Group Project

Learning Outcomes

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• reflect on your own decision-making;
• sustain focus on a project until it is fully realised;
• work effectively and creatively as a member of a team, on a group task;
• demonstrate a range of interpersonal skills needed to communicate constructively with other group members, including: reasoned argument, listening skills, diplomacy, self- confidence, self-awareness, clarity of thought and expression, and awareness of equal opportunities issues;
• negotiate goals and devise strategies for analysing and solving problems in order to achieve those goals;
• apply IT and numeracy skills necessary for the effective completion of the project;
• present a project effectively in written, visual and oral presentation form.

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• the generic issues, practical and theoretical, involved in teamworking and group problem-solving
• the area of historical investigation chosen by your team to explore.
• the range of roles which you personally are more and less suited to within a team;

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• demonstrate research and analytical skills appropriate to the study of history at an advanced level.
• reflect carefully and systematically on the nature of your engagement in historical inquiry, and on your contribution to the group dynamics of the team within which you operated;

Subject Specific Practical Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• adjust your presentation to the level of historical comprehension, experience, and expertise within your target audience.
• present historical material to a wider audience in a clear and coherent fashion, and by a variety of means;

Working as part of a group of 6-7, in the context of advice and guidance set down in the module handbook and offered by tutors, you will define, develop and bring to fruition a project rooted in historical subject matter. Where appropriate, the project may be achieved in 'virtual' form. Co-operation with local art galleries, museums and libraries (including the Hartley Library) will be encouraged so far as resources and contacts allow, but is not essential for the realisation of the project. Examples of kinds of project might be:

 planning and producing a short history of a local firm, institution or place

 researching and conducting a 'mock trial' of an historical personality or event

 creating a web-site with a historical focus

 design and launch of a new historical series

 producing an audio or video presentation on a historical topic

 a commemorative event or community project.

Teaching and learning methods

The module will be led by a team of tutors within the department, under a co-ordinator with overall responsibility for the Group Project. Your project will have an assigned supervisor, and you will have access on a time-limited basis to the specialist expertise of the department's academic staff as a whole. The induction element will be led by the tutor team, and, in addition to an introduction to team-working skills and group dynamics, will cover equal opportunities issues arising out of group behaviour. Your group will be given guidance as to the choice and definition of your particular project, appropriate resources including advisory expertise within the Faculty and initial contacts and assessment methods by your project tutor. Individual support will be available on a time-limited basis from the project tutor. Within this support framework, you and your fellow group members will be expected to use your initiative in choosing a topic, conceiving an appropriate mode of presentation and developing it to fruition.

Assessment strategy

The module is designed to foster your ability to develop your project through self-directed application, including time-tabling and task allocation. It will also enable you to develop specific skills required for the successful completion of the intensive Year 3 dissertation and the special subject double module: time-, self- and project management, and the ability to work with others in problem analysis and solving. Your ability to learn from the experience of your project will be assessed alongside the achievement of your group’s finished presentation.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal