Interdisciplinary videos

Initial situation

The aim of the interfaculty course “Introduction to the law of biodiversity conservation” is to teach the basics of biodiversity law to students in the Master’s programs in biology and law.

Project implementation

The initial session is divided into two parts. The first part allows students to familiarize themselves with the concept of the course and the second part is an introduction to law (for biology students) or biology (for law students). The second part is a course on environmental law and the conservation of biological diversity.

At the beginning of the module, groups of 2-3 students are formed (ideally mixing orientations). Each group is asked to produce a video capsule related to the issue of biodiversity conservation from a legal perspective. The video productions must be between 6 and 8 minutes long and use exclusively free of rights or self-created material.

To help students with their project, a session led by external experts is devoted to the popularization of science and the basics of video production (presentation of a simple editing software).

Students are coached individually by group 3 times. Twice before the submission of the 1er draft and once before the submission of the 2nd draft. The sessions last 15 minutes per group.

During the semester, as the project progresses, students are required to provide various deliverables. First, they produce a bibliography of the video capsule, a draft scenario and a first version of the video capsule. These intermediate deliverables allow the teacher to ensure that the groups are following a good direction and making steady progress. After the first draft is handed in, a viewing and feedback are organized over two sessions. Each group must give constructive feedback orally on the film of another group that has been previously assigned to them. In turn, the teacher provides detailed written feedback for each film. Students then produce and turn in the final version of their video capsule along with a written reflection and self-evaluation.

Students are evaluated on the following criteria (out of 100 points, then converted to a 6-point grade):

Capsule bibliography (10 points) - Group grade;

Script project (10 points) - group grade;

Feedback between groups on the first capsule (10 points) - individual grade;

Final version of the video capsule (60 points) - group grade;

Written reflection and self-evaluation (10 points) - individual grade.

During the semester, 2 conferences with external speakers are organized. These conferences allow students to discover the work of practitioners from the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) and the Cantonal Service for Wildlife, Forests and Nature (SFFN) and to complete their knowledge acquired through the video clip exercise.

The last class is devoted to a general discussion on the films. The students meet to exchange and reflect on the different legal instruments, their articulation and their usefulness for the management and conservation of biodiversity. They are invited to represent this graphically on an A0 sheet and then present their thoughts to the rest of the class. Each group then takes the most important references used for their capsule and a common bibliography is made on Framapad. The various reports are then shared on Moodle.

Thoughts and advice

Such an interdisciplinary module requires a certain amount of flexibility on the part of the teacher in order to adapt the content and the feedback to students with different backgrounds. This introduction to a very different discipline is not always easy; it is essential to give a very clear framework at the beginning of the course and then to accompany the groups throughout the semester. The follow-up and correction of intermediate deliverables are important investments for the teacher.

Ideally, there should be the same number of students in biology and law so that only mixed groups can be created.

Despite the very basic training and the basic materials, the productions are of good quality. Even if the teacher only requires a minimal format for the vignettes (video of the students + visual outline, for example, PowerPoint), most of the groups are very invested and go beyond the workload required by the course.

To further motivate the students, the video vignettes have been promoted through various collaborations. Some of the films were screened at events after being selected by a jury (e.g., in 2021 - Museum Night - Museum of Natural History; in 2022 - Festival Vivant). The film screenings were followed by a student-audience discussion.

Student feedback

« One of the most important skills in my opinion is research work. Discovering a previously unknown field on your own allows you to develop your autonomy when faced with situations not dealt with in class. For example, the exercise enabled me to redirect my previously unsuccessful search in the context of a job exam to more favourable skies. The work of writing the script and creating interactive content also helps to improve communication skills. The presentations by Ms. Marika Fenley and Mr. Romain Bessire were interesting in this respect and gave me some keys to put myself in the shoes of the viewers of the video. For example, I have retained the importance of repeating the various pieces of information during a speech, of combining them with images and of avoiding overloading the text presentations. Being understood being a key element of social life, I appreciated having a reminder of the importance of a clear and uncluttered presentation. The 8-minute limit on the video also forced me to make choices about the material to be presented in order to keep the content understandable and digestible. I can imagine that such an exercise is not only useful for teaching careers but also for social activities in a broader sense. » « This class allowed me to better understand how Swiss law is working, the organization between the Confederation, the cantons, and the communes, the power separation (legislator, executive, and judiciary), the different sources of law (doctrine, jurisprudence, etc.), and many other things like the type of law documents (ordonnance or loi) and also how to write references (i.e., “LFo, Art. 5, al. 1”). In my future carrier in conservation biology, I will certainly have to work in contact with the Swiss law, and it will help me a lot to already have this knowledge. This class also allowed me to know a bit more about international law. I had to write feedback on a video about high sea biodiversity conservation. It was really interesting to learn how the law is constructed around this type of “object”. Different countries had to set up regulations together and find agreements for everybody. Since nature does not follow the borders, international law and regulations are crucial when it comes to biodiversity conservation. If I have to work for international conservation organizations in my carrier, this overview of international law could be a good advantage for me. Finally, doing this short film for this class taught me so many things about videomaking. I learned to write a script, to popularize a topic, to film and record the sound properly and to edit the video. All these things will help me if I have to use this type of communication tool, for example to promote or explain a project to the public. Even if I approximatively knew how to make a video, actually doing it taught me a lot. »