Benchmarking E-learning - Pick&Mix

Pick&Mix

Pick&Mix (in the past called "Pick & Mix" with spaces) is the name of one of the methodologies being trialled in the Higher Education Academy Benchmarking Pilot, by three universities:

• University of Chester
• University of Leicester
• Staffordshire University

The version of Pick&Mix on which the trials were originally based is version 1.0, first described in a public domain document from the ALT-C 2005 conference and refined slightly to version 1.1 for the Higher Education Academy. During the pilot, after the criterion-setting phase, this was updated to version 1.2.

The release being offered to HEIs for Phase 1 is version 2.0. A beta version of this is described here .

Version 2.0 has benefited substantially from input from the pilot user group of the Universities of Chester, Leicester and Staffordshire, who share in the moral rights of authorship. Released versions of Pick&Mix are in future to be put into the public domain via a Creative Commons license (as was version 1.0 and a summarised literature search).

Pick&Mix was first developed in 2005 after an extensive literature search to suit the needs of Manchester Business School for a comparative methodology for benchmarking e-learning, and a beta version of 1.0 used for a study of 12 comparable institutions to Manchester Business School. The full study is and remains confidential to MBS but a presentation of the highlights was made at the University of Sydney in November 2005.

Further information on Pick&Mix including a range of presentations and papers, and material on related methodologies, within the "critical success factors" tradition of benchmarking can be found here .

The recognised abbreviation for Pick&Mix (e.g. as used in tables) is "PnM", although "P&M" is sometimes seen also.