Case studies archive

Assessment case studies

Enhancing interactive learning in the classroom with Turning Point - March 2010: Engaging students in class discussion can be difficult when they feel reticent or not confident enough to openly express their personal views, especially in a module focused on prescriptive vs. descriptive attitudes to language. This case-study describes the use of an innovative resource which helps foster and enhance interactive teaching and learning by means of an electronic response system with voting pads, namely Turning Point.

Using online learning journals to enhance students’ engagement with literary theory: This case study describes how online learning journals were used to help students to engage with literary theory on a module on contemporary Canadian fiction. Amongst the many benefits described the reflective journals enhanced seminar discussions and motivated students to complete the critical reading.

Using Blogs for Peer Feedback in a Creative Writing Course: This case study describes and analyses the use of blogs as a method of peer feedback on an undergraduate module in Creative Writing. As well as a description of the use of blogs at the University of Brighton (within the Blackboard virtual learning environment (VLE), the case study includes a brief assessment of the literature on blogging and the results of an informal survey of student opinions on this innovative pedagogical technique.

From stick to carrot – using Turnitin to help improve students’ writing: This case study looks at how Turnitin (an electronic plagiarism detection tool) works within a VLE (WebCT/Vista) and demonstates how it can be set up as a pre-submission checking tool for students.

Awareness into action: linking learning with research in ecolinguistics: This case study describes the close linkages made between teaching and research in the Language and Ecology module at the University of Gloucestershire. As part of the module, students become involved in the international Language & Ecology Research Forum, contributing insights from their own research and reflection at a variety of levels from short comment to full articles.

Text.Play.Space: Creative Online Activities: This case study offers an account of some creative-critical online activities which appear as part of a portfolio of assessed online activities on an undergraduate course on the Victorians at the University of Wolverhampton.

Using Eighteenth Century Collections (ECCO) as a learning and teaching resource: This case study looks at the authors experience of building the Eighteenth-Century Collections Online (ECCO) database into a first-year undergraduate module. The aim was to enable students to experience directing their own research using eighteenth-century editions.

Using Screen Capture Software in Student Feedback: This case study looks at an innovative way of providing feedback to students on their written work in English Language Teaching courses by using ‘screen capture software’, software which basically allows you to record the screen of your computer as if you had a video camera pointed at it.

Testing Language Skills using Computer Assisted Assessment (CAA): This case study explores a first year module at the University of Wales, Bangor where a series of multiple choice tests on sentences, commas, semi-colons and apostrophes are provided for the students in the Blackboard virtual learning environment to improve their language skills.

Make Your Own: Editing a Renaissance Play: This case study describes how students go about preparing an edition of a Renaissance play entirely from scratch for a core module on an MA in English Studies (Renaissance Literature). In the process, they learn about principles of editing, associated theoretical and practical problems, and the protocols and pitfalls of preparing a text.

Theatre Programming as a Problem-Based Assessment for use in Teaching Scottish/Irish Drama: This case study looks at the use of a theatre programming exercise as both an assessment tool and a technique for exploring the contemporaneity of play-texts, working on Twentieth Century Irish Theatre with a mixed Level 2 group coming from different educational and ethnic backgrounds.

Teaching Theory and the use of the Reading Diary: This Case Study looks at ways in which an assessed reading diary can help motivate students to explore the work of theorists and apply their theories in their reading of literary texts.

Studying Literary Texts: The Learning Process: This case study explores the question: What do we ‘do’ when studying Literature? What learning processes take place? Undergraduate Educational Studies students have been finding out in a module that explores the nature of learning in the specific context of studying literary texts and taking part in the conversations that constitute literary studies.