Session 7.1: Paper presentation
Using rmarkdown for homework production in data analysis courses: encouraging reproducible science facilitating feedback
Criminology
Juan Jose Medina, University of Manchester
There is a growing call for scientific practices allowing reproducible research. Yet much of our data analysis teaching focuses on principles and techniques but typically shy away from educating students in workflows for reproducibility. This presentation will discuss our experience introducing rmarkdown as a tool with an important role within these workflows in the context of a postgraduate course unit in data analysis for criminologists. In particular we expected students to use rmarkdown to generate their homework submissions. This tool as implemented in R Studio allows students to produce dynamic literate programming documents aiming to avoid the “cut and paste” strategy for producing scientific reports. Instead rmarkdown integrates code and narrative in the same document. These documents then can be “knitted” to output reports in html word or pdf format. This presentation discusses the pedagogical advantages of adopting this approach and the practical challenges we have encountered.
Session 7.2: Paper presentation
The Street Level Lecturer: humanistic approaches to teaching social policy in higher education contexts
Sociology
Leoarna Mathias, Newman University
The changing nature of the student body attending the modern ‘multiversity’ (Collini 2012) calls on us as lecturers to reconsider our pedagogy. By adopting the construction of the Street Level Bureaucrat as established by Lipsky in 1977 and applying it to university teaching we can create the Street Level Lecturer. While we are at risk of being distracted by what Waters (2013) describes as the operation of ‘Game Theory’ within educational contexts (which diverts our attention away from students and towards our pay-masters and performativity agendas) we can nevertheless exercise genuine pedagogical discretion and bring our authentic self to the lecture theatre. This paper argues that through a detailed understanding of our students approach to learning a reconsideration of our teaching methods and a commitment to one’s humanistic intention real learning can still take place.
Session 7.3: Paper presentation
The Law Mentoring Programme: Bridging the gap between undergraduate study postgraduate study and entry into the legal profession
Law
Beverley Rizzotto and Sophie Cloutterbuck, London Metropolitan University
In April 2014 London Metropolitan University was awarded funding from the Higher Education Funding Council for England to set up a Postgraduate Mentoring Programme as part of a wider initiative involving nine universities (the London Postgraduate Mentoring Project). The Law Mentoring Programme was formed in order to engage and assist undergraduate students from under-represented backgrounds into postgraduate study by being assigned a postgraduate mentor and to assist postgraduate students in their progression into the legal industry by being assigned a solicitor mentor. At London Metropolitan University a need was identified within the area of law given the difficult task students face in completing their qualifying law degrees and progressing to postgraduate study either to complete the academic stage of legal training with a view to entering the legal profession or to complete further study in order to seek an alternative career in law. The latter is particularly interesting given the recent changes whereby one can qualify via the route of “equivalent means.”
Session 7.5: Paper presentation
Assessment through simulated safeguarding scenarios
Education
Amanda Crow, University of Huddersfield
There are growing demands in higher education for students to gain the skills and experience needed to be ‘work ready’. Together with the ever changing legislative climate of children’s services this presentation will focus on an innovative practical oral assessment task that helps students develop as knowledgeable practitioners with ‘real-life’ experiences. The safeguarding children and young people module is delivered on the Undergraduate Framework to second year students in excess of 140 students attend on a number of courses. During the presentation I will describe the assessment process in detail and discuss the challenges and benefits of developing an assessment technique that allows students to be confident in their practice. Student feedback is positive although admittedly they report feeling nervous when preparing for the task 94% report the module overall has improved their knowledge and understanding of safeguarding.
Session 7.6: Paper presentation
Improving employability through research-informed learning: enhancing student engagement on a vocational outdoor degree
Sport
Mark Hickman, Allison Inkster, Nick Passenger, Paul Gray UCLAN; Peter Stokes University of Chester; and Colin Beard, Sheffield Hallam University
The aim of this session is to disseminate the progress to date with an ongoing project designed to improve employability of students on vocational outdoor courses. This has been achieved through promoting Research Informed Learning linked to the emplyers’ voice and has been received very positively by employers students and fellow academics with whom the idea has been shared.
The session will include:
- vocational outdoor courses
- challenging existing culture: the idea
- reviewing provision
- the employers’ role
- evidence of progress to date
- future possibilities.
Session 7.7: Interactive workshop
Form and content: how can we enhance the educational opportunities of assessment through innovative design?
Sociology
Naomi de La Tour, Warwick University
Assessment can do more than test how well a student has understood a concept theory or idea. If designed well it has the potential to be as rich a learning opportunity as any other within higher education. Drawing on pedagogies of assessment and a teaching and learning case study by the presenter this workshop will explore ways of designing assessment as an educational opportunity to enhance learning for students as well as to meet institutional requirements.
It will ask:
- how can we design forms of assessment that offer learning opportunities to students?
- what challenges might arise in marking and giving meaningful feedback for innovatively designed
- forms of assessment?
- what are the constraints around assessment design and how can we engage with them?
- delegates will be invited to draw upon the learning outcomes of their own teaching to consider possible ways of developing assessment techniques relevant to their contexts.
