For Teachers

Instructor's guide

A brief Instructor's guide may be requested from the publisher Allen and Unwin via email.

It contains descriptions of the scenarios, with explanations and useful tips.

Published articles about HOTcopy

Segrave, S. (2003), HOTcopy®: Benchmarking Design of Simulated Professional Practice for Authentic Learner Engagement. In G. Crisp, D. Thiele, I Scholten, S. Barker and J. Baron (Eds) Interact, Interact, Impact: Proceedings of the 20th Annual Conference of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education. Adelaide, 7-10 December 2003.

download as an pdf document of 12 pages (924 kb) [When printing, if you encounter a printer Postscript error, print only pages 2-12, avoiding page 1 which is the cover page.]

Segrave, S. (2003), HotCopy: simulations for learning professional journalism, Training and Development in Australia, 30(3) pp.6-10.

download as an MSword document containing coloured images (2.6mb)

Quick tips

Teachers, in-house professional developers, instructors and trainers might use HOTcopy for any of the following range of purposes:

as a pre-test to evaluate the readiness of learners or their potential abilities;
as a pre-test and post-test to gauge learner development in a course of study;
used to prompt discussion about the profession and professinal behaviour;
as a taster or motivation for a subsequent theoretical session;
as familiarisation with a newsroom before commensing an internship;
as a ‘real time’ exercise for assessment;
as revision and examination preparation.
as the basis for class discussions about editorial, ethical, legal and commercial dilemmas facing professionals.

Further to this:

Scenario materials (work tasks) can be used as stimulus for other practical exercises in tutorials;
Students can use HOTcopy in their own private time for news writing practice and revision;
Some scenarios are suitable for presenting to the class where the class vote on decisions and work privately on written copy;
Students can be assigned to work through a scenario and then present papers on issues raised in the scenario and possible ways of addressing/resolving these issues.

Keep in mind that:

work completed during scenarios is automatically saved out to the desktop into the HOTcopyFolder' and that work may be emailed to staff involved in assessing it;
if you want learners to benefit from the 'Pub-scene' review of the scenario, they must elect to go to the pub immediately after the scenario, as you cannot go directly to it at any other time.

You might consider emailing us with your own ideas!

Endorsements

'To say that I'm impressed by HOTcopy is an understatement and I look forward to using it in my teaching as soon as possible. I consider it to be a most effective and enjoyable teaching tool which presents complex scenarios and yet retains the capacity for individual assessment. The highest praise I can give is that I REALLY wish I had thought of it!'
Lynette Sheridan Burns,
Associate Professor of Journalism,
University of Western Sydney

'Students value its link to the profession and its focus on developing skills for a career. As a university degree is sought by the majority of students for vocational purposes a key focus for any degree should be building links with the respective professions within the field of study. A primary strength of HOTcopy is that it achieves this goal through a simulated but nevertheless highly interactive form.'
Shannon Brincat,
President, Deakin University Student Association, 2002.

Lecturers say:

'HOTcopy is wonderful fun. From the newsroom tour and the press releases to the reflective questions and the advice from the panel of journalists, it provides a fast-paced version of a busy newsroom. It is also well constructed, providing any journalism student with a huge challenge in facing several options under pressure - and having to think carefully about them.'

'To say that I am impressed by HOTcopy is an understatement and I look forward to using it in my teaching as soon as possible.'

'I think HOTcopy is an imaginative, creative and exciting teaching tool. For the majority of senior tertiary students, who are usually academic high achievers, I believe it represents a fascinating challenge for their "creative" minds.'

Students say:

'It helped me understand the pressures journos experience every day.'

'The pressure of getting stories done on time: nothing said could explain that. HOTcopy helps you to learn to quickly pick up on the best angle and to watch out for legal issues.'