University of Leeds learning and teaching case studies

Project Blogging - New Media Production

17th Apr 2012 3.32pm

COMM3710: Project 1 is a core level 3 module on the BA New Media which enables students to develop a portfolio piece. The project could be a website, animation, DVD, sms or mobile application - students negotiate the form of the project with their supervisor. Students will devise a project plan and project specification, and will then develop, evaluate and finalise visuals of their work, with a structure or storyboard. They also identify all technical challenges and risks to the project. In Semester 2, they produce the specified artefact based on all the decisions made during Project 1, including testing and audience feedback.

Students are allocated a supervisor with skills and experience appropriate to their chosen project, and are expected to meet with their supervisor regularly. Formal technical support is provided to students in workshops and staff office hours, but not in supervision sessions, as these aim to look at broader issues than how to solve specific technical problems. Students are expected to be self-reliant and problem-solve to find answers to technical issues. They are also asked to maintain a project blog to record their progress on the module. They are given the following guidance:-
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BLOGGING PROGRESS
In order for us to be able to assess your progress during this module, you must blog about your progress, at least as regularly as you meet your supervisor – that is, five times during the semester. You can use the blogging tool in the VLE, or your own blog if you have one. It’s your responsibility to let your supervisor and module leader know the URL of the blog. Note that the VLE blog tool has been set up to be viewed only by your supervisor, module leader and yourself. If you use other blogging facilities, it’s up to you to manage the visibility of your blog posts yourself. Each post about progress should be approximately 200 words, and it can of course include visual mock-ups or links to other prototyping or testing that you have undertaken. You must be reflective and critical in this report, not purely descriptive. 10% of your final mark is allocated to commitment and process, and your progress blog posts are an important way for you to maximise this mark for yourselves.
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Note that the blog posts can contribute to ‘commitment and process’ which is 10% of the final mark. Therefore, although the blogs are not formally assessed, attention to them can improve marks.

Experience and reflection: Using digital stories to complement text-based learning

21st Mar 2012 2.12pm

This case study explains the use and integration of digital stories in a module on representations of migration and diaspora in contemporary cinema. The module is 'conventional' in terms of teaching and student participation (screenings, readings, seminars, assessed essay), but is enhanced by the viewing and discussion of student-produced, autobiographical digital self/family-portraits. The case study covers the rationale for integrating personal reflection, addresses practicalities of using digital storytelling and includes an assessment of how the practice works. Sample digital stories illustrate the work done by students. Module documentation and links and resources are available as downloadable attachments.

The attached presentation is directed at tutors who have no or very little prior knowledge of digital storytelling and are considering the integration of a creative and reflective task in a teaching context which is predominantly text- and writing-based. The presentation may also be of interest to anyone teaching on migration and diaspora.

The presentation is about 27 minutes long; its parts can be viewed individually. Each of the four sample digital stories is approximately three minutes long.

Embedding the use of PhotoStory

13th Mar 2012 10.04am

PECI1402 Performance Design Process is a level one module that aims to develop an appreciation of developing design ideas in response to a theatrical text. Photostory 3 has been introduced to help students engage with the performance text that they are designing for. In an amendment based on the learning from the Digitalis workshop enhancements in 2010/2011 (http://www.sddu.leeds.ac.uk/casestudies/casestudy.php?ID=151&tag=233&search=yes), students were asked during the first week to take their own photographs rather than sourcing images from elsewhere, and these photographs were used as the source material for their first photo story.

Museum studies - using a blog as a virtual scrapbook

13th Mar 2012 8.39am

ARTF2121 is a core module running over two semesters, and is available only for History of Art with Museum Studies students. The learning objective for Leeds Collections in Context is for students to be able to engage with key elements in the ordering, display and interpretation of objects in the Leeds collections and place them in the broader context of museum display and the history of the
fine and decorative arts. The assessment consists of one standard (2,000-3,000 word) essay (Semester 1) and a larger (4,000-6,000 word) exhibition project (Semester 2) during which students are required to put together a paper exhibition using objects from a collection they have studied,choosing up to 6 objects from the collections of Leeds City museums and galleries. This exercise includes the writing of an analytical narrative exhibition guide and associated catalogue raisonne. This is one of the first occasions where students will have an ‘open assignment’ i.e. they do not have an essay/exam question to respond to. This is often a challenge for the students at this juncture and can cause anxiety even in the most able students.

The delivery of the module in 2010-11 was part of the Digitalis Project, which is exploring the use of digital technologies as a way to enhance and embed creative reflection into student learning experiences. In an enhancement to the teaching of this module, students were invited to construct a reflective learning blog as part of the development of their projects. This ran alongside the formal assessment procedures for the assignment, directing attention to the significance of non-assessed reflective learning (a contentious subject given the strategic focus of many students) and challenging the views that learning is demonstrated through summative assessment.

