Emma’s research interests lie broadly in legal education and pedagogy. Her work to date has explored student experiences of online learning, use of ePortfolios and reflection within learning and teaching, blended learning approaches student engagement and employability.
Funded Research
Sept 2012 - July 2014
Emma was part of a BCU cross school research team which was awarded a £50,000 HEA collaborative grant to undertake a research study around literacies and employability. The project involved other HEI (Wolverhampton; Coventry) piloting the framework developed initially by the BCU research team.
Jan – Aug 2014
Emma was awarded a HEA research grant of £7000 as part of the ‘Supporting the Future of Legal Education’ call following publication of the Learning and Education Training Review in 2013. The project, entitled ‘Land law for the next generation?’ focused on the evaluation of the re-design of assessment methods and teaching and learning practice in a core LLB Module, Land Law. The re-design has involved a shift away from the traditional end of year exam to a more blended approach which utilises ePortfolios and a reflective approach where students will evidence their learning journey through the module. The aim was to assess the “process” of learning rather than simply the “product”. The project outcomes (a set of online open resource tutorials/eBook and an evaluation report) provided the wider HE community with a toolkit to enable them to embed new teaching practice and utilise digital technologies to a greater extent within their own teaching practice