory to practice we hoped to encourage students to think of a more dialogic or reflexive relationship between the two.
