Faculty Learning and Teaching Reports
Faculty of Humanities, Law and Social Science
The Department of Sociology are currently working on videocasting as their latest development into the world of new media. The department’s Learning Strategy Group tackle specific projects. Last year the task was to launch and troubleshoot the implementation of Vista across the department. As Vista is now an established part of learning delivery across the department the sights are set on reaching out to the You Tube generation. Initial meetings have discussed the sorts of approaches that will best reflect the dynamic degree routes of the department and which will showcase staff and students. After viewing a number of videos from other institutions (no names to be mentioned!) a ‘talking heads’ approach was quickly dismissed as ‘too boring’. During meetings this was confirmed by use of a ‘virtual button’ that staff could press as soon as they became bored with the videos that were being viewed - some of the ‘talking heads’ videos lasted less than 10 seconds before the button was pushed. Taking the opportunity to look at a series of videos made elsewhere also demonstrated that students are very adept at producing their own videos. The Learning Strategy Group were so impressed by these that a proposal was made to instigate a department wide student competition in the Autumn term with a prize to the best student video. It is hoped that this will also be used on the Departmental website to showcase the student perspective. So watch this space - or should we say ‘see you on YouTube’!
Helen Jones
News from the Fellows in Academic Practice in HLSS
The Fellows in Academic Practice scheme offers time release for staff to pursue learning and teaching projects. A number of Fellows in the Faculty are at various stages in their projects – here’s an update.
Jesse Edwards, Department of English:
“My Fellowship in Academic Practice bought me out of 50% of my teaching for two terms in order to design Researching English: a multipurpose WebCT resource for use by all students and staff in the English department. The resource currently has around 1,000 registered users. It acts as a general English intranet, housing all varieties of information for students and staff (in protected areas) and offering multiple notice-boards and discussion forums for the various cohorts of students involved with English. It also supports specific units at all levels which involve skills development and research projects and houses online tutorials which I have designed and adapted to support development of a variety of skills in English study, from citation to database research. When I arrived at MMU only one or two others in a roughly 30-strong department were using WebCT. Researching English has been instrumental in bringing many more colleagues on board.”
Nicola Greaves, Faculty Foundation Coordinator:
“The focus of my FAP is on e-quality and I am currently exploring student readiness for online learning and the development of a set of generic ‘how to study online’ materials to be made available across the university. So far I have been gathering views from students and staff and it seems that there is a wealth of materials already in existence to help students to study online. As my work progresses some development of materials may be necessary accompanied by signposting to resources already available. If anyone has any resources that they are willing to share to support student online learning I would be really pleased to hear from you.”
Jane Matthews, School of Law:
“My aim is that my initial work will enable me and my colleagues to use the resources available to us to produce a range of on-line 'lectures'which can then be piloted on courses within the law school.
The first couple of months have therefore been spent in identifying suitable equipment/software, familiarising myself with it and then (after a review of a wide-range of on-line examples) producing sample on-line materials for ourselves. We have so far managed to produce a range of examples including a couple of podcasts and a more formally produced on-line lecture, some of which have been tested on staff, some on students and useful feedback from these is being collated. A broad programme of on-line “lectures” in various formats has also been timetabled for September, and beyond, and work on these is on-going.”
Paula Sergeant, Department of Sociology:
“My project aimed to identify good practice in relation to student support and retention through a Good Practice template which is still available on the LTU website. The second part of the project was to study data on issues presented by students seeking help from Faculty Student Support Officers across all faculties. This was mapped by the central Management Information team to the student records system, which showed that 9 per cent of these students went onto withdraw. The project also exposed limitations in the HEMIS withdrawal codes, as well as a shortfall in data on students who see tutors and lecturers rather than SSOs when in need of support.”
Eddie Higgins
Science and Engineering
Launching ERIC
The Ethics Resource Information Centre (ERIC) is a resource developed by Joyce Overfield (Senior Learning and Teaching Fellow, Faculty of Science and Engineering). Its aim is to provide a repository of information and to raise awareness of ethics within the Faculty.
Many academics might be forgiven for holding the view that ‘ethics has nothing to do with me’ however they would be very much mistaken. Ethics and the surrounding issues affect actions and decisions in learning and teaching as well as in the research environment. The presence of ‘ERIC’ makes it more straightforward to access the information required – or, as in many cases, if you don’t know what is required with regard to ethics, then a visit to ERIC would be a good starting point.
So what is ERIC? It is an electronic resource using WebCT Vista via the University Managed Learning Environment. The material currently held on ERIC is focussed primarily towards the Faculty of Science and Engineering, thus it includes folders and files appertaining to and reflecting the interests and needs of the Faculty. It includes links to Human Ethics, Animal Ethics, Ethics in Academic Practice. Weblinks take you directly to the homepages of the University Research and Development Unit, the Nuffield Ethic research centre, and the Centre for Research Ethics Committees, to name just a few. For new academic staff, the ‘Ethics in Academic Practice’ continuing professional development module has a link.
It is hoped that academic staff and postgraduate researchers can link directly to the procedures and forms required for conducting research in an ethical manner.
ERIC is at the pilot stage and Joyce welcomes comments and further useful information, web links, or publications which might be useful to include.
*ERIC can be accessed via WebCT Vista in the Faculty of Science and Engineering. Comments to j.overfield@mmu.ac.uk
Joyce Overfield