Evaluating feedback mechanisms in the School of Earth and Environment

6th Feb 2012 12.43pm

Assessment feedback plays a crucial role in the learning experience, however, recent National Student Survey (NSS) results have shown there to be a large degree of student dissatisfaction regarding assessment feedback right across the higher education sector in the UK. Evaluating feedback mechanisms in the School of Earth and Environment was a project, at the University of Leeds, designed to evaluate the provision of assessment feedback through in depth consultation with staff and students about current practices, with a view to building upon good practice and creating a strategy for further improvement. Data gathered via focus groups and questionnaires was distilled into a key set of recommendations for ways forward. The recommendations focused on two main strategies: a) the creation of a new comprehensive feedback code of practice for staff, and b) raising student awareness of their rights regarding feedback provision as well as their responsibility to engage with feedback and how to get the most from it. These initiatives have been supported by a distinct, highly visual and sustained advertising campaign designed to act as a corollary to raising staff and student awareness of assessment feedback.

Making our programmes more distinctive: Integrated Masters and Bachelors programme in Dentistry (MChD / BSc).

17th Jan 2012 1.29pm

The aim of this project was to keep the UG Dental programme at the forefront nationally by further significant development in line with original aspirations to convert it into an Integrated Masters and Bachelors programme in Dentistry (MChD / BSc). This would make the programme even more distinctive within the UK and Ireland and align it with the European goal of the award of a Masters degree at the end of the programme of study in Dentistry, ensuring that our graduates have the best opportunities both here and internationally.

At the time of the major revision to the dental undergraduate BChD curriculum (2004) some Masters level outcomes at clinical and professional levels were included in the later stages of the provision. The aim was to further revise the curriculum for years 4 and 5 to ensure the requirement for 120 credits of Masters level attainment was met and to facilitate the award of an Integrated Masters degree.

Enhancing graduate employability in the food sector by improving learning and assessment strategies for knowledge development and skills training for food science and nutrition undergraduates

21st Dec 2011 12.49pm

The main aim of the project was to develop and implement an integrated learning-centred, research led curricula for undergraduate programmes of study (B.Sc. Food Science, B.Sc. Food and Nutrition and B.Sc. Nutrition) in the areas of Food Processing, Food Quality Assurance, Total Quality Management and New Product Development.

These scientific areas prior to 2009/2010 were presently taught as separate course modules, each with their own individual set of module aims and learning outcomes. The fragmented teaching approach did not provide students with a learning experience similar to an industrial setting where problem solving skills are required to simultaneously handle product development, project management, food processing and quality assurance problems.

A revision to the delivery of the programme of study, learning and teaching strategies and assessment methodologies was proposed. A single 20 credit module (Food Quality and New Product Development) replaced Food 2090 (Food processing and nutritional quality) and Food 2080 (Application of quality assurance in food manufacture).

At level 3, a 30 credit module (Food innovation design and quality management project) integrated teaching from Food 3020 (Designing New Foods: Skills in Team Orientated Problem Solving), Food 3180 (Food and the Law) and application of techniques from Food 2080 (Application of quality assurance in food manufacture).

Making our Programmes Distinctive Through Hands-on CDIO (Conceive, Design, Implement, Operate) Activities

14th Dec 2011 2.44pm

There has been concern expressed by industry that while current engineering graduates have a good theoretical knowledge of engineering science, they lack experience of putting this into practice. To address this a number of global educational institutions came together to form the worldwide CDIO initiative, to encourage the education of engineers throughout the various practical stages from Conception to Operation (Conceive, Design, Implement and Operate, CDIO). While individual and team projects are a common way of responding to this educational need in the latter years of a degree, very few universities attempt to deliver practical CDIO activities in the first few years. This project has developed and embedded significant practical CDIO activities within our engineering curriculum within the second year of all our School’s undergraduate engineering programmes of study. The activities developed have been influenced both by global challenges, industrial input and our research interests. They have had a huge impact on our school’s learning and teaching.

From e-learning to e-teaching: piloting webinars for Library workshop sessions

13th Dec 2011 4.37pm

A significant number of our students and staff use the software EndNote to manage their references. Currently the Library offers six introductory EndNote workshops per year which any student or member of staff can book onto, as well as running EndNote workshops in faculties. In addition, the Library provides comprehensive online EndNote support including webpages and an online tutorial. Despite this, the workshops are always oversubscribed, and off-campus students can’t always attend the workshops or make an enquiry in person.

The Skills@Library team have piloted delivering online EndNote webinars using Adobe Connect. This allows students and staff who are unable to attend face-to-face workshops an opportunity to participate in a personal teaching experience. In addition the team have trialled offering a follow-up online EndNote troubleshooting drop-in.

Step Up to Masters

2nd Nov 2011 1.31pm

The Step Up to Masters project has developed a web-based resource offering an introduction to masters teaching and learning and provides a gateway to resources on the university website and elsewhere on the Internet. Step Up to Masters builds on key staff experience and lessons from “Countdown to University Study” and other parts of the University and extends this material to the needs of PGT students, particularly in terms of skill development and understanding of academic expectations at the masters level. It is also geared to the different needs of mature and international students. As the resource links to study skills materials, the aim is to encourage its use throughout the period of study, not just in the immediate pre-induction period.