New students

[James Glasheen]

Hi tutors. Are you running the MA course again from September next year?

If so, when will a would be student need to get their application in and will it take on a more remote teaching format as suggested?

Can you let me know ASAP please because I want to suggest it as an option to my intranet guys at AXA.

Cheers

[David]

James, we are planning to run the course again next year beginning in September. Prospective students can apply at any time from now and places can be confirmed now if requirements are met.

I currently have 3 new students for next year and we are just about to start marketing so I am hoping for a good cohort.

[James]

So did you get enough students to run a course this year David? I asked Terry but he referred me to you.

[David]

I am sorry to say that we have no students this year. Despite all the interest and all the people I spoke to over the last 6 months or so, we had just 2 applications. They were from foreign students, both of whom failed to get visas. A few months ago I felt sure we had at least 6 in the bag but in the end, they just didn't sign up.

This is not the end of the programme. As you might imagine, Tom and I are very keen to continue (although obviously we need some students!). This year we will be working on a distance/eLearning version of the programme which we will offer next year. We aim to do this in 2 stages, first we will offer a postgraduate "certificate" in web design. This will essentially be composed of modified versions of my webpage design course and Tom's content strategy course. The idea is that this could also be ported to other programmes within the University so that we are not dependent upon only our own students. On the basis of this certificate, students will be given the option to continue to the full MA.

The distance/eLearning mode seems to make absolute sense. The biggest concern that most people I spoke to expressed was 1. getting time off work and 2. time and cost involved in travelling to the campus.

Naturally, I've thought long and hard about the reasons for our failure. I think it is mainly to do with promotion and the way in which the University website and post-graduate prospectus are structured. Also that our target market seem to feel that the flexible mode is er... too inflexible. On the other hand, Tom and I have been running an AdWords campaign. Although we generated links to the site, it resulted in not a single enquiry. The only benefit to us is that we've learned a bit about AdWords.

It's not really for me to say but I think we have a pretty good programme. OK, it's a little rough round some of the edges and you guys have been instrumental in smoothing some of them out. I certainly would change a number of things for the future but I think we have an essentially good product so it's a little tough when you realise that no one wants to buy it.

Naturally, I'm disappointed that we've failed to recruit again but there's not the slightest chance of us giving up. This forum will remain up after you guys have finished and we will open to the public and hope to generate more interest that way.

Obviously, if you have any suggestions we'd love to hear them.

[James]

That's a shame David.

As I sit here, with about an hour's work left on my thesis, I can't believe it's nearly over! I've enjoyed the course immensely but I'm looking forward to a break from the computer for a few days now.

Naturally freedigitalphotos will continue to propser. I had a load of arty photos of a female model donated from a colleague today which I think will prove popular. No, not that sort of model :">

Actually I would like to be involved in future courses, if you need any help let me know.

I bumped into Tom as I walked across London Bridge last week. He was taking photos of the river - still waiting for him to submit them to my site!