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A critical hermeneutic approach to analysing online discussions
Full text linkFor three decades, the internet has played host to an increasing number of open public forums, where opinions are formed and action instigated (Graham, 2015; Persily, 2017). My current doctoral work explores how students engage in one such online space, and the implications this may have for educators looking to improve students’ capacity to communicate well online. This presentation will outline my development of a methodology based on critical theory—in particular Jürgen Habermas’ Theory of Communicative Action (1984, 1987)—to conduct a novel type of discourse analysis that treats text-based asynchronous online discussion as both person-to-person interaction and as publication
Transferring Methods to Law: A Reflection on Using Scoping Reviews
Full text linkExplicit engagement and detailing of methods are not always expected or required practices within legal scholarship, as evidenced, for example, by the absence of method sections in many leading legal journals. Yet, methods provide the foundation to scholarship and its description facilitates the review of research reliability and validity. As a result of the oft-absent explicit engagement with methods in law, literature within other disciplines can inform legal scholars on, inter alia, methods outside traditional legal scholarship, their motivations, and their methodologies. Such practices, however, raise questions including: To what extent can legal scholars ‘transplant’ or adapt methods from other disciplines to research in law? How to effect such method transfers to legal research? What adjustments to methods are needed when transferring across disciplines? How are non-traditional legal scholarship methods received within law? This paper aims to contribute to these questions through a retrospective reflection on the author’s own experiences in undertaking scoping reviews within environmental law and their perceived acceptance (and at times lack thereof) in peer review processes. Scoping reviews were first used within health and medical sciences to identify, chart, and summarise data, but are now widely established in other fields. This paper first examines the value and limitations of scoping reviews as discussed in other disciplines, as well as within the context of legal scholarship. It then reflects on the challenges of using a non-legal research method based on the author’s own experiences. The paper concludes by summarising the lessons learnt from transferring a method across disciplines to inform other such adaptations
Sustaining Legal Clinics Through Summer: A Strategic Response to Rural Legal Advice Deserts in the Southwest of England
Full text linkThis From the Field Report, based on a single clinic case study, advances the proposition that strategically placed drop-in clinics at the outset of the summer period can serve as an effective intervention to mitigate the operational challenges faced by university law clinics due to reduced student participation during this time. Such an approach is particularly vital in South West England, where rurality and limited pro bono legal assistance contribute to the region being recognised as a legal advice desert.
A collaboration with Newcastle University, Australia, to adapt their innovative ‘Law on the Beach’ initiative to the coastal communities of Devon led us to think about how to counteract the seasonal decline in student participation and the resulting strain on legal clinic services. In 2024, we piloted a series of drop-in legal advice days at coastal locations, targeting areas where there was high client demand. Seaside towns often face distinct challenges that contribute to a lack of free legal provision in the locality. These communities typically have a more transient population than other areas, with many residents employed in seasonal, low-wage industries such as tourism and hospitality.
During these events many individuals received same-day advice, while those requiring continued support were referred to our summer clinic for ongoing assistance. This model has since been adapted from the beach idea inspired by the Australian model to meet the specific needs of Devon: in 2025, the clinic operated in the city of Exeter, and in 2026, it is scheduled to expand into the rural setting of Mid Devon, further enhancing access to justice in underserved rural areas
The effect of sleep on swimming performance
Full text linkThere has been extensive research on sleep, including the stages, deprivation, and importance. However, there is limited research into the importance of sleep for athletes, especially swimmers. Therefore, the aim of the study was to investigate if quality of sleep affects swimming performance in university level swimmers. 11 student-athletes from a university swimming team completed a 50m and 200m freestyle timed swim in the morning and evening. Participants completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index questionnaire and the Elite Performance Readiness Questionnaire prior to the swims. The data was analysed using either a paired t-test or Wilcoxon signed rank test, to assess the difference between AM and PM. For the 200m swim there was a significant increase (P = 0.013) in performance in the evening. However, for the 50m swim, there was no significant difference (P = 0.102). There was no correlation between PSQI scores and swim time (rho (ρ) = -0.22). Eight out of the 11 swimmers (66%) were deemed to have poor quality sleep. This highlights the importance of sleep and understanding the effects of sleep deprivation. The findings of the study reveal that the athletes performed better in the evening compared to the morning. This is important when planning competitions and training programs, understanding that athletes perform better in the evening when they’re more motivated and alert, according to this study. This can also be considered for British Universities and Colleges Sport events, as the performance standard will be higher later in the day. 
