Web Development BSc (Hons)

Teaching and Learning

The University places emphasis on enabling you to develop the independent learning capabilities that will equip you for lifelong learning and future employment, as well as academic achievement. A mixture of independent study, teaching, academic support through integrated coaching and the personal academic tutoring system enables you to reflect on progress and build up a profile of skills, achievements and experiences that will enable you to flourish and be successful.

Accreditation

All Worcester Business School courses and modules have been mapped to take advantage of curriculum recommendations and aims developed by three professional bodies (BCS, (British Computing Society) IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and ACM
(Association of Computing Machinery).

Teaching

You are taught through a combination of interactive lectures, seminars and individual/ small group project work with a strong emphasis on real-world scenarios and practical applications. Most of the computing seminars take place in state-of-the-art PC labs using a variety of software specific to each module. The course integrates theory and practice in several areas of web development and e-business in order to obtain an appreciation of a range of applications and their impact on users.

In addition, meetings with personal academic tutors will take place several times a semester during your time at university.

You have an opportunity to undertake a year-long placement with local or national firms in the third year of the course, supervised by a work-based mentor and a University tutor.

You can also choose to study abroad in semester 2 of year 2 at one of our exchange partner universities in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada and Europe.

Contact time

In a typical week you will have at least 12 hours of timetabled teaching in lectures, seminars and small-group work. In addition to this, you will spend your time sharing your ideas with your fellow students, taking part in extra-curricular learning activities, engaging with external employers and on independent self-study.

Independent self-study

In addition to the contact time, you are expected to undertake around 23 hours of personal self-study per week. Typically, this will involve meeting with individual tutors to discuss progress and feedback, completing online activities, reading journal articles and books, working on individual and group projects, undertaking research in the library and online, preparing coursework assignments and presentations, and preparing for examinations.

Independent learning is supported by a range of excellent learning facilities, including the Hive and library resources, the virtual learning environment, and extensive electronic learning resources as well as our network of employers and entrepreneurs.

Teaching staff

You will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course. The team includes senior academics, professional practitioners with industry experience and business leaders and employers.

Teaching is informed by the research and consultancy work carried out by staff and you can learn more about the staff by visiting our staff profiles.

Assessment

The precise assessment requirements in an academic year will vary according to the mandatory and optional modules taken by you, but we recognise that you like to know in advance how you will be assessed. With this in mind our assessment and feedback strategy has been designed so that:

• all modules have both formative and summative assessment elements. Formative assessment allows tutors and you as students to recognise strengths and weaknesses in learning and to address those issues immediately. Summative assessments are graded and count towards the overall module grade by evaluating your learning in a module or a component of a module and comparing it with a standard or benchmark;
• typically 15 credit/ one semester modules will have one assessment item; 30 credit/ two semester modules will have 2-3 assessments;
• across each individual year and cumulatively across all three years the concept of continuous assessment and/or building up expertise in different assessment types applies. This means a variety of assessments (such as reports, portfolios, presentations, essays and a final year research or consultancy project) will be encountered by you to suit different learning styles;
• there may be some specialisation by subject: e.g. applied artefacts are more common in web, database and programming modules because of the specific nature of the content, while security modules may involve a combination of reports and presentations;
• supervisors for your web development project in your final year will provide individual assistance and help in choosing a specific project (applied or research-based) that fits your career and academic interests;
• we develop your employability skills by means of, for example, report writing, presentations, and the development of self-awareness and critical reflection in the tasks set.

Feedback

You will receive feedback on practice assessments and on formal coursework assessments. Feedback on examination performance is available upon request from the module leader.

Feedback is intended to support learning by indicating how you can improve in future assignments and you are encouraged to discuss it with personal academic tutors and module tutors to help support your development. We always place you the student at the centre of the learning experience: for example, your written feedback will provide evidence of how you are enhancing your essential academic and employability skills.

Feedback on formal course work assessments is normally provided within 20 working days of hand-in.