Aims

The Module supports students to develop their understanding of the issues affecting rural landscapes and communities and to build their portfolio of research skills used in investigations of rural landscapes and communities. A combination of lectures and workshops will be used to support students skills development which will be mainly achieved during field visits. Key concepts and contemporary issues relevant to rural landscapes and communities will be introduced in the scoping sessions supported by guided reading and then explored in field visits which will be selected to give a broad overview of land use, land management, rural communities, rural policy and planning and their interactions at regional and local levels. The field visits will also be used to provide practical opportunities for students to learn and then practice a range of skills

In the second part of the Module, students will be supported to design, plan and execute a small research study in groups. This will allow students to develop their research skills rather than simply apply a given recipe of methods and to report on this study in an appropriate technical manner.

Outline Of Syllabus

Students will be introduced to the factors affecting land use change and the potential conflicts that might arise due to multiple land uses in rural areas. Field visits have been selected to give an overview of the policy institutions responsible for rural policy implementation, including local government, landscape designations and to allow the interaction of physical and social factors affecting rural landscape quality and quality of life to be examined.

The skills that will be developed are likely to include but not limited to the following. Other skills, such as species identification or mapping may be included.

* Basic habitat survey (applying Phase 1 and Phase 2 methods as appropriate)
* Basic study of land resources (describing a soil profile, assessing land use capability)
* Simple methods to determine river flow and water quality
* Surveys and qualitative methods as applied to study issues in rural communities

In the second part of the Module students will work in small groups (4-6 students) to design and plan a research study in groups to investigate an aspect of a rural landscape or community. Students will be supported to select an appropriate range of methods, apply them and analyse the data collected to answer a simple research question

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

The learning outcomes are delivered using a combination of lectures and workshops to support learning in practice during field visits supported by guided reading. Key concepts and contemporary issues relevant to rural landscapes and communities will be introduced in the scoping sessions and then explored in field visits which will be selected to give a broad overview of land use, land management, rural communities, rural policy and planning and their interactions at regional and local levels. The field visits will also be used to provide practical opportunities for students to learn and then practice a range of skills used in investigations of rural landscapes and communities.

In the second part of the Module, students will be supported to design, plan and execute a small research study in groups. This will allow students to develop their research skills rather than simply apply a given recipe of methods and to report on this study in an appropriate technical manner.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

All students will show the achievement of the basic skill set needed to study rural landscapes and communities through submission of short reports following each of the field classes. There will be one hand in date for assessments

Following the group research project in the field, students will submit an individual report (in the style of a research paper)demonstrating the achievement of LOs 9 and 10 through the introduction, description of the case study site and discussion of the results in context.