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Business students learn soft skills via digital video at Lancaster University Management School

Press/Media: Teaching

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In a UK first for higher education, Lancaster University Management School is supplementing its teaching capabilities with expert soft skills learning content from Video Arts, to provide core practical skills for students on its business, management and marketing programmes.

The Management School has online access to 10 Video Arts programmes, covering issues such as working in teams, coaching, giving and receiving feedback, running meetings and understanding financial documents. Lecturers will be able to reinforce learning points, and illustrate the practical application of theory, by showing clips from these programmes in their live delivery. Students will also be able to access the full programmes in their own time.

"Our goal is to get our students as prepped and ready for the world of work as we possibly can," said Dr Peter Lenney, Senior Fellow of the Foundation for Management Education at LUMS. "The reality is it's not easy to be a good manager. We pride ourselves on our teaching in this area but so-called soft skills can be a challenge to put across. It made sense to supplement our capabilities with an expert in this field. That's why we chose Video Arts."

The Management School's course leaders will determine which aspects of the Video Arts programmes are most appropriate for their students.

"Streaming the video content online makes it very easy to deliver specific learning to large groups of students," said Dr Lenney. "The Video Arts programmes provide award-winning content that not only crystallises the important learning points but is also engaging and memorable. I first saw a Video Arts film in the 1980s and I've never forgotten its impact. It's great that we can now bring that quality of content to our student population. The skills that students will learn from these programmes are not only essential for corporate life, they'll also help them now to work more effectively together in teams and on projects."

The Management School has worked with Video Arts to SCORM-package the digital learning content so that it can be embedded into the University's virtual learning environment, enabling all usage of the Video Arts programmes to be tracked and monitored.

"We're now looking to extend the use of the Video Arts programmes, initially to other accounting, finance and economics courses in the Management School," said Dr Lenney. "We're also looking to add more programmes from Video Arts and to further extend usage to our alumni and to other departments within the University, such as engineering and medicine, that have a curriculum need for soft skills learning. Everyone who has seen the content so far has been very impressed."

Martin Addison, CEO of Video Arts, said: "We've enjoyed a long relationship with Lancaster University and it's no surprise that they're the first to explore the possibilities of offering digital learning to students in higher education, as they have a strong tradition of innovation. So-called soft skills can actually be the hardest skills to master and it's very refreshing to see a world-ranked management school take the lead in this way."

For further information, please visit www.videoarts.com  or call Video Arts on 0845 601 2531.

Background notes: Lancaster University Management School is one of the UK's top research-led business schools. It provides a full spectrum of undergraduate, postgraduate, PhD and executive programmes. www.lums.lancs.ac.uk

Video Arts, the world's leading provider of corporate video content, is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. The company, which pioneered the use of humour in management training, was founded in 1972 by John Cleese and Sir Antony Jay. As well as generic, tailored and custom video training, Video Arts provides e-learning and m-learning solutions from its iLearn portal. Part of the Tinopolis group, Video Arts has won over 200 awards for its learning content.

Period8/05/2012

In a UK first for higher education, Lancaster University Management School is supplementing its teaching capabilities with expert soft skills learning content from Video Arts, to provide core practical skills for students on its business, management and marketing programmes.

The Management School has online access to 10 Video Arts programmes, covering issues such as working in teams, coaching, giving and receiving feedback, running meetings and understanding financial documents. Lecturers will be able to reinforce learning points, and illustrate the practical application of theory, by showing clips from these programmes in their live delivery. Students will also be able to access the full programmes in their own time.

"Our goal is to get our students as prepped and ready for the world of work as we possibly can," said Dr Peter Lenney, Senior Fellow of the Foundation for Management Education at LUMS. "The reality is it's not easy to be a good manager. We pride ourselves on our teaching in this area but so-called soft skills can be a challenge to put across. It made sense to supplement our capabilities with an expert in this field. That's why we chose Video Arts."

The Management School's course leaders will determine which aspects of the Video Arts programmes are most appropriate for their students.

"Streaming the video content online makes it very easy to deliver specific learning to large groups of students," said Dr Lenney. "The Video Arts programmes provide award-winning content that not only crystallises the important learning points but is also engaging and memorable. I first saw a Video Arts film in the 1980s and I've never forgotten its impact. It's great that we can now bring that quality of content to our student population. The skills that students will learn from these programmes are not only essential for corporate life, they'll also help them now to work more effectively together in teams and on projects."

The Management School has worked with Video Arts to SCORM-package the digital learning content so that it can be embedded into the University's virtual learning environment, enabling all usage of the Video Arts programmes to be tracked and monitored.

"We're now looking to extend the use of the Video Arts programmes, initially to other accounting, finance and economics courses in the Management School," said Dr Lenney. "We're also looking to add more programmes from Video Arts and to further extend usage to our alumni and to other departments within the University, such as engineering and medicine, that have a curriculum need for soft skills learning. Everyone who has seen the content so far has been very impressed."

Martin Addison, CEO of Video Arts, said: "We've enjoyed a long relationship with Lancaster University and it's no surprise that they're the first to explore the possibilities of offering digital learning to students in higher education, as they have a strong tradition of innovation. So-called soft skills can actually be the hardest skills to master and it's very refreshing to see a world-ranked management school take the lead in this way."

For further information, please visit www.videoarts.com  or call Video Arts on 0845 601 2531.

Background notes: Lancaster University Management School is one of the UK's top research-led business schools. It provides a full spectrum of undergraduate, postgraduate, PhD and executive programmes. www.lums.lancs.ac.uk

Video Arts, the world's leading provider of corporate video content, is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. The company, which pioneered the use of humour in management training, was founded in 1972 by John Cleese and Sir Antony Jay. As well as generic, tailored and custom video training, Video Arts provides e-learning and m-learning solutions from its iLearn portal. Part of the Tinopolis group, Video Arts has won over 200 awards for its learning content.

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References

TitleBusiness students learn soft skills via digital video at Lancaster University Management School
Media name/outletPersonnel Today
Date8/05/12
PersonsPeter Lenney