Students as producers: Designing games to teach social science research methods and ethics

In this paper we explore our experiences of a staff-student collaborative project that sought to design games and learning resources that could be used to 'liven-up' research methods and ethics teaching in the social sciences. Final and second year undergraduate social science students were encouraged to reflect on their own experiences of both research methods teaching and the process of doing primary research, in order to design games resources that would be useful for future cohorts of students. The concept of games was applied twofold in the project: the development of the teaching resources was itself set up in a games format: we based our initial workshops on the style of the BBC's "Apprentice" programme in order to come up with ideas for the games resources and to introduce a competitive element into the design process. Two groups of students were given a brief to design a games resource that would 'liven up' social science research methods and ethics teaching. Groups then spent an intensive day working on the brief alongside an academic facilitator before pitching their final game concept in a presentation at the end of the day when a winner was announced. In subsequent workshops students worked collaboratively to further develop both games before piloting them on further groups of students prior to production. The second application of the games concept lay in the development of an actual learning resource to be used in future research methods and ethics teaching. The premise of developing an undergraduate dissertation, its (realistic) design and the potential ethical and methodological problems encountered when doing research underpinned the learning objectives for the games developed. The developed games resources have been introduced into the curriculum to supplement the existing (more traditional) learning and teaching strategies and to add a 'fun' element into research methods teaching. Developing a game-based learning approach themselves has thereby increased students' influence on the design of teaching and learning strategies and helped produce a useful learning resource for future cohorts. The paper highlights the benefits of staff-student collaboration in the design and production of game resources, and in particular, the potential for harnessing students' experiences of teaching and learning through feeding it into curriculum development. The paper also demonstrates the benefits of gamification - through a discussion of the positive student feedback and evaluation received by the developed games

“University Challenges”: Addressing Transition and Retention through Games-Based Learning

[EN] In the changing UK Higher Education landscape, addressing student retention and attrition rates is of increasing importance. In this paper, after first reviewing literature on the factors influencing student retention and attrition, we explore how the transition to university life for first-year students might be addressed through a games-based learning approach. We explore the benefits of facilitating ‘students as (games) producers’ and incorporating ‘student intelligence’ into university teaching and learning practices before presenting ‘University Challenges’, a new-traditional board game produced through a collaborative staff-student project between sociology students and lecturers at Leeds Beckett University. Drawing on data from student evaluations from three different academic courses, we reflect on how playing ‘University Challenges’ can help first-year students develop the kinds of skills and knowledge basis that contributes to a better experience of the transition and acculturation into university life in all of its facets.Gerodetti, N.; Nixon, D. (2017). “University Challenges”: Addressing Transition and Retention through Games-Based Learning. En Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Higher Education Advances. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 427-434. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAD17.2017.5239OCS42743

Whose Reparation Claims Count? Gender, History and (In)justice

The recognition and compensation of historic injustices is part and parcel of a politics of recognition and of socio-legal attempts of reconciliation and redemption. The notion of ‘restorative justice’ has recently gained political salience by invoking national governments to face and deal with historical injustice and often judicial recourse is used as a means to redress, through legislation, the legacy of historical wrongs in which democratic nation states have been implicated. At least, it would appear so when considering the proliferation of apologies and reparations issued in recent years on behalf of public bodies. Yet despite a proliferation of apologies, memorials, commemorations and other means of dealing with past practices, some claims for reparation regarding historic wrongs remain unaddressed, unsuccessful or unheard. The article analyses discourses of eugenic legacies and restorative justice claims using a gender sensitive perspective and examines reparation claims in relation to coerced sterilisations comparing Switzerland with Sweden and several states in the United States

‘Am I Too Straight for the Gay People, Am I Too Gay for the Straight People?’: A Qualitative Analysis of How Young Bisexual Women Navigate Self-presentation on Dating Apps

Many young people with marginalized sexual identities still experience discrimination and discomfort when searching for relationships on digital networks. Young bisexual women who are searching for/confirming their identities consistently face ‘binegativity’, typified by marginalization, hypersexualization, and erasure, despite some positive affordances of online connecting. Based on a small-scale qualitative study with young women aged 18–24, this article considers the ways in which young bisexual women construct and navigate their online dating profiles. Drawing on Goffman’s ideas of self-presentation and an examination of how visual clues are supported by verbal statements, this article argues that bisexual young women’s engagement with dating apps requires identity modulation and produces ambivalent affective formations. Their experiences of digital networked spaces are simultaneously shaped by a search for identity, agency, pleasures as well as frustrations and hateful messaging

Making Curveball: Working with students to produce a game that can ‘liven up’ research methods and ethics teaching in the social sciences

In this paper we explore our experiences of a staff-student collaborative project that sought to design games and learning resources that could be used to “liven-up” research methods and ethics teaching in the social sciences. The paper highlights the benefits of staff-student collaboration in the design and production of game resources, and in particular, the potential for harnessing students’ experiences of teaching and learning through feeding it into curriculum development. The paper also considers the value of the “game-show format” and non-traditional teaching and learning formats for increasing student engagement and performance. Finally, the paper demonstrates the benefits of gamification, through the positive student feedback and evaluation received by the developed games, and explores the wider applicability of games in research methods and ethics teaching across social sciences disciplines

Beyond Attrition and Retention: Working With Students to Enhance the First Year Experience

[EN] Student retention and attrition rates have been established as Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for course teams in the Higher Education landscape in the UK. Against this quantified (and neoliberal) auditable undertaking, in this paper we offer an examination of a set of alternative qualitative efforts which are intended to improve the first year student experience by helping students transition into their course, and university life more generally. Working with students to enhance the first year experience is at the centre of our ontological position and we draw heavily on the idea of a “long thin” induction which continues throughout the first year at university. We explore the benefits of facilitating ‘students as producers’ and incorporating ‘student intelligence’ into university teaching and learning practices before presenting a series of activities that are designed to help students transition successfully and build a strong course identity. Having offered students different ways of structured integration into the course we reflect on how these activites can help first-year students develop the kinds of skills and knowledge base that contributes to a better experience of the transition and acculturation into university life in all of its facets.Gerodetti, N.; Nixon, D. (2019). Beyond Attrition and Retention: Working With Students to Enhance the First Year Experience. En HEAD'19. 5th International Conference on Higher Education Advances. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 1113-1120. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAD19.2019.9435OCS1113112