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CRIMINAL LAW 171 VIDEO PROJECT: BOLDLY GOING WHERE NO CRIMINAL LAW LECTURER HAS GONE BEFORE!
Start: 28/08/2018, 12:45
End: 28/08/2018, 13:45
Contact:Miss Nothemba Nqayi - (021) 808 3717
Location: Den Bosch, 41 Victoria Street (opposite House Skuilhoek and directly behind the Conservatoire)
AUXINS hosted byThe Centre for Teaching and Learning (CTL)
Title of PresentationCRIMINAL LAW 171 VIDEO PROJECT: BOLDLY GOING WHERE NO CRIMINAL LAW LECTURER HAS GONE BEFORE!
Summary of InvitationThe CTL hereby invites you to a lunch-hour “padkos session" as part of the AUXIN Project. The AUXIN Project aims to create growth opportunities for SU lecturers.
Title and Name of PresenterDr Mary Nel
Short BiographyDr Mary Nel is a senior lecturer in Criminal Law at the Department of Public Law.  She is Chair of the Law Faculty's Teaching and Learning Committee and has received various accolades for innovative teaching, including an SU Excellence in Teaching Award in 2017.
Blurb

According to Cook-Sather (2010:555), “the most engaging, meaningful, and enduring education is that which affords students the opportunity to be actively involved – to be actors in their own learning." With this in mind, in 2017 I introduced an optional video project in Criminal Law 171, a compulsory year module for 1st/2nd year law students: Working in groups of five, about 1/3 of the class of 300 students handed in 60-90 second film clips illustrating and explaining Criminal Law-related concepts, cases or issues. Clips had to educate and inform their classmates about the law in an accurate, imaginative, entertaining, interesting and original way. There was a class screening with prizes for the best submissions, which were also made available on SUNLearn.

 

A video project is definitely the type of intervention that could be considered by any academic who wants to give students an alternative – and creative – mechanism by which to demonstrate their learning (Willmott 2015).  It involved minimal extra lecturer effort since it was voluntary and student-directed/driven. Assessment was fast and straightforward – the clips were short, group work cut down on the overall number of submissions, and the mark awarded was an all-or-nothing extra 2% credit added to the year mark of students who met the prescribed criteria.

 

Introducing such a video project has a variety of potential benefits.  Making film clips did indeed appear to encourage student-centred, active and collaborative learning.  It gave students the opportunity to learn while they were teaching their peers and to reflect on the learning process.  The group-work aspect of the project also promoted collaborative, cooperative learning. Its creative dimension helped challenge law students to move beyond their instinctive legal preference for the (left-brained) sequential and verbal, towards more (right-brained) visual, creative modes of learning, thus promoting a more “whole-brained", balanced learning orientation.

 

My presentation will use selected excerpts from the student video clips to illustrate/demonstrate how my desired academic outcome of more holistic, inclusive and active learning has been achieved by this intervention.

Key WordsLearning styles, active learning, collaborative learning, video clips
Date of Presentation
Time
28 August 2018
12:45 - 13:45
VenueDen Bosch, 41 Victoria Street (opposite House Skuilhoek and directly behind the Conservatoire)

Please RSVP by completing the Google form:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfqtAwQGhYM9nKv0JeZVpkyhGew7LqVX79QLYMo-aZlHE7C9w/viewform?usp=sf_link

Enquiries

Ms Nothemba Nqayi

nothemban@sun.ac.za

021 808 3717

For more InformationA podcast will be available on the CTL website after the session: www.sun.ac.za/ctl