Inspirational Learning: A Case Study Of Development Practice

This case study illustrates the ëinspirational learningí project at Sheffield Hallam University (SHU), as applied to the Development Practice module on the final year of the BSc (Hons) Real Estate Development. In particular, it examines and assesses the application of information and communication technology (ICT) to learning, teaching and assessment, the impact on student engagement and performance and the module delivery considerations for staff. The module outline includes the following introduction: ìDevelopment surveyors are involved at all stages in the development process, from the inception of development projects to their completion. In addition to contributing their own specialist knowledge and skills to this process, they work closely with other specialists, as part of multi-disciplinary project teams. This module provides an opportunity to rehearse this development process, and the role of the development surveyor, using project work based on real-life development opportunities.î This module consists of both group work and individual work and makes use of a wide variety of information and communication technologies to motivate and inspire students. These include video production technology; Web 2.0 applications (e.g. Delicious and Twitter); computer aided design; and, development appraisal software (e.g. Argus Developer and Monte Carlo Risk Analysis). The teaching and assessment is supported by a virtual learning environment (i.e. Blackboard) and by the use of a spreadsheet-based marking schema, now widely used throughout SHU. An analysis of the effectiveness and efficiency of this approach will be based on tutor experience, student feedback studies and external examiner responses. Examples of student videos will be presented for comment and discussion.