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Selection of Papers from the Biall Conference 2017
INTRODUCTION
Information Skills Advisers work within the Academic Liaison Department in the library at London South Bank University (LSBU). Our primary role is to provide information skills and referencing support for students usually via one-to-one appointments or group training sessions. As Information Skills Advisers for the School of Law and Social Sciences at LSBU, we are given a 50-minute lecture slot to introduce OSCOLA referencing to first year LLB undergraduates in the form of a PowerPoint presentation. Year on year the size of first year cohorts has increased significantly to the point where these sessions are being delivered to 100 students at a time in a traditional lecture theatre. This allows for very little flexibility in the learning environment and greatly reduces the ability to include group-based activities.
The PowerPoint would cover an introduction to referencing, and then demonstrate examples of how to reference a case law report, a piece of legislation, a journal article, a book, and a website. We would also introduce the concept of neutral citations, the hierarchy of The Law Report series, and the Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations. To try and gauge how much students had learned, there was a quiz at the end of the presentation comprising ten questions, which the students (mainly located in the front two rows of the lecture) would call out or raise their hands to answer.
There was always a feeling of frustration when delivering this lecture, as it was believed that this was not the most effective way to get students engaged with and understanding the complexities of OSCOLA referencing. It was impossible to engage all the students, nor to determine what they had learned.
We noticed that when students were writing their first assignments they would book one to one appointments with Information Skills Advisers for help with referencing. Feedback from lecturers at course boards or in person was that students were struggling with several aspects of referencing including neutral citations and knowing which law report to use when referencing case law. We wanted to not only make the lecture more interactive and engaging, but also to ensure students left with a deeper understanding of why referencing is important along with the basic mechanics...