BSL Case Study

Criminology - Drugs and Justice

Abstract

This Master of Criminology subject has a mix of postgraduate students with a wide range of learning strategies, skillsets, and experiences. Half the students were physically located on campus and the other half were online in a Blended Synchronous Learning (BSL) environment.  Although the subject suffered technology failure across the first seven weeks of the 12-week semester, and subsequent changes to the structured learning experiences, the students kept turning up for class.  The student cohort worked out ways to engage even when the technology prevented them from engaging in the intended way. In response to the technology fail, the subject coordinator, (me) reverted to a more didactic approach, reducing risk associated with learning, proportional to the risk associated with the technology. Unfortunately, the most important element of the subject design, was also the first technological component to be dropped. The lessons learned included thinking carefully about the vulnerability of the pedagogy in the BSL subject; always have fall back options for interactivity and protect the most essential features of the pedagogy. The deeper lesson however, was that the technology fail allowed for a new set of relationships to emerge in the learning environment. Within the knowledge ecology of the space the cohort responded and adapted through their personal knowledge networks in ways not previously envisioned. The student experience is important – by keeping a focus on the experience (rather than the content), the students will remember it and have a better learning experience.