Module 5: Course Design and Development

Dr. Carolina Matos

Rationale for course design (1.500 words)

I. Introductory approaches

The courses that I will be discussing here, the MC404 Political Communications, which I will
revise, and Media and Development, which I am going to propose as a new course, would be
included as part of the programmes of the MsC in Political Communications and MsC in Media,
Communications and Development, respectively. The first course is a core requirement for the
MsC Political Communications programme, whereas the second one that I am proposing would
also be included as a compulsory course, replacing perhaps the already existing and similar one
Critical Approaches to Media, Communication and Development.
Both of these disciplines are very popular with students, especially given the fact that they deal
with contemporary and important issues of our time, such as global inequality, the relationship
between politics and the media, how politicians make use of political campaigning practices as
well as the ways in which social movements, political and other individuals make use of the media
for social change and in order to make a difference. The exploration of these aims in these courses
also inevitably helps to sell them better to students within the UK’s highly competitive HE sector.
Thus students who come to the LSE to take these programmes come from a variety of
countries and backgrounds, having obtained already either a Social Science or an Arts and
Humanities BA degree. They thus already have a strong knowledge of the relationship between
politics and the media in contemporary Western societies, as well as some knowledge of the
workings of the media in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Both courses attract a largely
international group of students, although there are quite a few home students as well. Many
students however are not familiar with UK HE institutions, and part of the challenge of the lecturer
is precisely to help some students to adapt to their new environment, to learn how to write
academic essays in English and to be trained to be fully equipped to succeed in a postgraduate
international competitive market.
Most students are already working in the Political Communications field, either as political
journalists, press officers at NGOs, assisting MPs or working in the area of development studies.
Having already completed an undergraduate degree in the field either in the UK or abroad,
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students decide to take an MSC at the LSE Media department in order to develop their intellectual
and analytical skills, as well as to boost their competitiveness and attraction to employers.
As I have argued elsewhere in other modules, I adopt a humanistic approach to my teaching
that is largely student-centred and concerned with the development of analytical and leadership
skills, critical thinking, in depth knowledge and a passion and enthusiasm for the subject as well as
for learning in general. More than preparing students to compete in the marketplace in what has
become a growing consumerist (global) society, I believe that the role of higher education in the
UK as well as elsewhere is to stimulate an inquisitive and critical mind and a forward-thinking
approach to the discipline.
In order to understand the effects of teaching on student learning, Pratt (1997 in Kuhn and
Rundle-Thiele, 2009) has argued that educators must go beyond seeking to understand teaching
competence per se. Teachers need to assess whether students have actually learned what was
intended. This is precisely what Biggs (2003) talks about when he refers to the principle of
‘constructive alignment’ (in Donnelly and Fitzmaurice, 2005, 102), and which mainly refers to a
matching or an alignment of learning outcomes. Thus they should be seen in both the assessment
forms and in the teaching and learning activities which support student learning, as I shall be
examining next.

II. Aims and learning outcomes of the modules

I have discussed elsewhere my teaching methods and philosophy. However, it might be

sufficient to note here that both modules have similar purposes in regards to teaching, delivery and
learning outcomes. Firstly, the lectures of both modules should provide wide knowledge and
critical perspectives of the subject matter, encouraging students to pursue further reading and
independent research, providing frameworks for discussions in seminars as well as outside the
classroom. As I mentioned in the course proposal forms, among the core learning outcomes for
both courses is the aim to encourage students to think critically about the relationship between the
media and a country’s development and democratisation for the Media and International
Development course, as well as in depth knowledge about the relationship between the media and
politics processes in both advanced and emerging democracies in the Political Communications
course.

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 Thus by the end of either modules, students should be able to: 1) grasp at least key theories in
the field; 2) write a 3.000 word academic essay analysing and criticising key debates in the field;
3) answer critically during two hours questions regarding key aspects of the course; 4) engage in
critical discussions with others on the material covered and 5) conduct group and individual
presentations on key readings as well as be able to communicate key aspects of the theories of the
course in an articulate manner and with confidence.
As I mentioned in TP3, after completing the MC404 Political Communications module,
students were expected to be able to: 1) critically analyse and utilise a variety of trends of political
communication research; 2) understand and compare a range of theories and debates of the field as
well as through particular case studies and 3) engage in independent study and research. Notably,
the aims established set in the 2007/08 MC404 Political Communications course guideline for
instance were to “present a critical review of key aspects of contemporary theory, research and
practice in political communications.” I thus aligned my course to the programme outcomes of the
Political Communications programme (see attached course proposal revision).
In regards to the Media and Development module, I have designed the key learning outcomes.
By the end of the module, students should be able to: 1) compare and contrast the histories of
media development and unequal power relations between the countries of the North to the South
and 2) understand the role of the media in development and in empowering individuals to pursue
change and further democratisation, whereas students of the Political Communications course
should be able to: 1) critically analyse key theories and research perspectives in political
communications and 2) demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between politics and the
media worldwide (see course proposal forms for more information).
In line with the constructive alignment teaching philosophy and the student-centred approach,
the skills that I cultivate in my teaching and during seminars, through group discussions and other
activities, consist of the same language that is present in essay and exam questions. These include
the action verbs such as “compare”, “contrast”, “analyse”, “criticise”, “examine”, “assess” and
“evaluate”. Seminars are thus a space for students to engage in group and pair work on key aspects
of the readings and of the lectures; to ask questions on the material covered; to conduct individual
and group presentations; to construct case studies, conduct role playing and act out debates; to
watch sections of films and documentaries and discuss them in pairs or groups as well as to train
their skills in academic essays writing.

