Development of web learning resources to promote preparation for final year projects

Project Leader	Dr Julian Park
Organisation	University of Reading
Contact	J.R.Park@Reading.ac.uk
Partners	Dr John Finn, University College Cork
Grant type	Teaching Development
Completed	May 2004

Description

The final year dissertation usually makes a significant contribution to the overall subject programme in bioscience degrees. However, the literature and the authors own experience suggests that students benefit from continued and on-going support with respect to the completion of final year research projects and the writing of the research dissertation. The aim of the project was to develop a learning resource to support final year research projects and dissertation writing which is relevant for use across a wide-range of bioscience subjects.

This project has provided a web based tool which can be used by teachers to provide students with additional guidance and support in addition to that provided via normal mechanisms. The completed website was piloted with students at the University of Reading and University College Cork before being made openly available, nationally. The completed website deals with issues such as: what is a dissertation? project management, reviewing the literature, designing your experiments, analysing your data, and writing up your project.

Outcomes and downloads

• Guidance for Student Projects website: http://www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/hosted/gsp/