Skip to content The Open University

Undergraduate

BA (Honours) Business Studies - Learning Outcomes

« Back to BA (Honours) Business Studies description

Educational aims

This is a broad-based business studies degree which aims to provide you with:

  • an introduction to the world of business, including an understanding of markets and market economies
  • an understanding of the structures, cultures and functioning of business organisations and the complex nature of key business functions and processes
  • a recognition of the processes and outcomes of organisational decision-making, how organisational strategies both develop and diversify and the nature and role of policies which impact on business
  • a range of important business graduate skills, which you can bring to your employment in businesses or organisations
  • support and guidance to develop as independent learners.

Learning outcomes

The learning outcomes of this degree are described in four areas. The emphasis is on realisable outcomes for students from diverse backgrounds, learning at a distance and who have chosen a broad-based social sciences degree.

Knowledge and understanding

On completion of this degree, you will have knowledge and understanding of:

  • the structure and dynamics of business environments; how businesses seek to track and analyse their environments
  • markets, market economies and how they function; how consumers, firms and governments behave as economic agents; why and how markets fail and how this failure is managed
  • business processes and how they operate; the nature, structure and functioning of organisations; systems approaches to organisational analyses; how and why organisations are changing
  • key business functions such as Marketing, Human Resources, Information Management, Accounting & Finance, Operations – their nature and contribution to organisational success, their historic origins and their interactions
  • how businesses develop strategies; the different forms and theories of strategy
  • how organisations make decisions and organise decision-making processes; the various sources of decision-making irrationality; the nature, role and implications of governmental, regional and supranational business policy on businesses.

Cognitive skills

On completion of the degree, you will be able to:

  • read material questioningly, identifying and recording key ideas and concepts in business studies
  • synthesise material from a variety of sources, analysing and evaluating different perspectives, identifying biases and hidden assumptions
  • classify, recognise and organise material in distinct and relevant categories
  • construct, defend and evaluate an argument, using relevant evidence, giving reasons for conclusions.

Practical and/or professional skills

On completion of the degree, you will be able to:

  • transfer and use relevant key skills in the workplace context
  • use the more specific knowledge, analytic skills and methods, rooted in the different disciplines as a strong basis for work in many professions.

You will have become better informed, more active and questioning members of an organisation by:

  • the ability to engage critically with the underlying challenges and problems facing a business
  • the ability to identify and evaluate conflicting arguments, including recognising the significance of different value positions in these arguments.

Key skills

On completion of the degree, you will be able to demonstrate the following skills:

Communication

  • select appropriate methods of communication for audience and purpose
  • prepare materials which represent arguments diagrammatically
  • prepare brief oral presentations
  • plan and present materials clearly and sequentially in order to advance an argument
  • abilities to conduct research and present findings on business and management issues
  • use suitable computer software to assist in presenting findings or arguments to a wider audience.

Application of number

  • interpret simple statistical information and data to justify a point or argument
  • read statistical data from graphs and charts and use them to construct, support or justify an argument
  • calculate simple ratios and be aware of how such calculations help in an analysis
  • understand the use of numerical data in business functions including market research, operations management, performance measurement and finance and accounting.

Information technology

  • make effective use of information and communication technologies
  • engage with peers in online forums
  • use the internet to search for information in a planned, systematic and critical way
  • communicate with fellow students in the course of an electronic group-based assignment
  • interpret quantitative data presented in spreadsheet form.

Learning how to learn

  • take responsibility for achieving a specified level of understanding and use various methods to confirm understanding
  • use of benchmarks to identify current level of achievement of a specified skill and monitor progress against this standard
  • use library and information services, both physical and electronic, effectively
  • plan and implement progress in the light of assessment of skill levels and necessary standards
  • effective self-management in terms of time, planning and behaviour and demonstration of motivation, self-starting, individual initiative and enterprise
  • engage in reflective, adaptive and collaborative learning.

Teaching, learning and assessment methods

Knowledge and understanding are acquired at all levels through published distance-learning materials, including specially written study materials, study guides, assignments and project guides; through a range of multimedia material; through work on original texts; and through feedback on assignments. The key teaching vehicles are supported open learning materials which comprise a range of compulsory reader texts and specially prepared study guides directing your reading and illustrating key teaching points. Your learning is supported by a tutor, who is the your first and main point of contact, answering your queries, grading and commenting on your work and facilitating group learning

To support the development of your group-working and ICT skills, you are required to participate in online forums. This also provides you with an additional environment in which to share learning and resolve module-related problems.

