Learning Materials
Scran Learning Materials
Case Study
1. Author details
| Name: | Dr Colleen Batey |
| Job title: | Lecturer in Archaeology |
| Institution: | Department of Archaeology, University of Glasgow |
About the author:
I have taught students at all stages of their academic development from Adult Education through Undergraduate to Postgraduate for nearly 20 years. My areas of specific interest are Viking and Late Norse settlement studies in Scotland and the North Atlantic, particularly focusing on aspects of the artefactual material and economic indicators. I have undertaken practical work over a period of some thirty years, during much of that time I have been involved in the practical training of students in excavation methodologies. I have prepared learning materials in several forms before working on the Scran database, ranging from simple handouts and reading lists to the use of images of artefacts for study. My IT skills could be described as little more than basic!
2. The materials
I have created two separate but related parts of a module on the Vikings in Scotland. Part One is made up of 6 specific artefact studies with model answers which should enable students to interrogate other artefacts on the database in the same manner. Part Two comprises an overview of the archaeological evidence for the Vikings and Late Norse in Scotland encompassing settlement, pagan grave, hoard and runic evidence. This builds on the entries in Scran and supplies a context and list of relevant links within the database, in addition to further reading suggestions.
These were created for University Honours level teaching of a Vikings in Scotland module. This is classroom based to be supported by a virtual learning environment which will be both class led and integrated for individual learning.
Why did you want to create these materials?
This does not already exist and would enable a structured use of the Scran resource.
How will your materials benefit learners?
Enable individual interrogation through the study of the suggested linkages, and encourage further independent work.
How will they improve on previous methods of teaching this topic?
This will enable more independent working rather than simply through that which is taught in the classroom by the use of handouts and slides.
3. Creating the materials
My first step was to create a list of potential key site names to search the database. This was based on my own knowledge and specialist publications and cannot be worked out using the database without having that knowledge, since no links are available. Having established which sites and artefacts were represented in the database I proceeded to work out which elements of information were necessary to maximise what could potentially be a disjointed and random set of pieces of information. This was not a problem however. I then created blocks of text and key questions (in the case of Part One) and text for Part Two to supply additional information and connections to other Scran entries. I worked alone on this project.
What tools did you use?
Key site searches; specialist knowledge and relevant publications.
What are the main skills required in creating materials like this?
Specific knowledge base of the subject and a broad range of understanding of how students learn!
Describe any difficulties you experienced and how you went about addressing them.
Some searches did not bring up expected elements and in some cases completely unrelated and unexpected entries appeared simply because they shared a key word in the descriptive text.
What would you do differently next time?
Allocate more time – this is a slow process and cannot be rushed.
What hints and tips would you offer to a colleague planning to create a similar resource?
Chose a smaller subject and one which has quite defined parameters and learning outcomes. I tried to encompass a whole course in this module and in retrospect should have tried to cover only a part of the course eg Vikings in Orkney or Viking artefacts.
Recommendations – please note any reading, software, websites, online courses etc that were useful to you.
I did not have the benefit of other online courses, but took a lead from the more detailed CD ROMs which have been prepared and tried to include that information as well as much more detail, or sources of more detail.
