The team
Dr Elvira Mambetisaeva
Student leads: Laura Caton, Aanadita Kothurkar, Keerthana Sunilkumar, Tom Roberts.
Department
Genetics, Evolution and Environment
What happened?
The ChangeMakers project “Using students’ expertise in identifying extra educational resources to be incorporated into the teaching material to support student learning of advanced human genetics and statistics” aims to enhance student learning of these subjects by complementing module teaching material with available on the Web short educational multimedia videos chosen by students. Some students find advanced human genetics and statistics difficult as they require competencies in mathematics and understanding complex concepts in genetics. This project tries to address this issue. Research shows that university students are increasingly using short educational videos available on the Web to meet their own learning needs. They help students quickly to recall prior knowledge or to close the knowledge gap they might have. In this project, the ChangeMakers partners Dr Elvira Mambetisaeva and four students from the MSc Genetics of Human Disease and the BSc Biological Sciences first identified the topics in human genetics and statistics that students find difficult drawing on their experiences of learning these subjects. Then, they gathered the list of links to educational videos and resources for identified topics using their perspectives of understanding how these resources were helpful in developing their own competencies. Finally, they divided the compiled resources into two groups: the first group of resources will supplement the reading list for students so that they can use it prior to starting their study of these subjects. The second group of resources will be incorporated into the module Moodle resources along with lecturers’ material to be used by students during their study. The list of identified educational resources is in the process of evaluation by current MSc Genetics of Human Disease students. In addition, module organisers will go through the list of suggested links before incorporating them into module resources.
What advice or encouragement would you give to someone thinking of doing a ChangeMakers project?
(A) Identify an area where students’ perspectives and experiences can change students learning to be better and (B) identify student partners who are enthusiastic and wants to work in a partnership with you.
A clear understanding of the goal of your project by all partners is very important for the success of the project.