Assessment of the knowledge and understanding components of the programme is achieved through a combination of continuous assessment and exams. These assessments are central to the teaching of each module, enabling tutors to identify and comment on your knowledge and understanding.

At Level 1, the approach is interdisciplinary. You may choose modules from a range of disciplines, developing knowledge and understanding in a range of subject areas. At Levels 2 and 3, the three compulsory modules are rooted within the business studies discipline, but the optional modules can be chosen from a range of significantly related subject areas more rooted within individual academic disciplines (for example, economics, technology, accounting).

Cognitive skills and processes are introduced at a very simple level at Level 1, primarily via material specifically designed to develop social science, technological or mathematical skills in a progressive way. Although modules at Levels 2 and 3 continue this work, there is significant variation between compulsory and optional modules in the degree to which skills are taught explicitly in the study materials. Significant teaching is, however, maintained through the assessment strategy and tutor feedback.

In the three compulsory modules you are encouraged to develop specified skills. In each module the specific components of the skills are identified, mapping out where each skill will be developed and practised. As the module progresses, these skills are sign-posted and you are offered an opportunity to practise them in association with your work on the study materials. Initially, the module study guides offer you advice and guidance with these activities, but as you progress through each module, the extent of this guidance decreases so as to encourage independent learning

In the Level 2 modules, you are asked to analyse your progress with skills associated with your current work, submitting this assessment as part of your assignments. This allows you to develop a systematic and self-conscious approach to your skill development, assisted and supported by your tutor. These activities culminate in an assessment solely concerned with skills development where you are asked to reflect on your skills progression and achievement.

The Level 3 module expects you to show application of skills developed earlier. In requiring you to work with fellow students in a virtual group using online forums, it also aims to develop your ability to conduct independent research using a variety of databases and websites, and to develop online group-working skills.

In addition, depending on the modules taken, other more discipline-specific skills will be developed and assessed. 

Practical and/or professional skills and attributes

The first two of these skills (listed above) refer to the vocational relevance of the degree. Whilst not all occupationally specific, all teaching and assessment strategies will help you develop knowledge and skills that are transferable to the workplace, whatever combination of modules you take.

The final three outcomes are at the heart of the business studies, developed as a consequence of module work throughout the programme and implicitly built into assessment.

Communication

The open nature of entry to the OU means there is considerable emphasis on reading and writing skills at Level 1. At subsequent levels there are assumptions about your basic abilities in these areas, although tutor feedback on writing skills continues to be important. However, the material from which you work becomes increasingly complex and diverse, and more sophisticated skills of interpretation, selection and synthesis are required.

Application of number

Again, you are taught these basic skills at Level 1 and at least one of the assessment items will use these as a focus, with more opportunity for learning by tutor feedback. The extent to which you continue to develop these skills will depend on modules taken, with modules from the economics discipline, mathematics and accounting modules taking you considerably further.

Information technology

Although you are introduced to issues related to information technology in a range of modules from Levels 1 to 3, the ability to work with information technology is a compulsory element in two of the three compulsory modules and in several of the optional modules (e.g. Technology and Accounting modules) in the named degree, although you may select modules (at Level 1) that give you the opportunity to develop skills in this area.

Learning how to learn

Because OU students are part-time and studying at a distance, there is strong emphasis on helping you to develop as an independent learner. At Level 1 this means helping you to develop basic skills (e.g. time planning, using feedback and support), but also laying the foundations for the increasing emphasis on reflection at Levels 2 and 3. This is not assessed directly but will be demonstrated by an increasing ability to study autonomously.

Assessment, in the majority of cases, is via tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) and examination. The assessment strategy at Level 1 also has a strong focus on cognitive skills development for which you obtain detailed feedback. Key skills are central to the presentation of assignments, consequently they are assessed throughout the programme both via continuous assessment and examination.

There is increasing emphasis at Level 3 on the selection and use of material from a range of sources, including original texts. Assessment of subject knowledge and understanding is linked to the benchmarking standards of individual disciplines.

« Back to BA (Honours) Business Studies description