Hackathons were once industry-specific programming sprints to get overdue features and applications completed; today they are a worldwide phenomenon, with businesses, educators, and entrepreneurs taking an interest in the benefits they can provide. Hackathons can be a breeding ground for brainstorming, innovation, networking, and product development, and as such they can have multiple outcomes including the sparking of new businesses and entrepreneurial activity. This paper investigates the effectiveness of utilising a hackathon as the genesis for the creation of sustainable student entrepreneurial activity. In particular, it seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of using hackathon-type events to initiate a successful University student enterprise project. The paper outlines the findings from this project, and concludes with a series of recommendations from the authors, on how one should market and structure a hackathon, and whether this vehicle should be chosen as a means to initiate a student enterprise project.The key factors that led to the success of this project were: the degree of formal structure that was introduced into the timings of the principle activities, not normally a feature of this kind of event, including scheduled "diversions" to break up the weekend; keeping the goals achievable; the duration of the event, in this case 48 hours spread over three days; the involvement of representatives from local businesses in the judging process; and crucially the adoption of an over-riding ethos for the event that focussed not on providing completed problem solutions but on potential innovative solutions that may not have been fully-functional.Areas for improvement included: inviting more students from earlier study years of degree programmes, not always the target audience for University hackathon activity; inviting students from a wide range of disciplines to ensure a broad set of participant skills and to encourage the formation of multi-disciplinary groupings by enforcing a balance of skills across teams, which as a corollary means not always allowing friendship groups to remain together; employing a team sufficiently large enough to support the duration of a long event; and careful consideration of the extent of competitiveness adopted in the event ethos.The project was part of the institution's "Student as Producer" initiative where students and staff work side-by-side on research projects. Undergraduate students were fully involved in all aspects of the project, including an independent team who contributed to the authoring of this paper.

Hackathons are a worldwide phenomenon, with both industry and educators considering the opportunities and benefits that they generate. They can provide a forum for innovation, networking, and product design and development, thereby offering multiple outcomes. This paper develops the authors' previous work on the effectiveness of utilising a hackathon as the spark for initiating student entrepreneurial activity by considering the success of the student enterprise that was created as a result and the extent to which that success was attributable to the hackathon event. Using a case study approach, the paper seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of using hackathon-type events to initiate a successful University student enterprise project and to identify the key elements in the future organisation of such a hackathon event that might lead to a sustainable and effective student enterprise. The paper outlines the findings from this project, which focus on the team building and bonding that take place in such an event, and concludes with a series of recommendations from the authors on how one should market and structure a hackathon to best ensure the success of a subsequently formed student enterprise, based on the evaluation of the project one year after it was founded.The evaluation of the project was undertaken as part of the institution's "Student as Producer" initiative where students and staff work side-by-side on research projects. An independent team of undergraduate students was fully involved in all aspects of the project evaluation, including the authoring of this paper.

Results of a previous study by the authors into the perceived value and potential of ePortfolios to assist undergraduate students indicated that technology was an important aspect of their everyday lives. It was also felt it to be beneficial to their learning. A large percentage of students were found to be using digital techniques to store evidence of their learning, and were also using interactive, online tools in their learning activities. There was, however, little reported structured use of ePortfolio development in their learning. Students acknowledged they were discovering for themselves the value of online technologies in learning. This paper focuses on student skills and experiences of online tools on entry to university, and considers their experience of ePortfolio development using the Wordpress personal publishing platform.Results indicate that students' skill level of online, interactive tools was high and wide-ranging. Although previous experience of using these tools was unstructured and informal, ePortfolio creation was found to be an engaging, relevant and worthwhile activity.The ePortfolio development exercise also provided an experiential learning experience, and had a positive effect on students' attitudes to learning.

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Transnational Education (TNE), i.e. the delivery of programmes and awarding of qualifications by one University at a campus or with a partner institution in a different country, is becoming increasingly popular. Factors affecting this include: changing demographics whereby diminishing numbers of eligible students are applying to study at the home institution; political factors such as Brexit or changes in immigration laws; financial factors such as the desire to increase revenue or to diversify sources of external income; brand building; networking etc.Typically TNE is delivered at a branch campus of the home university located in the country of delivery, or in partnership with a local higher education provider based in another country. The models for TNE include franchised delivery, validated programmes, joint or dual degrees twinning arrangements.This paper adopts a case study approach to investigate one particular model for TNE namely the dual degree. The paper considers a novel implementation of a dual degree whereby the curriculum followed by the students is the locally validated programme rather than the curriculum of the home institution. In order to make the award, the international partner curriculum has been mapped closely against that of the home institution. The mapping is carried out at a detailed level in order to establish that both the high level programme outcomes and the lower level module (sometimes called course) outcomes of the home institution's programmes are all appropriately addressed by those of the international partner institution's curriculum. Coverage is then established by ensuring that on every piece of assessed work, it is clearly identified which learning outcomes of each institution are being assessed. Application of a mapping matrix, developed at the approval phase, by assessment setter, moderator and external examiner is carried out. On the basis of the correct application of that mapping, the overall coverage of outcomes is ensured and the award of the home institution is conferred on those students who successfully complete the award at the partner institution.The case study reveals an interesting research question namely whether a programme of study is more than just the summation of its constituent learning outcomes or "is the whole greater than the sum of its parts"? Consideration is made whether there a level of decomposition or deconstruction of a programme that results in the essence of that programme being lost. The paper concludes that by satisfying the functional constraints of the mapping, in combination with a carefully constructed system of mutual partner support, an appropriate and quality student experience can be achieved that both respects the local curriculum and delivers the home institution's award.