Small-Scale Learning and Teaching Research and Development Projects: 2006
- Evaluating the effectiveness of generic skills training: where do we stand and deliver?
- Mutual Benefit of Student - Employer Engagement
- ‘Geoverse: piloting a National e-journal of undergraduate research in Geography.’
- e-Learning or a-Gimmick? Evaluating the use of rich media in Geography fieldwork
- Environmental Citizenship: the student perspective
- Meeting the challenges and exploiting the opportunities of post-top up fee recruitment in the Earth Sciences
- ‘Disabled’ Staff and Off-Site Activities: opportunities and challenges for students’ learning
- Student ambassadors and Education for Sustainable Development
- Enhancing Feedback Opportunities for Students through the use of Podcasting
Mutual Benefit of Student - Employer Engagement
Mr Simon Kemp, School of Civil Engineering & the Environment, University of Southampton
There is acceptance across the sector that work placements for students is a positive development. There is plenty of literature and case studies outlining how Universities are addressing this through a whole year in industry, small work placements, volunteering placements and exchange years. However, there is little evidence from employers themselves regarding the nature of placements, joint ownership of the placement outcomes and the kind of student projects beneficial to both parties.
This study will identify a set of indices with selected representative employers in the environmental science area to determine a mutually beneficial approach to student engagement. The employer groups approached will be: SMEs, large enterprises, environmental industries, Government agencies, NGOs, local and regional authorities, industry consortiums and business associations.
We shall look at skill sets for students on placements, the nature of placements with particular employer groups, benefits of student placements and projects to employers and students.
This will be achieved through a telephone survey to selected employer groups, student views and an employer focus group to determine views on employer engagement and how we can ensure placements and projects are mutually beneficial and sustainable to both students and employers.
Funding will be used for a research assistant, with the support of the project leader, to carry out the survey and interviews, and help analyse the survey data. The output will be a report entitled Indicators for the Mutual Benefit of Student - Employer Engagement and will include recommendations for mutual engagement with employers.
‘Geoverse: piloting a National e-journal of undergraduate research in Geography.’
Dr Helen Walkington, Geography Department, School of Social Sciences and Law, Oxford Brookes University
The need – A student centred approach to the linking of teaching and research. Most universities are now putting student centred approaches at the forefront of their thinking about the student experience, academic offering and social learning. I feel that there is a need to make an explicit link between student learning and undergraduate research.
The outcome – Quality enhancement of student experience. Raised profile for Undergraduate research. This project will raise student esteem, engagement, expectations and motivation. Students will be able to learn from each other’s research work. Undergraduate research work is rarely read by anyone other than the supervisor and marker. Wider dissemination has the potential to support non publishing students, increase employability, provide a stepping stone into a research career, etc.
The project – Completing the research cycle for undergraduate students. GEOVERSE: A Journal of Undergraduate Geography Research. Providing an e-journal of undergraduate research in geography across 4 varied institutions. The submitted articles would be reviewed by a team of postgraduate students, who would form an online community through a wiki6) and who would give constructive feedback. This publication could be accessed as an e-journal with downloadable pdf files.
e-Learning or a-Gimmick? Evaluating the use of rich media in Geography fieldwork
Dr Richard Jones, Department of Geography, University of Exeter and Dr James Newman, Department of media communications and film studies Bath Spa University
Primarily, this project is concerned with the use and deployment of rich media in a blended m-Learning environment of onsite fieldwork supported by digital media ‘fieldwork resource packs’ delivered via inexpensive and ubiquitous mobile rich devices such as iPod, PSP and mobile phone. Furthermore, by utilising everyday media tools not usually associated with learning and teaching in Higher Education, the project seeks to enhance student conceptions of e/m-Learning, perceptions of e/m-Learning environments, and heighten participation and engagement with the learning process. Indeed, the choice of test platforms is significant not only because of the cultural currency of these devices but also because while there has been some scholarly consideration of podcasting and PDAs, there has been no scrutiny of devices such as Sony’s PlayStation Portable despite it representing the ideal target platform for mobile rich media delivery (supporting audio, video, still images, Wi-Fi, and sporting a bright, highly reflective, widescreen display that literally outshines even high-specification PDAs, and with a GPS peripheral recently announced).
All the while, we must be sensitive to the possibility that the furore, hype and hyperbole surrounding e/m-Learning may overstate the usefulness of these new media tools and unfairly denigrate traditional methods of learning and teaching. Accordingly, the project will evaluate e/m-Learning resources alongside traditional paper-based solutions such as workbooks and handouts, polling student opinion and tutor appraisal of the learning process, and consider methods for integrating new media resources and ‘traditional’ learning and teaching materials.
- Report: Evaluating the use of rich media in Geography fieldwork (120kb Word file) - Dr James Newman, Department of media communications and film studies Bath Spa University, and Dr Richard Jones, Department of Geography, University of Exeter
- Resource: Creating audio and video podcasts for Microsoft Windows (366kb PDF file)
Environmental Citizenship: the student perspective
Dr Zoe Robinson, School of Physical and Geographical Sciences, Keele University
‘Environmental citizenship’ recognises the link between our future and our care for the environment, and embodies a sense of responsibility leading to action on behalf of the environment (environmental behaviour). These notions are integral to the concept and goal of sustainable development. This project will investigate student perspectives on issues of environmental citizenship. This project stems from initial observations that although GEES subjects have been described as sustainable development ‘torch bearers’ students sometimes express a disregard for the ‘worth’ of environmental behaviour, and from observations that prevalent attitudes may vary between different GEES cohorts.
