MSc Digital Leadership

Detailed degree guide

Understanding, Knowledge and Cognitive Skills

Understanding is developed through engagement with topics at theoretical and practical levels, with specialist subject knowledge pursued within each course and through the dissertation. Students will be able to:

• Define and explain key terms and parameters within the discipline.
• Demonstrate a critical understanding of theories and models supporting our understanding of strategy, leadership, and change in the context of the digital economy
• Develop a critical appreciation of the challenges and opportunities platform strategies and evaluate their application is a variety of business contexts.
• Critically evaluate the role of digital transformation in a business context including how policies, programmes, strategies, and resources are selected and implemented.
• Critically analyse and evaluate the impact of digital transformation and transformational technologies on organizational sustainability in the context of today’s global digital economy.

Scholarship, Enquiry and Research (Research Informed Learning)

Students will be able to:

• Demonstrate an awareness of and interest in current developments in the field of digital business and digital transformation
• Demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of the key concepts models and tools that guide the creation and implementation of digital business strategies and digital transformation initiatives
• Apply knowledge of digital business to the resolution of practical business problems, simulations and case scenarios in systematic and creative ways.
• Generate and evaluate alternative strategies, change management programmes and leadership styles to accomplish digital transformation in business
• Research in-depth and evaluate the contributions of academic writers in the field of digital business strategy and digital transformation in different organizational contexts.
• Plan and execute a significant project of research, development or investigation
• Prepare and construct essays, reports and other outputs of personal research, which demonstrate originality and creativity in the application of knowledge to professional practice in the field
• Use a wide range of standard techniques and some specialist quantitative and/or qualitative research instruments in pursuing research-led inquiry; e.g. in the preparation of coursework for the Research Philosophy and Practice course, and in the course of the dissertation.
• Source and utilise data from the library, internet and database sources
• Review, organise, and evaluate evidence and reflect and comment critically on its validity and relevance, synthesize information in the context of new situations.
• Present a clear and coherent argument on specialized topics

Approaches to Teaching and Learning

Edinburgh Business School is committed to enhancing the student experience through its approach to teaching and learning, which is derived from the University’s own Learning and Teaching Strategy.

Teaching, learning, and assessment methods will ensure that students are given the opportunity to reflect and capitalise on previous/current work experience and given the opportunity to use insights from the programme to modify practice. The programme is designed to develop students’ professional expertise through individual and/or group-based assignment (including live cases and work-based assignments) and through exposure to guest speakers from industry and teaching will comprise a mixture of lectures and seminar activity involving multiple modes of learning (case study, workshops, research papers, electronic formats) with supportive infrastructures (e.g., computer laboratory).

Approaches to teaching and learning are examined yearly through the course and programme review.  These processes are informed by various forms of feedback of which the most important are student feedback, external examiner reports, and evidence of the achievement of learning outcomes from the formative and summative assessment.

Assessment Policies

Student assessment will conform to the Ordinances, Regulations, Policies and Procedures of the University and compliance with Scottish Credit Qualification Framework (SCQF). These acknowledge:

• Award of MSc requires 180 SCQF credits; at least 150 of which are at Level 11
• Award of PG Dip requires 120 SCQF credits; at least 90 of which are at Level 11
• Award of PG Cert requires 60 SCQF credits; at least 40 of which are at Level 11

Programme assessment and progression will be under the scrutiny of the Postgraduate Examination Board and external examiners and will be applied in accordance with University policy.

Results of the assessment will be graded in the range of A-F and communicated in letters/transcripts issued by the University’s Academic Registry.

A range of assessment types will be employed in the programme. Formative assessment is used in many courses to provide students and staff with feedback on performance and the achievement of learning outcomes.  This feedback is used both to inform course and programme development and to enable the adaptation of learning opportunities to meet the needs of individual students and the cohort of learners.  Summative assessment for most courses will involve a combination of coursework and examinations.  The format of all assessment is determined by its appropriateness for measuring the learning outcomes of courses and is guided by the School’s ‘Learning and Teaching Strategy’.

Among the forms of assessment used in the programme are essays; written examinations; video and class presentation; written reports, group and/or individual projects; group presentations; and the dissertation.