Teaching, Learning and Assessment Strategy 1999/2000 School of Crystallography, Birkbeck College, University of London

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Departmental strategy is to move towards web-based teaching. Course materials can then be used for both face-to-face and distance learning. Lectures can be updated relatively easily. This approach enhances quality of the course material by internal peer review and collaboration in the preparation of the contents. The Department maintains full control over the materials, as it is not constrained by external publishers.

This course is delivered over the Internet to part-time students, who have regular access to the Internet. The course material is mounted fully on the WWW. The students access the course pages with a personal identifier and password.

The implementation of this strategy involves paced delivery of lectures, accompanied by aims and objectives. Associated messages are broadcast via an e-mail list, to which all participants and tutors are subscribed. Students and tutors can also interact on a one-to-one basis via personal e-mail. For synchronous discussion the tutors and students can meet in a virtual meeting place, for which transcripts are made available. There is course work to consolidate the learning. Students are not required to buy any textbooks since all of the material is available through this web-based course. Additional materials may be made available to them for future research use.

The course is assessed by a combination of the work assignments submitted in terms 1 and 2, a project submitted after term 3, and an unseen final written examination at the end of the course. The latter counts 50% towards the final mark. A certificate of attendance based on the course work only is awarded to students who do not wish to do the project and final examination.

The course material is organised in a tree-like structure with few levels, centred around a main index page at the top of the tree.

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