A Real-World Learning Experience in Environmental Law

As a result, Dr Grobler had to develop and implement innovative and effective online instructional and assessment strategies to ensure that students obtained the required key competencies. Using Powtoon (video-making software that allows educators to create engaging animated clips), a client consultation was simulated. The ‘client’ in the animated clip provided her narrative, after which students had to formulate five types of questions to obtain further information for purposes of drafting particulars of claims, enabling them to learn through a simulated environment. In turn, this activity provided the lecturer with a virtual platform to assess students’ listening, probing and fact-finding questioning skills and techniques to determine if they were grasping the crux of issues and disputes at hand.

Further, Dr Grobler had to reimagine the use of mock trials as virtual, strategic, and active engagement learning-by-doing exercises. Although moot courts and hearings are held successfully online, it was not a feasible option in this module as many students experienced problems with Internet connectivity and electricity outages. To mitigate the situation, the lecturer provided students with a set of facts and pleadings and, based thereon, students had to compile a screenplay for a mock trial that included stage directions and court etiquette. Students had to apply basic litigation skills and demonstrate a thorough understanding of the basic trajectory of a trial and court etiquette.

Students approached the assignment with much enthusiasm and creativity, with the final product showing the students’ ability to make the material come alive.

Dr Melanie Murcott in the Department of Public Law invited students to learn about Environmental Law (OMR 410) by looking at the world around them, under lockdown, and capturing photographs of the environmental

Zoonotic diseases20

issues they could see in their immediate surroundings. The photographs formed part of the students’ assessment, as they had to be included in the four-part portfolio, along with students’ reactions to the provocative prescribed readings. The students’ photographs were incredibly creative and served as a platform for Dr Murcott and the students to get to know each other in a time of remote learning by making students feel less isolated from Dr Murcott and each other.

During the module, students received extensive feedback on their portfolio submissions, and then revised and consolidated their submissions for their examinations. The examination submissions showed immense improvement in the students’ understanding of the materials and issues raised by the module.

In OMR 410, Dr Murcott reimagined the classroom by giving students the opportunity to engage in strenuous debate and vibrant discussion in weekly online Zoom questionand-answer sessions, as well as on a clickUP discussion board. Students were rewarded for their participation, as 20% of their semester mark was based on an assessment of their efforts to participate in discussion and debate in the Zoom sessions and the clickUP discussion board threads.

Dr Murcott recognised in her teaching that COVID-19 is a zoonotic disease (involving the transfer of pathogens from non-human animals to humans), and that such diseases arise from, among other causes, the destruction of biodiversity and the mistreatment of animals in a way that exposes humans to pathogens from animals. Consequently, she introduced the study of aspects of the emerging field of animal law and engaged with the socio-ecological realities of zoonotic disease, as well as the need for the law to respond more effectively.20

This is another way in which Dr Murcott’s students were given the opportunity to engage with the current social context in a way that brought the module to life and illustrated to students the module’s importance and relevance in the real world.