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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)Why have you launched online programmes in Market Research - An Introduction and Questionnaire Design? Most importantly, we think this is an exciting new way to learn. You can focus on the topics you are particularly interested in and choose activities that suit your learning style. You can access it from home or from your office at any time, so you can fit it around your other commitments. But why these topics? Both research skills courses have proved to be very popular face-to-face courses. The business skills courses are for those who want to brush up on their business and leadership skills. I could just go on an ordinary course for that! You could, and if that is what you think would suit you best, you should sign up for one of our courses. The online programmes will give you the opportunity to look into something in much more detail, and you can choose exactly what you do - you don't have to listen to other people on the course discussing something that you are not interested in. Also, you don't have to travel to London and you can do it whenever you like. Lots of people find it very useful to be able to fit their professional development around their work. So how much detail is there? The courses have been designed to give you as much detail as you want. You can carry on for as long as you continue to think you are getting something out of it. So how much does it cost? Market Research - An Introduction is £175 + VAT And what do I get for that? You get access to the research skills courses for 120 days. Each course has been designed to provide around 8 -10 hours of online learning that you can use at any time you like. You get access to the business skills courses for 60 days. Each course has been designed to provide around 3-4 hours of online learning that you can use at any time you like. Can I see it? If you visit the Additional Information page you lots of information about the approach of the courses and their contents, as well as screenshots of the courses. Can I go into one and have a look around? No, but this section includes a series of screen shots so that you can see how it all works and what it looks like. So what do you actually send me when I pay? An access key and details of how to proceed. It seems like a lot to pay when I don't get to keep it! It's a lot less expensive than 8 hours in a classroom. Our face-to-face course costs £295 + VAT for members and £435 + VAT for non-members. Also with a classroom event you don't get any extended access, so this is much more flexible. But you could say that about a CD Rom and I get to keep that That's true. We believe the learning is much more dynamic and real online, linking to real examples and resources. In any case the average price of a CD Rom on a topic like this is over £500. What hardware and software do I need at my end? You need a computer that is connected to the Internet. You don't need any software other than a browser. The courses will work with a PC or a Mac, and with Internet Explorer (version 4 or later) or Netscape (version 4 or later). What is this 'approach' or 'philosophy' you mentioned? We believe the important thing in professional development is to put you in charge. We encourage you to state your own objectives and plan your own route through the programme. And we offer alternative ways of engaging with each topic based on your learning style. It really is a personalised learning experience. It is based on a piece of thinking that is best explained with a diagram:
The right hand side of the diagram, focused learning, describes the kind of educational experience we all remember from school or college. A group of people - the class - all start in the same place and are all taken through the same curriculum at the same pace with a view to getting them to the same end point. This works fine in formal education and is pretty efficient. However, in adult learning, this is sometimes not appropriate. Every individual has different experiences and different skills and knowledge. This calls for a more diffused learning approach. People have different jobs and are looking for different answers for their different questions. Add to that the fact that each person has a different background and different prior knowledge, and it seems clear to us that making them all do the same thing might not work. There may be people who qualified 20 years ago using the same resource as those who took their finals 2 years ago. In the classroom this can be quite irritating as you spend time on questions you are not interested in. But online, taking them all through the same programme doesn't make any sense at all and isn't necessary. So unlike other systems you won't find a 'next screen' button anywhere, and you definitely won't see a 'screen 1 of 23' message. That was a long answer to a short question! Sorry. It sounds like anarchy. Does it work? Yes it does, but rather than me telling you that you should see for yourself. It will make more sense when you use one of the programmes. If I can do whatever I like, how do I know when I have finished? That's a good question. The answer is that you have finished when you think you have got what you wanted out of it. In order to help you plan your time, we keep a record of what you have done so that when you log in for a second time, you can check what you did last time and make sure you pick up from where you left off. How do you know it works? The technical shell that these courses have been built in has been used widely by other professional associations, for university programmes and in-company training. Are there particular types of learning that the approach works well for? It is pretty flexible. But we think that one feature that is different to other approaches is that there is a bigger emphasis on thinking and doing. We often include a style of activity that gets you to form an opinion of your own. We might create a scenario where a difficult judgement has to be made and ask you for your opinion. In return we will share what our subject matter expert thinks. Do I have to be online the whole time I am using it? Yes you do. The course uses the web to help you learn, providing links to other resources and relevant companies to bring things to life and enable you to research more deeply into a topic. As well as a learning resource, with a range of activities for each topic, there is an accompanying resource centre filled with backup information, web links and further reading. But I don't want to spend hours reading things off a screen! Don't worry, whenever there is a longer explanation, you have the option to print it off. Some people like to read these bits on the train home from work. So you can't put it on a CD Rom? No. The technical reason for this is that the way the personalisation features work - the real core of the approach - is all based on Active Server Page technology. There are no fixed html pages that could be stored on a CD and so it has to run from a server. We believe that the benefits of this more than outweigh the drawbacks, but you will have to decide for yourself. What further information can I get hold of? A wealth of information about the courses and its content is included in this section. You'll find screenshots to give you an idea of what to expect .
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