Teaching professional skills to distance learning students through the medium of film

Edward Stone, Elizabeth Harding and Lisa Kidger (ILEX Tutorial College) discussed their experiences designing and producing training and assessment films to illustrate client care skills.

The presenters’ slides are embedded below, and you can also download their full paper (Word file, 5 pages, 56 KB) at the bottom of the page.

Films are widely used to train, educate and influence consumers and students, however many have poor production standards and overall quality, and fail to resonate with a sophisticated audience of students. In order to teach distance learning students client interviewing skills ILEX Tutorial College produced six training and assessment films using professional actors and a small production company. Students had the opportunity to undertake a formative assessment on a practice film before completing a summative assessment using another film. A client care course manual was also supplied to provide underpinning knowledge for the assessment tasks.

The educational purpose of the films was to meet the learning outcomes and assessment criteria for the ILEX Level 3 Diploma in Law and Legal Practice. Most of the intended students had rudimentary or no legal knowledge or experience of legal practice. The aims of the project were to develop the skills associated with client care through the observation of good practice, whilst ensuring that students were not hampered by their lack of legal knowledge, and to develop a standardised and consistent approach to learning client care skills.

The project, undertaken on a tight budget, involved getting to grips with the practical aspects of film making such as writing scripts, selecting a production company, casting and auditioning actors via a casting agency, preparing a venue and props, filming on the day and post production. Some of the pitfalls encountered included writing dramatically convincing characters with genuine emotional reactions and the actors’ difficulties with legal language.

The films demonstrated that, despite the obvious limitations of distance learning, it is possible for such students to learn experientially. Students can learn legal skills by being placed as notional observers within an interview setting. By removing their need to understand the complex, but typical, legal issues dealt with in the interview, they are able to focus on learning client care skills.

Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory (1978) suggests that much learning takes place through imitation and through what he referred to as “the zone of proximal development”. This theory requires teaching materials to be designed using a form of ‘scaffolding’ through which the tutor shows, by example, how to solve a problem, while controlling the learning environment so that students can take things step by step, expanding their base of knowledge without losing confidence. This use of films and associated tasks applies this theory in a way which enables students to learn how to interview clients at an early stage in their legal education without being deterred by their limited academic/practice knowledge.

Reference:

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• Vygotsky L (1978) Mind in society Cambridge: University Press

About the presenters

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Edward Stone joined ILEX Tutorial College (ITC) in 1997 and is the editorial manager responsible for the production of course manuals and other learning materials. He is the author of ITC course manuals on wills and probate and client care.
 
Elizabeth Harding is the Academic Manager at ITC and is responsible for managing distance learning tutors and electronic and face to face tuition and training.
 
Lisa Kidger is Assistant Academic Manager at ITC. She assists in commissioning authors and developing course materials and manages ITC’s online student forums. Lisa has written ITC course manuals on client care and employment law.

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Last Modified: 9 July 2010