It was time to return to Jinan and Shandong University of Science and Technology (SDUST) to teach marketing as part of a University of Worcester collaborative program. The course had to be revised this year in line with new requirements from SDUST. This meant that Market Street was gone and an exam had to be included, alongside some more practical assessment. These changes made constructively aligning the course, whilst ensuring it was true to similar courses at Worcester, more challenging. However, it was still possible to achieve this, which allowed for some fun activities such as blind water and snack tasting and designing playdoh sweets.
The exam required both multiple choice and short answer components according to the new local regulations. This was my first time writing a multiple choice exam and took longer than I expected, as it was harder than I expected to come up with answers which were not obviously wrong. It is challenging to come up with multiple choice questions which can separate high and low achieving students, thus the answers cannot be too easy or too hard.
The trip was busy as the teaching schedule was intensive and the weekends were taken up by a trip to Nanjing and a trip back to Beijing to see colleagues off and meet new colleagues. This meant that it was not possible to explore Jinan much, although I did manage to find a cat café, which had good cats, coffee and cake. All of which can be challenging to locate, certainly all in one place. This brightened up the evenings after a long day of teaching.
Whilst, in Nanjing we visited the Ming tombs and the Sun Yat-Sen Mausoleum. The Mausoleum was more challenging to visit than I previously remembered, as you needed to register your details on WeChat to get an eticket. Luckily, we found someone who could help, as the registration was all in Chinese, and I had an active sim card, as without these two things it would have been nearly impossible to get the required eticket. Whilst, in Nanjing I met with colleagues to finalise a new funding bid for submission, so fingers crossed for a positive outcome. Plus, during a visit to 1912 I managed to visit a new craft brewery. During previous visits there, I have not seen any craft breweries so this was a welcome addition to the cliché bars and restaurants. After a busy 20 day trip in China it was straight to Germany to teach on the Worcester DBA.
Robin Bell 