Environment, poverty & health: Re-useable module
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The main aim of this project was to create, validate and produce a level 6 Geography Module – Environment, Poverty and Health that was to consist of a combination of new and re-purposed content – 15% new, 35% existing content within the University of Chester and 50% of the content coming from outside of the University.
Executive Summary
Findings
The module was duly designed and collection of material commenced. Barriers to collection of external content soon became apparent, in that staff in other universities, although in the first instance, were apparently willing to share content, were not persuaded that they would benefit from the completed module. Barriers to collection of internal content, although different, also occurred: staff within the University, although willing to share content were often of the opinion that their own content was of insufficient quality, and thirdly, as a result of staffing changes, the timing of the delivery of the module was delayed, consequently some of the new module content is still to be prepared.
The cultural issues identified above would lend themselves to a study of attitudes towards sharing resources within and between Higher Education Institutions.
On completion of the module content, the module was to be deposited in the Jorum repository
Achievements
The module has been created as a series of web pages, with the module specification, resources and assessment produced. This can be downloaded from the project website
The module was positively evaluated (as part of a ‘critical friends’ exercise) by students from another Institution, St George’s (London) as well as colleagues engaged with other projects within the Reproduce programme.
Conclusions and recommendations
The students who evaluated the module in its current form found it extremely helpful to have a wealth of relevant online resources to support the module, but lecturers in Higher Education remain reticent about sharing their teaching materials. Whole modules developed by one Institution may not fit well within programmes in other institutions. However smaller module ‘chunks’ may be more useful or the module ‘template’ may prove of use.
More time is required to complete such a large undertaking, a new module with all research and course materials may take longer to develop in the given time frame.