Teaching & Learning Committee School of Law, February 2010

 The Good News: It’s not rocket science!  An opportunity to review how we structure our modules within a given programme;  To bring about constructive alignment between teaching, learning and assessment;  To ensure our stated assessment information is correct since Registry will draw directly from this information in future for exam timetabling and remediation purposes.

 Semester I: T & L Committee members reviewing existing module descriptors with all undergraduate module coordinators;  November: Feargal Murphy’s session on the importance of learning outcomes  February 2010: Launch of T &L webpage ( )  3 UCD Workshops on Module Enhancement open to all colleagues  1 Dublin inter-university day-long seminar on learning outcomes attended by Members of T & L Committee  MEP meeting February 25, 2010

 Distilling the wisdom of the T & L sessions from big picture overviews to concrete & easily adopted modular issues;  Considering the practicalities of enhancing existing module descriptors;  Ensuring that descriptors do not sell a course short – embedding library information skills ( Valerie and Mark from the Library on hand to help);  Revisiting the “How to” of updating (with Lisa Coyne from Registry ).

Degree Qualification Graduate Attributes LEVEL ThreeModule Descriptors LEVEL TwoModule Descriptors Progressive building On earlier modules’ Learning outcomes

 “Knowledge & Understanding” (see handout of these in folder)  AT LEVEL 1 have demonstrated basic knowledge that builds upon secondary education  “have demonstrated basic knowledge and understanding, underpinned by the basic theories, concepts or methods of the field of study that builds upon secondary education and which is typically at a level supported by introductory third-level textbooks.” L3 L2 L1

demonstrated specialized knowledge to show some awareness of the limitations of current knowledge  “have demonstrated specialized knowledge and understanding, underpinned by the more advanced theories, concepts or methods of the field of study, have begun to show some awareness of the limitations of current knowledge and the sources of new knowledge and which is typically supported by intermediate and advanced textbooks.”

have demonstrated specialised, detailed or advanced knowledge clear awareness of the limitations of current knowledge includes aspects that will be informed by knowledge at the forefront of the field of study  “have demonstrated specialised, detailed or advanced knowledge and understanding, underpinned by advanced theories, concepts or methods, which includes a clear awareness of the limitations of current knowledge and the sources of new knowledge, which is supported by advanced text books but includes aspects that will be informed by knowledge at the forefront of the field of study.”

 LLM: based on consideration of current debate & controversy at the forefront of the field  LLM: “have demonstrated specialised, detailed or advanced theoretical and conceptual knowledge & understanding, based on consideration of current debate & controversy at the forefront of the field & provides a basis for originality in dev &/or applying ideas often within a research context”  PhD  PhD : “have demonstrated knowledge in advanced theoretical framework, a systematic understanding of problems at forefront of knowledge & potential approaches & solutions, & mastery of skills and methods of research associated with the field of study.”

 F rom  F rom Graduate AttributesTo Level Descriptors ( H/O )To Individuals Modules (Constructive Alignment H/O) Alignment H/O)

 Aim for constructive alignment of teaching, learning and assessment (see diagram handout);  Learning outcomes describe a typical student’s achievement (use of grade descriptors then filters out better and less capable students)  Of a 100 hr 5 credit course, only 24 hours typically are contact hours – focus too on the other 80% of autonomous learning – are there specified learning activities outside of class time?  Useful handout in pack ‘ Worksheet for Designing a Course ’ to assist you in thinking of the component parts and in aligning them constructively.

 Learning outcomes are a representation of student learning – i.e., it is a statement as to what a student will be able to demonstrate at the end of a module upon its successful completion.  Try to progress beyond the narration skills associated with the lower end of learning (remembering/understanding) to higher stage values of analysis/evaluation and synthesis ( Handout Cognitive Processes)  Avoid verbs such as ‘know/understand/appreciate’  Use one active verb for each learning outcome  Learning outcomes should be aligned with the method of assessment – e.g., if a student will be asked to discuss ‘X’ upon assessment, an opportunity for that student to practice discussion should occur during the module.

 Capturing those graduate attributes that are developed during your module  Selling our modules short at present --  Opportunity to build in research skills – if you assess by way of essay, what do your learning outcomes currently state regarding the research skills that students will develop during your module? Assistance of library staff – Valerie & Mark.

 THE ISSUE – capturing learning outcomes not currently accounted for in our modules  The docs – Case Study (2 page document)  Literacy Info Sheet (how others have done it)  Useful one-page sheet of learning outcomes verbs  Action! Take 10 minutes, form a group and see whether you can suggest some new or amend some of existing learning outcomes in our modules of tort/contract/ and constitutional to capture the benefits of GILS

 Important to check the content here is correct for 2010/11.  Even if we signed off on changes this year to your module for current exam purposes, you will still need to enter those changes again in the Module Descriptor for them to apply for next year.  Variety of assessment forms possible – useful one page spreadsheet in pack summarising the strengths & weakness of various assessment forms for those considering a change.  Technical language – Natalia has produced a useful glossary ( in handout pack ) to help demystify the terms used for describing various assessment types so that you choose the one most relevant to you.

 Week & Day Matter!:  Week & Day Matter!: For administrative workability & student examination burden, extremely important that you inform the Programme Office before informing students of the weeks in which assignments are due for submission – Programme Office may ask you to select a day other than Friday for your individual deadline date.  Time is fixed -- 3pm  Time is fixed -- 3pm is always the deadline for submission – this is a university standard.

 Module Descriptors are now open for amendment and will remain open until Monday 8 April.  Module Coordinator is responsible for final version – if team teaching, consult and amend accordingly!

 Over to Lisa Coyne from Registry....

 How To “the technical” – Lisa Coyne (and links for quick guides)  How To “the content” – T & L Committee on hand, supported by UCD T & L Team for one- on-one sessions  How To “embedding research skills” – Mark and Valerie from the Library happy to liaise with individuals reviewing their modules/outcomes/assessment strategies  Today’s information will be made available on our webpage