Criminal conflicts: legal learning case studies

Criminal Conflicts: Legal Learning Case Studies Introduction/Context Criminal Law is a year 1 module which has around 160 students. It is compulsory for Law but many JH students choose it as a designated module. This means that some students are studying one Law module in isolation and many students struggle with the technical legal concepts. Rationale The aim was to involve the students in a new learning experience based on a neo-experiential learning model. Method A Criminal barrister wrote a case study which was based around a fictional scenario. This case study is used in the seminars and all the assessments are connected to it. As a pilot study actors were hired to act out a scenario which was loosely based on part of the case study in the first Criminal Law lecture. As a follow-on, further funding was sought by Acting which enabled sections of the case study to be professionally filmed on location alongside ‘talking heads’ for the statements. These mini films will be made available for students to use and refer back to when revising and preparing for their assignments. Findings From student responses received following the pilot, the role play seemed to have an impact in terms of engagement with the module at first instance, but comments seemed to suggest that the initial role play was less helpful in terms of using it to help them prepare for seminars or revision. The use of the professionally recorded sections of the case study will be evaluated. This evaluation will be carried out using focus groups at the end of the academic year (after the exam period) as the recording will only ‘go live’ to students in February/March 2015.