The big tin-foil hat and a silent movie: technology and enquiry approaches, the teacher and student perspective

Understanding Law 2 is a new module introduced in the second semester of 06/07 in the School of Law at the University of Sheffield. The module is compulsory for first year law students, and aims to build on knowledge and skills students will have acquired in the first semester. One of the core objectives of the module is to educate students in identifying, locating and utilising legal information that is relevant for a particular legal problem. CILASS funding enabled the team to devise an electronic manual and accompanying e-workbook that requires students to apply legal rules to fictional scenarios. These sorts of exercises are ideal for fostering a culture of open-ended learning, and, as a teaching tool. The manual places students at the centre of the learning process and empowers them to take charge of their own learning. In addition to this we set the students a task of producing a presentation in any format to be showcased at the “Celebration of Learning”. This was a huge success and we were working with over 40 groups. This paper will address what worked and what didn’t and how we can learn from this experience for future projects.