FACULTY OF HUMANITIES TEACHING & LEARNING SHOWCASE 11 TH JANUARY 2011: UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER MAPPING AN ELECTRONIC TRAIL: FROM TEACHING TO DISSEMINATION – INTERACTION, IMAGERY & ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT FACULTY OF HUMANITIES TEACHING & LEARNING SHOWCASE 11 TH JANUARY 2011: UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER MAPPING AN ELECTRONIC TRAIL: FROM TEACHING TO DISSEMINATION – INTERACTION, IMAGERY & ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT Jackson Maogoto, Senior Lecturer-School of Law Presenter Gary Lynch-Wood, Lecturer-School of Law [Project Collaborator]

300 STUDENTS PLUS N.S.S. VAT?? Optimization is critical—‘Conventional’ trial- and-error testing is too slow and unfocused to drive on going evaluation. E-Learning can be challenging but can deliver more in accelerating optimized strategies that MANAGE and PERSONALISE learning experience in large student cohorts. Optimization is critical—‘Conventional’ trial- and-error testing is too slow and unfocused to drive on going evaluation. E-Learning can be challenging but can deliver more in accelerating optimized strategies that MANAGE and PERSONALISE learning experience in large student cohorts.

OVERVIEW-LEGAL METHOD & SYSTEMS (LAWS 10051) A foundational, compulsory core first year course. A foundational, compulsory core first year course. Average Student numbers: Involves dissemination of doctrinal and practical skills compounded by a radical course restructure in System Component: doctrinal and cognitive skills. Method Component: practical skills—essay writing, research etc.

AIMS Build an active integrated learning community encompassing lecturer and students. Use of Blackboard into a complementary (not supplementary) learning platform. Interactive online formative assessment-quizzes (formal/informal). Use of discussion board: Student run with topics ‘controlled’ by students.

CHALLENGES Translating the pedagogy of a traditional lecture theatre, to an environment viewed as bland and faceless. Empowering students as active participants and stakeholders in the learning process. Creating an interface between—enquiry based and cognitive skills. Fusing of inquiry based learning and technology to create synchronous and asynchronous learning synergies.

BENCHMARKS Align with general guidelines relating to desirable attributes of law graduates. Embed online features (e.g. précis and multiple choice questions) to facilitate student intellectual development. Encourage students to develop a reflective E-learning portfolio to track their development. Empower students as active participants and reviewers of learning experience.

ACHIEVEMENTS: E-LEARNING & PATTERN BASING Inquiry-based learning experiences. Designing hands-on, "minds- on" activities. Student choice: provide student choices for demonstrating their learning through construction of new knowledge. Use of Blackboard technology with a pre-established pedagogical framework ensures that it is now an efficacious learning tool. Making major aspects of the course adaptable for both individual and cooperative learning.

EVALUATION Two formal (lecturer designed and administered in exam environment) online self-test quizzes. A broad database of informal (student self administered) test quizzes available to students to enable students cultivate a reading learning culture. Electronic student survey in addition to the standard in class survey—three surveys in total.

CONCLUSION Students had a rich array of information to work with rather than only preselected, filtered textbook content. Difficult to isolate technology as a variable in good instruction but with proper help technology can play a positive role in enhancing academic achievement. Active learning necessary to impart principles and concepts to students is easier to implement in a ‘technology-rich environment’.