Articles by author: Brock University

• Brock ‘supercourses’ allow students to quickly earn credits

  Tuesday, July 12, 2016 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: R00148 – 12 July 2016

  Take an entire semester and compress it down into one week of learning. That’s the concept behind Brock University’s growing selection of ‘supercourses.’

  These accelerated courses allow students to earn credits in an intensive week of full-day classes.

  Zanab Jafry Shah completed three supercourses in three weeks this spring.
  “You live it, you breathe it and you do learn it,” said the third-year medical science student. “It really is a semester’s worth of work put into a week.”

  Brock Professors Brent Faught and Madelyn Law, from the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, brought accelerated courses to Brock in 2010 with two spring offerings. In the first year, the success rate was 100%.
  “No one failed and no one dropped out,” Law said.

  But, there were questions about the new teaching method.
  “There was some constructive criticism by faculty — their biggest question was about knowledge retention,” Faught said.

  The pair set out to find out how much information students were learning and retaining in the accelerated format, which can range from one to two weeks depending on the class.
  “We tested it. There is no difference in knowledge retention after three months, six months and 12 months,” Faught said.

  He said their research also indicated that no significant difference exists in the final class average when comparing traditional versus accelerated courses.

  The study examined 270 participating first- and fourth-year students at Brock who were enrolled in either a traditional or accelerated course format during the 2013-2014 academic year. One day in the accelerated course covered approximately two weeks’ worth of material in the traditional format.

  All of the class content and evaluation criteria, along with the instructors, were the same. When the course was finished, students were quizzed three, six and 12 months later to test their knowledge retention.

  Law and Faught, along with student Michelle Zahradnik, recently released their research through the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario with their paper “How much do students remember over time? Longitudinal knowledge retention in traditional versus accelerated learning environments.”

  Now that the question of whether accelerated courses are effective learning tools has been answered, Law and Faught said post-secondary institutions should continue developing courses to meet student needs.

  “Based on this research, Brock’s commitment to offering a diversity of pedagogic methods will continue,” said Anna Lathrop, Vice Provost, Teaching, Learning and Student Success.

  “We anticipate that the University will continue to prioritize flexible teaching and learning strategies in our next Strategic Mandate Agreement. It’s another way to put students first.”

  She said Brock has embraced the accelerated format because it offers students more flexibility as they balance work, life and study. Brock currently offers more than 40 accelerated courses to its students.
   
  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:
  * Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970

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  Categories: Media releases

• Brock experts available to discuss issues of race, crime, discrimination in wake of US shootings

  Tuesday, July 12, 2016 | By Brock University

  EXPERT ADVISORY: R000147 – 8 July 2016

  Police shootings in the United States this week have re-ignited public outrage over racialized violence.
  Two Brock University experts are available to discuss issues of race, crime and the role of bystander video and social media.

  Sociology Professor Tamari Kitossa researches race, class and crime. Following the killing of two black men at the hands of police, Kitossa echoed the comments of US President Barak Obama who said the deaths are not isolated incidents but symptomatic of broader problems with the criminal justice system.

  “These are not rare, but the normal practices of police brutality. What’s remarkable of late is the democracy of technology. People are actually using technology to confirm their distrust of the police. These are the standard practices of the police and people are now using their phones and exposing it,” said Kitossa.

  In the last three years there have been many prominent cases of deaths of black men at the hands of police, resulting in public outrage and the Black Lives Matter movement.
  But, Kitossa said nothing has really changed.

  “Even with increasing public awareness, nothing will change unless citizens demand it from the political elite. Police do not answer to the citizenry.”

  Pointing to the civil rights movement, he said alliances and allegiances across race and class are needed to effect change and make police accountable.
  “Overwhelmingly, the police forces in North America are not reviewed by civilian oversight. The guardians of the police in society are police — it’s the thin blue line.”

  Canada isn’t immune to the racialized violence we see in the United States, Kitossa said.
  “Canadians have a tendency to look south and imagine that the excesses of violence in the US reflects a moral innocence about Canada so they don’t pay attention to the racism and violence in our own Canadian cities.”

  Popular Culture Professor Scott Henderson looks at social media and its role in public perception. The police shooting deaths of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, La. and Philando Castile near St. Paul, Minn. have re-ignited public outrage over police brutality.

  Video played an important role in raising awareness about both killings — a bystander caught one on tape and the aftermath of the other was streamed live on Facebook.

  “We live in an era of immediacy,” Henderson said, noting the videos went viral and sparked a national conversation almost instantly. “It gives truth to eyewitness accounts and it casts doubt on the police in these cases,” he said, noting it’s clear from these cases and others in recent memory that there is a racial divide that impacts police reactions in interactions with black men.

  However, there is a danger in the “documentary truth” of bystander videos.

  “These things seem to give us an unmediated and direct truth about events, which can cloud potential other perspectives,” he explained. “The unfiltered nature of such media allows conjecture to become truth without the gatekeepers of traditional media so, as evident in other recent global events, immigration, race, religion all become causes – simple answers to far more complex issues.”

  Goodman School of Business Professor Lisa Barrow is an expert on bullying. She is available to comment on racism, discrimination, violence in the US and Black Lives Matter in connection with the Toronto Pride Parade.

  Tamari Kitossa can be reached by email at tkitossa@brocku.ca

  Scott Henderson can be reached by email at shender@brocku.ca

  Lisa Barrow can be reached by email at lbarrow@brocku.ca

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:
  * Erica Bajer, Writer/Editor, Brock University ebajer@brocku.ca,
  905-688-5550 x4420
   
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  Categories: Media releases