SELF funded projects 2009-10
- SALTIRE received 7 applications to the Strategic Enhancement of Learning Fund (SELF) seeking funds totalling £21,005.
- The following four applications were successful and received awards totalling £10,000.
Introducing Digital Video for the School of Art History
Art History: Andrew Demetrius
Amount Awarded: £590 (plus a camera to be housed in Media Services)
Enhancement Theme(s): Graduates for the 21st Century, Research-Teaching Linkages, The First Year, Flexible Delivery, Assessment
The aim of this project is to introduce digital video recording and editing facilities to the School of Art History. This will enable the School to enhance its teaching programme through the documentation of lectures and the provision of video files as additional learning resources as part of classroom presentations and via the VLE. The School's programme of research seminars will be recorded in order to provide a permanent record that can be accessed by staff and students for research purposes. In addition, staff will be able to record material at site visits (eg artwork or buildings of architectural relevance to modules), gallery visits and student exhibitions, or interviews with visiting academics. All of this material would be edited to provide teaching resources, for presentation in the classroom or via the VLE. The School will be able to borrow all of the necessary recording equipment from Media Services, with editing software being provided to the School.
Reconstruction of St Andrews Cathedral (Phoenix)
Art History: Julian Luxford and Classics: Rebecca Sweetman and Computer Science: Alan Miller, Colin Allison
Amount Awarded: £4414
Enhancement Theme(s): Flexible Delivery, Employability, The First Year, Research-Teaching Linkages
The overall aim of Phoenix is to construct a virtual 3-D model of St Andrews Cathedral. The process and results of this development will have benefits for multi-disciplinary research-led teaching and learning in several Schools, providing resources that can be used by a wide range of modules in the fields of Ancient History, Archaeology, Art History, Classics, Computer Science, Medieval Studies and Religious Studies. In addition, this virtual model will have considerable outreach potential as it will make this major historic tourist attraction more understandable and enjoyable to visit, thereby providing a valuable resource for visitors to the Cathedral. The project will draw on a range of existing existing resources relating to the Cathedral (eg architectural fragments and drawings, artistic impressions of the original appearance) to construct a set of architectural drawings and plans of the original Cathedral and surrounding buildings, including the church of St Regulus. These plans will be used as the basis for the construction of a 3-D model of the Cathedral within the interactive virtual world OpenSim. (This project builds on the expertise and experience developed on the FILTA 2007-08 project 'Real Learning in a Virtual World'.)
Introduction of organic synthesis design through problem-based learning
Chemistry: Iain Smellie, Nigel Botting
Amount Awarded: £2240
Enhancement Theme(s): Research-Teaching Linkages
The aim of this project is to introduce a problem-based learning format to 3rd year organic chemistry labs, thereby moving away from the prescriptive or "cookbook" style of experiment. This gives students the opportunity develop experimental planning skills and encourages a focus on theory and concepts, and is more representative of the approach in research or industrial workplaces. Each student will be given a target molecule and will have two weeks to devise a three-step synthesis of the molecule. This will be written up as a short proposal and submitted for approval; some changes to the student's approach might then be required. The students will then have two weeks to carry out their syntheses and prepare their target molecules. A third or fourth year M.Chem student will be employed on a summer project to select appropriate target molecules and synthetic methods, and the new approach will be introduced into module CH3621 next academic year. If the the PBL approach proves successful, it may be possible to introduce similar experiments to other modules (CH3521 and CH3721).
Podcast, iTunesU, and YouTube delivery of special lectures and interviews
History: John Clark, Andrew Eccles
Amount Awarded: £305 (plus a camera to be housed in Media Services)
Enhancement Theme(s): Graduates of the 21st Century, Research-Teaching Linkages, Flexible Delivery
This project will introduce students to historians' background, specialist research and methodology through the use of podcasts of interviews with lecturers and researchers. These podcasts will be integrated into the VLE as complementary course materials for the School's sub-honours module on historiography. Although initially delivered through the VLE, the podcasts could also be delivered via YouTube and eventually the University's iTunesU account. The School will also disseminate special lectures associated with the School's research centres and institutes. This approach could be extended across the University, for example, interviews with academic staff could complement the proposed first-year Great Ideas modules. The School will be able to borrow all of the necessary recording equipment from Media Services, with editing software being provided to the School.