What's New?

Enhancing the return of students to on-campus in-person learning:

For two years most law courses were by Zoom or mixed mode. My challenge for 2023 was how to make return to campus appealing and rewarding. Some colleagues opt for ‘participation’ or ‘attendance marks’, but I’m not a fan of either.

Instead, “Involve me and I learn” came to the fore. I adapted my learning and assessment tasks with this in mind.

First was a group News Report Video: Sharia-in-5. Designed to build (I hoped) a positive in-class learning community through "doing" together, Sharia-in-5 embodies core course learning objectives, requires genuine co-operation, is both enjoyable and challenging, enables the acquisition of new skills, and results in an informative shared -learning outcome. As none in the class would have prior experience with such a task, ensuring technical support and guidance throughout the process was built into its design.

Keeping in mind feedback from my Asian Law Bulletin Groups in 2022 re their initial distrust of group work:

I knew that a motivating task which was both challenging (new skills set) but right on point could overcome their dislike of working with others (as had happened with ALB).

A bonus I observed was the interaction that occurred just in forming their groups. The simple opportunity to move around the room to select a nation on offer and introduce themselves meant students were meeting, talking, sharing with one another. An in-class feeling of community was apparent.

"Law students at UQ seem to despise group work (I myself don’t claim to love it), and that’s evidence that they need to do more of it. All of us will end up working in teams at some point in our careers. To learn and improve collaboration skills now will only help for future endeavours".

How Sharia-in-5 works

Students work together in groups of five to produce: write, film, edit, report one episode (five minutes) in a series of nine news reports Sharia-in-5. Each episode is on one of nine Muslim majority nations which are representative of the larger sectors of Australia’s Muslim communities.

Afghanistan
Albania
Lebanon
Turkey
Indonesia

Iran
Sudan
Somalia
Iraq

Within each episode will be individual reports, interviews, commentary etc undertaken by each of the five-group member. Students however need to work cooperatively on design and producing their episode. Credits at the end will outline the division of tasks within the group: Could include:

Producer

Editors (Videos)

Script editor

Camera crew

Researcher

Costume & behind the scenes

Reporters

Anchor

Music

There is a workshop run by Alynna Wong, a journalist, lawyer who also studied Sharia at Harvard. Alynna is currently in the School of Media and Communications. Several years ago, as an undergraduate, she took both my Islamic law and Asian Law courses and understands my goals and teaching philosophy. She has the media and technical skills to assist each group with the mechanics and video design. The workshop is held as part of the course seminars to ensure equity in the use of digital skills and to professionalise the look and feel of Sharia-in-5.

Course Learning Objectives:

Through the nine episodes of Sharia-in-5, diversity across the Muslim nations and the role for Sharia will be evident. Through comparison students experience first hand these differences and the reasons why.
To appreciate the consequences arising from such diversity for Australia’s accommodation of its Muslim population and the unofficial role for Sharia.

The Sharia-in-5 reports are a bridge between two dimensions of the course: Islamic law in Muslim nations and in the West (esp. Australia). For this reason, they are shown and discussed in class noting points of tension, achievements, reforms, current debates, and future directions in Muslim nations and consequences for Sharia accommodation in Australia: alignment and dissonance.

The assessment is 30% : 20% for the individual component and 10% for the quality of production. Each episode needs accurate and current content, balance, be interesting, informative, insightful, professional and engaging.

Student examples

Lebanon:

Iran:

Indonesia:

E-Posters & Oral Presentations

2MT The second avenue was an in-class e-poster and oral presentation. Instead of an online video which was perfect for Zoom classes, this now requires each student to stand in front of the class and talk (for two minutes) on a topic which they have researched and mastered. They create one e-Poster as an accompaniment. After completing the talk, the presenter answers questions from the class and from me. This increases in-class engagement but also goes to ensuring authenticity.

Students are learning from each other, but once you have spoken in such a setting, everyone’s comfort level in the seminar to discuss, question, disagree, and encourage, increases. Through dialogue, you come to know one another, and barriers break down.

Aware of anxiety levels amongst university students generally, learners in this course did have the option of pre-recording their 2MT (the speakers face visible +e-poster) but needed to be present in class for the Q&A and discussion. Thus far, 30% have taken the pre-recorded option.

The unexpected bonus for me (and the students) was that in this their 4th year elective in their final year, most said it was the first time they had had to speak in front of others. With mooting no longer compulsory, it means law students can graduate from law based purely on written not oral forms of communication and advocacy.

“The last time I had to speak in front of other people was a ‘lecturette’ back at high school”

“I was so anxious as I’d never had to speak on anything before but wanted the challenge of doing it in person - not via the video. It actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.”

In response to generative artificial intelligence (AI)

Acknowledge:

Learners in my classes are not forbidden from using AI technologies but are required to acknowledge AI use (as they would any other source) and referenced in accordance with the Australian Guide to Legal Citations.

An example of its use in LAWS5819:

I used Artificial Intelligence to create the two images used in the presentation. Please see the details below:

Stability.AI, Reimagine XL to Ezekiel Lubbock, Output, 18 August 2023. The output was generated in response to the prompt, 'Painting in a simple style of a Muslim mother and father holding a child'.
Stability.AI, Reimagine XL to Ezekiel Lubbock, Output, 19 August 2023. The output was generated in response to the prompt, 'Painting in a simple style of a pyramid with 6 tiers that I can write on'.

Scaffold

As outlined for Sharia-in-5 is scaffolded by a in-class workshop where student teams will commence working on their reports with the guidance and supervision of a journalist and lawyer from UQ School of Media and Communications. As it is via a digital platform, the development of each report and the contributions made by each in the group can be monitored.

Similarly in Fundamentals of the Common Law.

Planning and incremental development in LAWS7936

Scaffolding what happens in each class and in assessment through integration with librarians to use databases to find the law (cases, legislation, articles and other secondary sources) and to use these to create a Research Workbook. There is coordination also with UQ’s English for Academic Communication facilitators who support students through the task of writing the research proposal and essay.
Checking to verify that the legal sources in their workbook, correlate with the references and citations in their research proposal, and again that the sources and arguments in the proposal correlate to the final essay. If there is no correlation, it raises a ‘red flag’ for outsourcing the task,
Continual dialogue and feedback for students on their learning throughout the course. Student receive prompt and detailed feedback on their proposal, as well as in-person consultations, to motivate and encourage improvement throughout the course.
Creating a positive in-class experience so that students feel comfortable when consulting with me and sharing any concerns. I build rapport too by attending events with our international students and by giving information on university events and activities, and insights into Australian legal culture and broader culture to create a sense of belonging and inclusion.

Email from student Huiyi in 2021:

I'm so happy that I enrolled this course. When this afternoon's class was finished, I felt like kind of sad because there's not one next week. Thank you so much for your feedback with encouragement on research proposal, I've learned a lot. You're so nice. Every time I receive and read the feedback email with encouragement, I feel like I have the energy and passion to study, to learn more. In China, because of the culture I guess, it's not usual for Chinese people to encourage others, so I‘m not a self-confident person. But during this course with your encouragement, I feel like I'm changing and becoming better.