Department for Curriculum and Quality Enhancement

Project case study

MA Sales Management (large) Online teaching and learning resources (Portsmouth Business School)

The project...

To design Victory units for the 'MA in Sales Management' and 'Weekend MA Marketing' courses.

What we did...

  • Project managed the project from initial brief, and original submission of content in Microsoft Word, to sign-off within strict deadlines.
  • Weekend MA (large) Conceived and designed a bespoke unit template to the client's requirements ensuring that all features complied with UoP corporate ID guidelines.
  • Advised academic colleagues as to 'best practice' by ensuring that the following were done with the online user in mind:
    • all material was structured into accessible topics;
    • large content was broken down into 'bite-size' amounts; and
    • course content was accessible on both PC and Mac platforms via formats such as pdf.
  • Implemented the embedding of Web 2.0 technologies such as Google Calendar, and RSS and Twitter feeds into units to increase levels of interactivity and enhance the user experience.

The result...

Bespoke online resources aimed at young professionals in the workplace.

Testimonial...

Marie Kendall-Waters designed and built a Victory course portal for a block-taught part-time Masters course with a lot of additional features such as a LinkedIn discussion group, RSS feed and Twitter account, to help support the students between their study weekends.

Marie had to work quickly in order to meet a tight deadline but the site was completed in good time and she was able to accommodate everything I asked for. She had experience of using a similar site and quickly understood what I was trying to achieve. I would highly recommend Marie's services!

Jill Brown
(Director of Studies, Postgraduate Marketing Programmes, Portsmouth Business School)


The Technology Enhanced Learning Team (previously eLearning Centre) undertook the building of a portal for the MA Sales Management course, which is a part-time top-up degree for experienced sales managers. The students are used to their own company's Intranets and needed a course portal that was easy to navigate. The TEL team liaised with me as Course Leader to understand the students and the course material, and built a portal where MA Sales Management students can view material online as well as download it. The portal also enables online submission of assignments, as the students' work involves a lot of business travel. They can discuss work with tutors and other students, link to a variety of additional material and search FAQs. Most importantly, given that the students travel a lot, the portal is the place where tutors and administrators can post announcements to keep them informed about matters relevant to the course. The TEL team were very thorough in making sure that the portal fulfilled requirements and had a good look and feel that mature students would find attractive.

Beth Rogers
(Principal Lecturer, Programme Manager (MA Sales Management), Portsmouth Business School)