Strategic Direction of Travel and Tourism 2007 onwards

Strategic Direction of Travel and Tourism 2007 onwards

At present the School of Applied Business offers to undergraduate programmes in travel and tourism:
· Diploma in Applied Travel and Tourism (Level 5)
· Diploma in International Tourism (Level 5)

In looking at the strategic direction of travel and tourism it was felt that the applied diploma would provide a more comprehensive platform from which to develop new and innovative electives which would assist the programme and school in continuing to deliver a programme which meets the future needs of the industry.

Introduction
The Diploma of International Tourism (DIT) gained project funding of $36,838.00 in 2006 to upgrade its teaching materials and flexible delivery methods. To date $17,142.00 of this has been spent on hardware, staff release time, and a designer.

It is the intention of the project team (John West, Hillary Jenkins, Leigh Blackall) to:
· redirect the remaining funds from the DIT project to the newly acquired Diploma in Applied Travel and Tourism (DATT)
· to concentrate on the full and further development of DATT
· to discontinue the Diploma in International Tourism from the end of 2007
· to provide a better integration/advancement of tourism areas between diploma and degree levels in the school

Discussion on the above points has been held beyond the project team with Group Leader, Chris Morland, the Deputy CEO Robin Day and travel and tourism team members.

The following plan has been resolved:
1. The Blackboard shell that has been set up for DITT will become a "shared drive" for the teachers engaged in the face to face teaching. In it will go all the resources that are used to teach DITT. Students will not have access to this shell, it will be used by staff to practice using Blackboard in preparation for development of DATT.

2. As resources are loaded into the DITT shell, anything that can be made relevant for DATT will be identified. Staff will work towards improving the identified resources and making them ready for reformatting by the designer. This role will be undertaken by two staff members currently under project funding and will be finished by June 2007.

3. A new Programme Development Application will be made for funding the development of DATT once it is known how much more money and resources will be needed after spending the remainder of the DITT budget.

4. Development will include – Further development of the Hub. While it is being taught at present, this will have to be realigned as the training provider (ATTTO) has outlined changes to be made in the core skills area (covering this area).

5. Developing resources for the first two existing course outlines (ready for semester 2). Developing two further existing electives (course outline done) and two new electives (course outlines need to be created) plus the research project for teaching in 2008. It is estimated this project would take until June 30, 2008. (Do you think this is long enough – June maybe)

6. A DATT blackboard shell will be created for use in 2008 by students and staff.

7. The Programme Manager will head the project development and arrangements have been made so that most of her teaching duties are covered. That development time will be used to consult with EDC services to further develop the flexible learning curriculum of DATT. Any outside expertise required will be paid from the project budget.

8. A resource audit will be conducted for DATT, using library services to assist in finding reusable learning resources that are in line with the flexible elearning curriculum design devised for DATT.

9. Based on what curriculum activities are devised for DATT and what reusable resources are found, the remainder of the new DATT Development budget will be spent both on staff and resource development



Hillary Jenkins’
Programme Manager
Travel & Tourism
School of Applied Business