Teaching operational research/management science in higher education: distance learning study units for new or current teachers

For several years the statistics team of the UK Higher Education Academy (HEA) Mathematics, Statistics and Operational Research Network (MSOR Network) has successfully run the course Certificate in Teaching Statistics in Higher Education, fully accredited as a Certificate qualification by the Royal Statistical Society [1]. A distinctive feature of the distance learning material that constitutes the core of this course is its flexibility. It may be used as a (possibly optional) unit in a university PgCert or Diploma in Teaching and Learning. Alternatively, the individual units may be used as distance learning components in both initial training (induction) courses and continuing professional development programmes.

The MSOR Network also supported the development of an Associate Module entitled
Teaching Mathematics in Higher Education, which was accredited by the University of Birmingham, where an annual induction course for lecturers new to teaching mathematics and statistics in HE also takes place [2].

With successful courses in both mathematics and statistics thus firmly established, attention has recently turned to the ‘missing’ component in the provision of MSOR Network teaching support for HE, namely operational research (OR). Clearly, there are overlaps in terms of pedagogy and good practice across all three of the Network’s eponymous academic areas. However, the characteristics of OR – its unique nature as a discipline, its close ties to business, its many domains of application and the range of levels at which it can be taught within HE - do give rise to special challenges for the OR teacher.

To assist in meeting these challenges (and to complete the MSOR Network subject circle) a suite of distance learning units in operational research/ management science (OR/MS) has been developed. The full set of new units allows flexible study modes up to and including PgCert.

The name OR/MS was chosen to reflect the enduring popularity of each of operational research and management science in HE undergraduate and postgraduate course titles, and it also recognises the international adoption of the subject name OR/MS in both the academic and the professional spheres.

This article gives the rationale behind the course structure and summarises the content of the component units.