Introducing a Graduate Skills Business Unit into a Business Degree in Malaysia Using a Transnational Delivery Model

The School of Management and Information Systems at Victoria University\ud Australian\ud res\ud ides\ud within\ud the\ud Business\ud Faculty and has a range of\ud M\ud anagement and\ud I\ud nformation\ud S\ud ystems degrees. In 2008 all\ud degree programs in the\ud Business F\ud aculty introduced a graduate\ud or generic skills compulsory subject\ud that focussed on problem\ud -\ud solving, cr\ud i\ud tical thinking,\ud communication\ud and teamwork.\ud This paper presents\ud an analysis of the challenges faced when delivering the\ud graduate/generic\ud skills\ud business\ud unit\ud into\ud an\ud Business\ud degree\ud into a\ud Malaysian University\ud College\ud .\ud Cultural, pedagogical, logistical, operational and\ud student perceptions are some of the challenges that must be assuaged when deploying new units.\ud Further t\ud his paper will present preliminary quantitative data to analyse\ud and identify key classroom\ud delivery challenges and then facilitator/student qualitative data to provide context and deeper\ud understanding\ud .\ud The challenges that arose in the rollout included; the need to customise programs into\ud culturally different destinatio\ud ns, the need to find and train facilitators that could deliver the graduate\ud skills\ud -\ud based activities\ud ,\ud and the adoption of a team\ud -\ud based learning pedagogy with the commensurate\ud difficulty this type of pedagogy engender\ud s\ud in a teaching culture that is heavily r\ud eliant upon the\ud individual in its education system.\ud Suggestions for improving learning outcomes\ud are provided and\ud include the adoption of a\ud team\ud -\ud based learning pedagogy,\ud a focussed\ud student assessment rationale and\ud the develop\ud ment\ud of a\ud student lecturer trust\ud relationship. -- 2011 ISECON (Information Systems Education Conference): Wilmington North Carolin