| Learning outcomes of the assessment practice: | Learning outcomes:
After completing this assessment activity, students should be able to:
1) Recognize the relevance of tort law in events as they happen in the community and are reported in the media
2) More confidently identify tort law issues in unflagged fact situations
3) Recognize how tort law connects to the events of everyday life
4) More confidently provide legal analysis and opinions in unflagged fact situations
Descriptions of the assessment method:
The Reflective Media Diary assessment consists of Part A and Part B.
Part A:
Students select 5 to 10 news items of local events that contain the potential for some tort liability. The news items are retrieved from the local print media (hard copy or on-line) during the three-months of the first semester. The news items can be in English or Chinese. Students write a summary of the event on a same-day or near to same-day basis and identify any potential tort law issues. Students must indicate the date they read the news report and other details of the news source, including the date of publication. The work may be presented in sentence or point form, within a word range of between 700 and 1000 words. The work is submitted at the end of the first semester.
Part B:
Students choose 3 to 5 events recorded in Part A. Students should monitor the media to see if there are any follow-ups to the events as originally reported. Again, students need to indicate the dates of the subsequent reports and details of the sources. Finally, students provide an analysis of the tort law issues for each item selected, including the question of liability and the relevant social policy issues. Part B must be in sentence form with the word limit ranging between 1750 and 2000 words. The word limit for Parts A and B is 3000 words. Part B is submitted toward the end of second semester.
Learning Advantages:
This assessment activity encourages students to learn tort law in a way that fosters independent and life-long learning skills. Students learn to recognize unflagged tort law issues in news items they encounter in the media or through other sources. Students learn to analyze the issues independently, and to link their knowledge of doctrinal law with real world events. This is vital because upon course completion and graduation the teacher/examiner will not be present and students must have the ability to identify and analyse tort law issues independently and when they are not pointed out for them.
During the approximately 5 months duration of the Reflective Media Diary activity, students learn independently, without teacher assistance. From a limited knowledge of tort law at the beginning of the course, students build upon their learning to reach a more profound level by the end of the second semester, and they do this unassisted.
Point to Note:
Clear instructions needed
It is essential that teachers provide clear instructions to students about the assignment requirements, deadlines, what should be included in the diary etc, in order to ensure a clear understanding so that the assignment can work with no additional teacher manpower/supervision required.
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