From mastering to making media law educational materials

The reason behind this innovation project was the perceived need for open-access resources on international media law, designed with thematic and methodological coherence, and suitable for specialized university education and professional training. This led to a plan to co-create with students a range of online educational and training resources in appealing and accessible audiovisual and digital formats.  

This project has two primary goals. First, it seeks to equip students with the unique combination of pedagogical, communication and digital design skills needed to be pioneers in the production of educational resources for their peers; a path that is underdeveloped in broader experiential learning programmes.  

Second, it seeks to generate a sustainable set of educational resources that have a coherence of purpose, theme and methods, and which can be used for teaching and training purposes. This will fill an important resource gap in educational and civil society contexts. 

Methods, processes and ICT tools 

The project builds on the sequenced learning of students, differentiated co- and peer- supervision (feed-up, feedback, feed-forward) and intervision. The principles of constructive  alignment were applied within and across modules.  

For the infographics, the free-to-use online graphic design tool Canva was mostly used, after exploring other software options. A tailored blogpost training was received from an academic with personal and educational experience of blogging, and a tailored video presentation skills training was received from a professional tv presenter. The recording studio at Amsterdam Law School was used, and technical training and support were received. 

Development, implementation and challenges 

The project faced some challenges during the planning and development stages, including restrictions related to Covid-19, which initially limited in-person meetings and the building of interpersonal working relationships and team spirit essential for the dynamics of the project, and prevented the kick-off workshop with partners from going ahead. Some team members experienced periods of difficult personal circumstances, which led to their withdrawal from the project. These disruptions caused delays in implementation, which were subsequently overcome through bursts of productivity.  

During the development phase, the need for knowledge questions and assignments and classroom exercises was recognised, in order to help teachers, trainers, students and professionals engage more actively with the substantive materials. Informed by Bloom's Taxonomy, the cognitive level was indicated per assignment. The need for additional reading materials and other tools was also recognised, leading to the curation of lists of free and open-access sources for each module, thus resulting in additional types of materials beyond those envisaged in the original project plan. The innovation was not evaluated in a formal manner; however, several proof-of-concept workshops were held to test and refine the draft materials. This iterative process generated valuable feedback loops with key stakeholder groups. 

Results, tips for replication and next steps 

The project delivered two key results. Team members developed and strengthened their educational design, didactic and communication skills; skills that some have since put to good use in their academic careers. At the same time, the materials have been warmly received and are now being used by lecturers and other stakeholders as teaching or training resources. 

For those looking to replicate the project, the advice is: don't start from scratch. Building on the methodologies developed here saves time and effort. Working in pairs with intensive feedback rounds was a real quality booster, though it did take more time than expected. It's also worth securing study credits for student participants, given the heavy workload. 

Looking ahead, the existing modules will be supplemented with new topics such as minorities and the media, children and the media public service media, media and information literacy, and access to information, including a module on Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation (SLAPPs). Train-the-trainer workshops are also planned to support academics, civil society organisations and public bodies in using the materials according to their own educational and training needs, ensuring their sustainable use across different contexts. 

Relevante publicaties  

• John Biggs and Catherine Tang, Teaching for Quality Learning at University (4th Edition) (Berkshire, England and New York, USA, Open University Press, 2011). 
• Catherine Bovill and Cherie Woolmer, “How conceptualisations of curriculum in higher education influence student-staff co-creation in and of the curriculum”, 78 Higher Education (2019), pp. 407-422 
• Emily Grant, Sandra Simpson and Kelly Terry, Eds., Experiential Education in the Law School Curriculum (Durham, North Carolina, Carolina Academic Press LLC, 2018) 
• John Hattie and Helen Timperley, “The Power of Feedback”, 77 Review of Educational Research (No. 1, March 2007), pp. 81-112. 
• Richard M. Ryan and Edward L. Deci, “Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions”, 25 Contemporary Educational Psychology (2000), pp. 54-67