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The authors are experienced deliverers of both campus-based and blended undergraduate and postgraduate management programmes at The University of Manchester. They have a specific interest in the use of learning technology to enhance teaching and learning. AbstractThis paper investigates whether the selective use of technology can begin to overcome the challenge of large cohort teaching and deliver an enhanced student learning experience. It describes the initial development and evaluation of a campus-based management course taught to 270 third year engineering undergraduates at The University of Manchester. The course is structured around weekly keynote lectures, supplemented with extensive use of a virtual learning environment (VLE) and key Web 2.0 applications.The preliminary findings are that technology is not a panacea: face-to-face contact with teaching staff remains the priority for most students. Nevertheless, the VLE was found to improve the student learning experience provided that • Use of technology does not reduce face-to-face teaching time;• Teaching faculty acknowledges that students are, for the most part, highly strategic learners, engaging deeper with those technology tools that help them achieve their desired course outcomes; • Close attention is paid to learning design, aligning technology tools with the desired learning outcomes.Further work is now required to explore more effectively the use of the VLE and Web 2.0 as a vehicle for promoting collaborative learning. In addition, the authors will be redesigning course activities, both assessed and unassessed, to start to address the more lofty ambition of moving students from an acquisitive to a participative model of learning. IntroductionThe number of students entering full-time higher education in the United Kingdom has increased rapidly over the last 20 years. In many institutions this has resulted in larger class sizes, with numbers of students undertaking core modules often exceeding 250 students. The challenge facing higher education, driven by financial pressures to accept increasing student numbers, is how to evolve the student learning experience to meet the expectations of today's students. Didactic teaching in ever-larger lecture theatres may not constitute the optimal approach. Recognising this many institutions have seized on new technologies in teaching and learning as a potential solution to this problem.

■High reliability organizations claim to be special organizations that have consistently demonstrated safe performance in operating environments, which are simultaneously of high technical complexity, high consequence, and high tempo. This article argues that the literature on high reliability organizing, which emerged through studying dayto-day operations in the nuclear industry, air traffic control industry, and U.S. navy aircraft carriers, might hold important lessons for how the project management community can approach the management of safetycritical projects-projects in which safety is of paramount importance. Its aim is to consider how high reliability organizing might be realized in these safety-critical projects.

Intense competition between males for reproduction has led to the evolution of alternative mating tactics (AMTs). Feral goat males usually use a tactic called tending, in which they defend oestrous females from other males. Males may also use a second mating tactic called coursing, in which they gain access to oestrous females by disturbing a tending pair. Herein, we examine estimated mating success (EMS) and risks of using these tactics. Tending was only used by mature (≥4 years old), higherranking males and accounted for 75% of EMS. Coursing was used by males of all ages and dominance ranks, and accounted for 25% of EMS. Using coursing, male kids achieved 8% of EMS. Mature males achieved 92% of EMS. Both age and dominance rank were related to EMS, but age was not important after its relationship with dominance was controlled. Tending bouts were, on average, ca. 30 min long, while coursing bouts only averaged ca. 2 min. Males were more likely to suffer a butt while coursing than while tending, and formerly tending males were responsible for most butts. Kids that coursed had the highest risk of being butted. In most AMTs, there are reductions in the risks in relation to low fitness benefits. However, we found that the risks of butts during coursing were high, while our evidence suggests that the EMS was probably low. Nevertheless, the existence of an effective AMT in male feral goats may have an important influence on the intensity of sexual selection and the effective population size.

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In large-scale safety-critical projects unforeseen events and uncertainties must be carefully managed to safeguard the integrity of the end product and deliver projects to time and cost. Based on 47 'vignettes' of uncertainty across projects in two safety-critical sectors, this study provides an empirical examination of whether practices consistent with theories of high reliability organising are adopted by project managers as a response to project uncertainty. Our findings are that confronting uncertainties in safety-critical projects does involve many high reliability practices. Respondents expressed a sense of balancing competing demands, and provided evidence of learning, acting mindfully, avoiding over-rigid processes, and of upholding constructive tensions, conceptual slack and close interdisciplinary working.However these practices are often fragile in nature and dependent on key individuals. There are also differences between the two sectors studied, with more widespread evidence of high reliability project organising in civil nuclear than in aerospace projects.

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The ability to develop and distribute digital teaching resources in higher education has developed rapidly over the last decade but research into how students use such resources has received limited attention. This study uses questionnaire results, internet analytic data and semi-structured interviews to examine the use of three types of rich-media teaching resources-lecture podcasts, key-concept videos, and tutorial solution videos-by engineering undergraduates. It is found that students value all three types of resource, especially for revision and as a supplement to lectures. Students find short focussed resources more useful than longer ones. Non-native English speakers and those with disabilities derive particular benefits from the resources. The effect of rich-media resources on lecture attendance is found to be small, and two-way.