‘The End of Learning Design?’: A critical perspective on the cost/benefit of leadership, transformation, and crisis in higher education
No full textThis study explores the existential challenges of identity, institutional value, professional status and career progression that have shaped learning design and designers in higher education through sequences of recurring crisis. Drawing on the data from a sequence of co-generative dialogues, it analyses reflections, outputs and iterations on a series of provocative, challenging workshops ran in Europe and Australia in 2023. Each workshop used a fictional university as a catalyst with participants engaging with hyperreal scenarios to examine the future of learning design amid crises. The study concludes that while learning designers demonstrate resilience and adaptability in crisis situations, they also face conflicting and unevenly experienced challenges of marginalisation, job insecurity, and potential obsolescence, both institutionally and personally held. We argue that the sustainability of learning design depends on designers' ability to integrate their roles holistically within universities rather than becoming siloed in technology or support functions. We highlight the need for learning designers to frame their capabilities as opportunities during crises, rather than merely as threat mitigation tools
Clinical Legal Education in the Philippines: Towards Institutionalization, Pedagogy, and a Professoriat
Full text linkThe 2019 revised law student practice rule mandating clinical training has reenergized Philippine clinical legal education. Despite the pandemic that followed its promulgation, the revised rule spurred law schools to launch programs serving a range of marginalized communities. The new programs follow a long history of skills education and access-to-justice programs in the country. In this article, the authors trace the development of Philippine clinical legal education and, drawing on local, regional, and international experience, call on educators and reformers to harness the momentum created by the revised rule and deepen its institutional and pedagogical foundations and create a dedicated clinical professoriat
Exploring AI and the future of digital learning through fiction
Full text linkIntroduction. The increasing integration of AI in higher education necessitates nuanced discussions, to move us beyond simplistic utopian / dystopian narratives (Bearman, Ryan & Ajjawi, 2022; Hermann, 2023). These binary views significantly influence perceptions, design, and development of AI, often overlooking crucial social contexts. The assumption that technology offers easy solutions (Andrews, 2015), coupled with a sense of technological inevitability, ignores critical concerns about dehumanization (Reid, 2014), loss of agency, and the potential for exacerbated inequalities (Blythe et al., 2016). By creatively imagining future uses of AI (Selwyn, 2020; Houlden & Veletsianos, 2023; Cox, 2021), we can gain critical insights into the present, creating proactive engagement with the practice and politics of digital technologies in higher education, rather than passive acceptance.
Aims for the session. The workshop uses a participatory workshop format centred around creative writing prompts, using the relatable example of AI agents. AI agents are systems delegated to independently make decisions on our behalf (Maedche et al., 2019). These systems have the potential to support productivity and free up time for more meaningful work (Khaokaew et al., 2022). The workshop posits that using fiction offers a unique space, detached from current realities, to examine underlying perceptions about this emerging technology. Our questions are: What do the fictional writing tasks reveal about participants’ expectations and hopes for AI agents in learning? How do participants envision changes to the core dynamics of teaching and learning, such as personalisation, or collaboration? What values emerge from participants' fictional narratives as important for guiding the development and use of AI agents in education?
Expected outcomes. Building on findings from prior workshops (Dixon & Cox, 2025), we anticipate that the fictional prompts will enable participants to articulate their hopes and concerns more openly than traditional formats. We expect participants' responses to reveal a complex interplay of anxieties (e.g., job displacement, algorithmic bias, eroded human connection) and aspirations (e.g., enhanced personalised learning, increased accessibility). By surfacing these often-unspoken concerns, the workshop will create thoughtful dialogue about the ethical and practical implications of AI in digital learning.
Plan for engagement. The workshop will include a brief overview of the research and an explanation of the fictional prompt activity. Participants will engage in several short writing exercises, followed by sharing their reflections in a facilitated group discussion. We will conclude by exploring the usefulness of fiction in this context. Consent will be sought to analyse the anonymised written responses for a future research article. The findings will contribute to understanding the perceptions and limitations of AI agents, empowering stakeholders to adopt a purpose-driven rather than technology-first attitude to technology implementation
Risk and Capacity: Does the Mental Capacity Act Incorporate a Sliding Scale of Capacity?
Full text linkThe law places considerable weight on the question of whether a person has, or lacks, mental capacity. But approaches differ over whether and how capacity assessments should be sensitive to risk. Should a more stringent test be applied where risk is high? The question has generated considerable debate among bioethicists and jurists. In this paper, we review the literature and consider the standard of capacity defined in the Mental Capacity Act 2005 in England/Wales (MCA). While the MCA has been extensively discussed, the question of whether it adopts a ‘sliding scale’ for assessments of capacity has not been squarely addressed. We review the knotty legal history of the statute regarding this issue, and argue that the MCA is best understood as adopting neither a risk-ability nor a risk-evidence sliding scale. We show that the MCA nonetheless accommodates risk-sensitivity in capacity assessment in at least three different ways. The first derives the MCA’s approach to decision-specificity, the second from a risk-investment sliding scale, the third from what Law Commission once described as a ‘general authority’ for carers to act. We argue that the resulting approach steers around two objections that critics have levied against sliding scales for capacity assessment