In order to provide a broad coverage of students a questionnaire will be generated and distributed via WebCT to modules with student cohorts of varying year and principal subjects (in the first instance Geography, Physical Geography, Human Geography, Geology, Applied Environmental Science, Chemistry, Politics) through collaboration with colleagues within the School of Physical and Geographical Sciences and throughout the University. More in-depth analysis of pertinent issues will be achieved through focus-group discussions with students.
As education remains a key strategy identified under Agenda 21 for achieving sustainability it is timely to evaluate the attitudes of our students for whom sustainability/environmental concepts form an integral part of their courses. This project will provide: a case study of student perceptions on environmental behaviour; a publicly accessible website and questionnaire for dissemination of results and access to the wider student body; and increased student awareness of environmental citizenship/sustainability concepts and how these relate to their degree programme.
Meeting the challenges and exploiting the opportunities of post-top up fee recruitment in the Earth Sciences
Chris Elders, Department of Geology, Royal Holloway, University of London
Earth Sciences departments face a serious recruitment challenge as the numbers of applicants choosing to study the subject at University continues to decline. There is a risk that the introduction of top up fees will exacerbate the problem, but anecdotal evidence suggests that some students are now more inclined to choose subjects with a strong vocational component and the prospect of a good career at the end of it.
This, combined with strong demand for Earth Science graduates in the extractive industries and worries of a growing labour market shortfall, provide an opportunity to demonstrate to potential students that studying Earth Sciences is interesting, intellectually challenging and has the potential to lead to a rewarding career.
This project aims to validate the premise on which this presumption is based by analysing changes in recruitment patterns, and to develop industry based learning packages for schools that will engage students interest, show them the practical application of their subject and give them an insight into the professional work of an Earth Scientist.
‘Disabled’ Staff and Off-Site Activities: opportunities and challenges for students’ learning
Dr Faith Tucker, School of Social Sciences, University of Northampton
In the last decade, new legislative and Quality Assurance measures have prompted UK Higher Education Institutions to recognise differences and diversity in students’ experiences and needs. In the GEES disciplines there is now a considerable body of literature addressing this issue, often with a substantive focus upon the manifold issues which off-site activities (e.g. fieldwork) pose for students with disabilities such as impaired mobility, vision or hearing, mental health difficulties or hidden disabilities and dyslexia.
However, in the GEES disciplines, and in the HE sector more widely, this commitment to support the learning of students with disabilities has seldom been matched by an attention to the issues and needs of HE staff with disabilities. Around 1-in-14 HE teaching staff consider themselves to be ‘disabled’, yet there is a dearth of robust evidence relating to their experiences and needs (Equality Challenge Unit, 2004). The conditions and experiences of this group are often seen as a set of ‘issues to be overcome’, rather than as opportunity to rethink extant institutional and disciplinary teaching and learning habits. These points have particular poignancy in relation to off-site activities such as fieldwork (integral to GEES curricula). The aim of the project is to explore opportunities and challenges for learning posed by the participation of staff members with disabilities in off-site activities through an in-depth consultation with a sample of ‘disabled’ GEES teaching staff.
This project will produce case study and CPD workshop materials to facilitate discussion in GEES departments of the opportunities and challenges for students’ learning posed by the participation of ‘disabled’ staff in off-site activities. These materials will be made available to HEIs via the University’s website.
Student ambassadors and Education for Sustainable Development
Dr Peter Hopkinson, Geography and Environmental Science, University of Bradford
This project will pilot the use of student ambassadors as a way of engaging students and modifying student behaviour in order to reduce its impact on the environment. Research on sustainability messages indicates that the public are often put off environmental action by negative messages, which can elicit denial or avoidance. The proposed work aims to develop positive environmental messages and fun practical actions in order to stimulate changes in student awareness and behaviour. Experience from York St John’s University indicates how students are in a particularly strong position to devise events and actions which will impact on student consciousness and behaviour. Experience at Harvard University indicates that for a small sum, student ambassadors can be employed to devise and promote action to promote sustainable behaviour with considerable success.
The project will fund student ambassadors for three hours a week during semesters to.
- To employ 10 student ambassadors to raise awareness and promote modified behaviour with respect to environmental and social issues among Bradford students.
- To contribute to the reduction of the environmental footprint of the University of Bradford.
- To evaluate the impact and lessons about the use of student ambassadors in a UK middle size University like Bradford.
The impact of the project will be measured through numbers of students engaged; levels of engagement and measured of changes in behaviour and environmental impacts. The project if successful will be scaled up in subsequent years and promoted as a ‘new’ model for affecting campus environmental performance in UK HEIs.
Enhancing Feedback Opportunities for Students through the use of Podcasting.
Dr Derek France, Department of Geography & Development Studies, University of Chester
Many students arriving at University come with some technological gadgetry including mobile phone, MP3 player or laptop. They form part of the modern day ‘net generation’ and bring with them a wealth of online experiences and skills, which need to be utilized by today’s practitioners and incorporated into student learning activities.
In this project technology is utilised to support the learner with the practitioner creating a series of digital audio or podcasts of feedback to students and distributing them through the student e-portfolio. The term podcasting refers to the process of downloading audio files to computers. These files can be automatically loaded onto portable devices, such as iPods and are increasingly commonplace within the music and media industries. The opportunity here is to harness the technology of podcasting, to benefit feedback to students, as demonstrated in Race (1999, p. 27), ‘feedback quantity and quality are probably the most important factors in enhancing students’ learning.’
Providing students with effective feedback is a perennial issue with staff and students alike and is a vital component of their ongoing learning. The additional feedback opportunities offered to students by podcasting will be timely, constructive, and individual and provides an opportunity to support wider learner styles and increase student engagement through reflection. By utilising podcasting facilities, there is a huge opening for student-practitioner dialogue, Evaluation will include pre/post feedback questionnaires, an external independent assessor to facilitate student focus group discussions and interviews with the staff for their perceptions.