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 III. Delivery and purposes of teaching and of modules

The Political Communications and Media and International Development courses consist of
weekly lectures and one hour seminars. For both courses, students are assigned two core weekly
and engage in discussions and presentations during seminars, having to write in the middle of the
term an ungraded essay for the Formative Assessment, as well as final essays for each module and
one set of exams in the Summer Term as part of the Summative Assessment. Both the Political
Communications and the Media and International Development course attract a similar student
profile. If the first course is more intended for those who want to work for MPs or develop further
skills to work as political journalists, the latter course is more directed for those who intend to
work with issues of development of Third World countries and who have aspirations to work for
mainstream as well as small scale NGOs and organisations, such as the IMF and the World Bank.
The MC404 Political Communications course structure is of a ten weekly on hour, although in
my case it was two, followed by one hour seminars. Students were already told at the start of the
course that they would be expected to contribute with group presentations based on their weekly
readings. The lectures and seminars provided the basis for the essay titles and the seminars
consisted of group discussions on set readings of the week. I took over from Maggie Scammell as
course convenor of the Political Communications module and conducted very subtle changes,
including mainly aspects of my own research, as I mentioned elsewhere, as well as having
developed the essay questions and having worked with other members of staff to create the exam
questions for the MSC Political Communications programme.
Among some of the key changes nonetheless that I did conduct where less of an emphasis on
political marketing theories and debates; more discussion of the relationship between the media,
democracy and journalism, the crisis of civic communications and wider examinations of the
contrast between media and political systems in advanced democracies of the West in relation to
Latin America and Eastern Europe.
According to Kuhn and Rundle-Thiele (2009, 353), learning can be measured either through
individual items, course grades or student self-reports of their own performance. Gibbs and
Simpson (2004, 19) have highlighted that one of the conditions under which assessment supports
students’ learning is the fact that the lecturer should develop more understanding through
explanations, which guarantees more learning and encourages students to continue studying. Gibbs

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and Simpson (2004) also stress the importance of timely feedback, as well as the ways in which
lecturers must ensure that it is acted upon by the student.
Prior to essays, students have to submit for each of these courses a piece of written
coursework which is ungraded. My experience has shown that students do pay particular attention
to the feedback that is given of their coursework, and do re-work drafts and discuss their progress
during tutorials, thus preparing themselves better for the essays. Thus the feedback on coursework
is crucial for the development of their essay and analytical writing skills, providing them more
basis and confidence to examine the theories in more depth and in a more original manner, less
worried about simply quoting authors’ work. Students also feel more relaxed and comfortable due
to the fact that the coursework is not graded, and thus can put extra effort into working on their
mistakes for the final assessment.
In regards to formative assessment, I would perhaps consider in the future grading the student
group and individual presentations. These could be included alongside the essays and exams for
the final average grade. For assessment is about measuring the achievement of individual students,
as well as the success of the learning outcomes that were established at the start of the module. As
I highlighted above, among a key skill that students acquire during the course is the capacity to
communicate the theories and key debates clearly, in an articulate and confident manner. Not only
is this a professional skill that they will be widely using in their future careers, during the course
most students need to take the presentations more seriously, and not only some of them. They
should not be assessed only on their written work, for conceptual, critical and analytical skills are
just as important as leadership and oral communications ones.

IV. Rationale for new course

The Media and International Development course which I am proposing (see attached course
proposal and documentation) is an original course which I have created based on my own research,
and stands as a bridge between the Global Media and the Critical Approaches to Media,
Communications and Development courses. I have not come across as yet of anything similar.
Thus this new course reflects the impact of the some of the core themes that I have been exploring
in my current research, which has resulted in the forthcoming book for Media and politics in Latin
America (IB Tauris, November 2011), on what will possibly be my future teaching.

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 The key differences between this new course and the current optional half unit one, Critical
Approaches to Media, Communication and Development, include among others such as the
examination of more theories on globalization and development; with a particular focus on cultural
globalization hybridity and issues of national and global identity, as well as an emphasis on the
case study of the nuances of the relationship between media development and democratisation in
Latin American countries.
The first half of the course focuses largely on key theories, starting with development
discourse and modernization perspectives to critical and alternative aspects of globalization,
cultural globalization and post-colonialism. The latter half of the module explores various debates
and themes which underline the relationship between communications and national development,
paying particular attention to issues of global race and gender inequalities and the historical
problems of underdevelopment of Latin America and its growing immersion on globalisation. (See
attached course documentation material and course proposal forms for further information).

V. References

Donnelly, Roisin and Fitzmaurice, Marian (2005) “ Designing modules for learning” in O’Neill,
G., Moore, S. And McMullin, B. (eds.) Emerging Issues in the Practice of University Learning and
Teaching, Dublin: AISHE

Gibbs, Graham and Simpson, Claire (2004-05) “Conditions under which Assessment Supports
Students’ Learning” in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, Issue 1, 3-31

Kuhn, Kerri-Ann L. And Rundle-Thiele, Sharyn R. (2009) “Curriculum Alignment: Exploring

Student Perception of Learning Achievement Measures” in International Journal of Teaching and
Learning in Higher Education, vol. 21, number 3, 351-361

Laudrillard, D. (2002) “Chapter 10: Designing Teaching Materials” from Laurillard, D. Rethinking
university teaching: a framework for the effective use of learning technologies, London:
Routledge, 181-198

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O’Neill, Geraldine and McMahon, Tim (2005) “Student-centred learning: what does it mean for
students and lectures?” in O’Neill, G., Moore, S. And McMullin, B. (eds.) Emerging Issues in the
Practice of University Learning and Teaching, Dublin: AISHE, 27-36