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Resources

Page history last edited by Michael Bromby 15 years, 4 months ago

This page will list a number of problem-based scenarios and other resources that I have put together for using with online discussion boards for the topic of Healthcare Law and Ethics, but much may be equally relevant to other subjects, both within law and beyond.

 


 

Most of the resources here are licensed under a Creative Commons Licence, with the following terms:

 

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Discussion Board Rules

I constructed a number of 'Rules' for students to follow whilst using discussion boards.  To ensure that these are read, my first task on the discussion board is typically a discussion about the rules: which is the most important, is there a top 3, are any not worthy of being included, or are any missing?

 

Scenarios

Many of these scenarios are deliberately short on facts (law students are typically presented with all the facts, to then apply the law), and some are rather vague which allows the students to make some suppositions or to provide several possible outcomes or solutions.

 

Negligence

This scenario combine aspects of disclosure of risk, emergency treatment, availability of resources and cause of injuries. Click the title to read the scenario in detail.

 

Consent

This scenario looks at the ability of patients to accept or refuse treatment.

 

Medical Research

In this scenario, both therapeutic research and healthy voluteer studies are present.

 

Disclosure of Data

This scenario questions the public interest test and looks at issues relating to HIV status.

 

Assisted Reproduction

The access to, and control of, fertility treatment is addressed in this scenario.

 

Cloning

In this scenario, cloning is introduced from both a therapeutic and cosmetic angle.

 

Transplantation

This scenario organ donation and transplantation is addressed.

 

Abortion

The access to, and regulation of, abortion is addressed in this scenario.

 

Ad hoc events

If a government debate or an appeal case sparks public interest during the semester, it might be worth arranging a special discussion board for this.  Examples are given in the link. 

 

Sample Discussion Transcript

Students are generally grouped into small sets of approx 5 or 6 and have a week to discuss one of the problem scenarios.  As each group are working 'blind' alongside several other groups, they are not aware of the discussions taking place elsewhere.  This is facilitated using the Weekly Summary task, illustrated below.  A typical weekly discussion may look something like this: Sample Discussion Transcript.

 

Weekly Summary Task

To allow student groups to see what conclusions other groups arrive at, someone within each group is appointed the weekly summary leader.  Their responsibility is to write a brief synopsis of the discussion with a balanced overview of the topics discussed, and any conclusions that the group arrive at (including minority views) during the week.  They have no other leadership role for the discussion, and are not discussion facilitators or forum moderators in any sense.  The tutor will comment on each summary, and other students may also respond to othe groups, typically when something new is discussed by one group and the other group may indicate why they chose not to address those issues.  A typical summary may look like this, which is a summary of the transcript shown above: Sample Summary Task.

 

Assessment

The use of discussion boards can be assessed, or not, dependant upon the structure of the module, and degree as a whole.  There are a variety of mechanisms for assessing group discussion and the contribution of individuals to a group disucssion - some of these approaches will be detailed in the literature review within this wiki.

My approach to assessment is to give credit for this task as there is the potential for students to evidence research and writing skills.  I offer 10% of the module mark for general participation (this comprises weekly input and also requires some elements of discussion rather than simple statements) and another 10% for the weekly summary task, as detailed above.  The total of 20% replaces a previous task of student seminar presentations, which were removed from the curriculum to make room for online seminars, therefore the net student input remains unchanged.

 

Alternative Assessment Methods

As this project aims to draw together students from different law schools, and indeed from different disciplines, it may well be the case that students will be of different levels of study and that their assessment structure differs for a variety of reasons - possibly there may be no formal assessment at all.  The following sections illustrate how assessment may be tackled:

 

Reflective Essay

The student would be asked to write about their experience and asked to evidence how they felt they had learned or benefited from taking part in the discussion boards.

 

Best Post Selections

Students may be required to select their best post (or collection of posts), or select a discussion board that the student felt they contributed the most towards.  This may be supplemented by a refective essay on this post in a wider context.

 

Peer Review

Peer review of student input or performance (perhaps against pre-determined criteria) may be a valid method to assess the contributions of others within a group.  Some element of both self and peer assessment may be combined.

 

Prospective Timetable

For the 2008/09 session, my current prospective timetable for running the online seminars can be found here.

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