By Leisa Nichols-Drew, Associate Professor in Forensic Biology – De Montfort University – April 2023
I am honoured to share my personal viewpoint on Education 2030 (E2030) and block teaching with colleagues within this blog.
When I am preparing to deliver technical training or lecturing material, I love to utilise my own real-life casework and research experiences to bring the subject to life. To do this I always start with the typical investigative questions: what, who, how, where, when, and why. These will all help me in setting the scene and in explaining the perspective of looking ahead to ED2030.
Who
I am Chartered Forensic Practitioner and Associate Professor at DMU in Forensic Science, based in the Leicester School of Pharmacy, within the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences (HLS). I am also a Module Leader, Head of Year 1, DMU Teacher Fellow, National Teaching Fellow (NTF) and a CATE Award Team member.
The forensic science team is comprised of a blend of colleagues with practitioner or research backgrounds. We also have the expertise from colleagues within the School of Pharmacy, and input from other Faculties including BAL and CEM. Our students come to us from around the world, with a variety of pre-HE qualifications including BTEC, A-Levels, Access amongst others. Some students live near to campus, whereas others travel into us.
What
The BSc (Hons) Forensic Science undergraduate degree is a 3-year (4 with placement or year studying abroad) programme accredited by the The Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences (CSoFS). This accreditation involves three component standards:
1. Crime Scene Investigation,
2. Laboratory Analysis,
3. Interpretation, Evaluation, and Presentation of Evidence
When
The forensic science course will be undertaking block teaching in the 2023 – 2024 academic year for level 4 students. This will be followed with level 5 students in 2024 – 2025, and level 6 students in 2025 – 2026.
Where
The CSoFS three accreditation component standards represent the key stages to the Criminal Justice System. Forensic science is an applied subject requiring the simulation of the real world environment for students. At DMU, we have industry standard facilities with a crime scene house, crime scene studio, multiple bespoke laboratories (for practical sessions including: photography, fingermark development, DNA profiling, analytical chemistry) and unique court settings which we can access with the support of the Leicester Castle Business School.
How
Our unique ‘Crime Scene to Court’ approach (in alignment to our three accreditation component standards and the QAA subject benchmark statement) enables us to facilitate contextualised ‘triactive’ learning opportunities via a combination of physical (campus locations), virtual (technologies) and contextual (via internationalization and actual casework experiences). We utilise a variety of Teaching, Learning and Assessment approaches including: practice informed, research engaged, experiential, object based, technology enabled, real world assessments comprising practical experiments, presentations, written reports, portfolios and posters amongst others. We are also honoured that as DMU is a United Nations global hub for the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, and in particular: SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions) we are further influenced by this.
The previous questions have set out where we are prior to block teaching, and the following question offers an insight into what block teaching will bring to forensic science at DMU moving forwards.
Why
In my opinion, there are multiple areas of interest within block teaching:
1. Enhancement – By reviewing our existing delivery, we have an opportunity to enrich what we do and deliver.
2. Engagement – By focussing on specific topics at any given time, this could increase student engagement as it echoes their prior pre-HE experiences.
3. Edutainment – By utilising a variety of immersive and innovative activities embedded with the real-world context we aim to create an edutainment (education + entertainment) ethos.
4. Employability: As we start block teaching, we will be initiating a zero-credit employability module with learning outcomes. This will be underpinned with an e-portfolio. Our intention is that we can encourage students to embrace CPD (Continual Professional Development
5. Experience: Furthermore, I wish to thank the colleagues who have already navigated their subject areas on their own block teaching journeys for their guidance.
So, as I return to my opening analogy – and the ED2030 destination, I am excited about this new direction for the forensic science course at DMU and I hope this blog will inspire other colleagues to share their ED2030 journeys.
