The Project and the Assignment
Chapter Thirty
Syllabus topic 2, "Methods of Teaching - Merits and demerits"
Pages 110 to 112 of 543
In one line
The project method sets the student to produce something on their own over a period of weeks, and it is the only method in this part that teaches the whole operation of finding out about a legal question and writing it up.
In the wording a student can write in an exam: the project or assignment method requires the student to investigate an assigned or chosen topic independently over a period, using primary and secondary sources, and to submit a written product which is assessed; it develops research, selection, organisation, argument and writing, which no classroom method develops, and it is the principal vehicle of continuous internal assessment under rule 12 of the Rules of Legal Education 2008.
How it works
A topic is assigned or chosen, narrow enough to be done and wide enough to require work.
The student works alone over weeks, finding the law, reading it, deciding what matters and building an argument.
A written product is submitted and assessed, and at MU it usually carries part of the internal component of the paper's marks.
The distinction between project and assignment is one of scale, not of kind. An assignment is a short piece over days; a project is a longer piece over weeks, sometimes with fieldwork. Both are the same method.
Merits
It teaches the whole operation, not a part of it. Every other method in this part gives the student the material. This one makes them find it, which is the operation Modules III and IV of this paper are about.
It is the only classroom method that produces writing at length. A student who has never written five thousand words cannot write a fifty thousand word dissertation in Semester IV, and the project is where the habit is built.
It permits depth. A student can go further into one question than any course can go for everybody.
It is individually paced, which suits a class of mixed ability better than any synchronous method.
It is assessable and it carries marks, so students take it seriously in a way they do not take unassessed activities.
And it can be connected to something real. A project on the working of a District Legal Services Authority, or on the disposal of cases in a local court, is a legal survey in the sense of topic 4, and chapter 690 shows how.
Demerits
Plagiarism, and this is the demerit that has changed the method. The internet has made copying easy and detection necessary. MU requires the LL.M. dissertation and project to be below ten per cent similarity on Turnitin with the report enclosed, and the UGC's regulations of 2018 fix levels and penalties, taught at chapter 1380.
The Project and the Assignment
Purchase. Projects can be bought, and a topic set year after year is available ready made.
It is invisible. The teacher sees the product and not the process, so a student who worked honestly for three weeks and one who copied in an evening submit the same kind of object.
Feedback is usually too late. A project returned after the topic has passed teaches nothing, and in practice many are returned with a mark and no comment.
Supervision costs are real. Fifty projects properly read and commented on is a very large amount of a teacher's time, and where the time is not available the marks become arbitrary.
And unequal resources produce unequal work. A student with a database subscription and a laptop is not competing on equal terms with one who is not, which is a fairness problem the method does not solve by itself.
What makes a project method work
Set the process, not only the product. A synopsis first, then an outline, then a draft, then the final piece. Each stage is short to mark and makes copying much harder, because the student has to produce the intermediate work.
Change the topics. A topic that was set last year is available this year.
Require the sources. Insist on primary material: the bare Act, the judgment, the report. A project whose sources are three websites has taught nothing about legal research.
Ask for something local. A project that requires the student to look at what actually happens in a court, a clinic or an office cannot be copied from anywhere.
And run the similarity check, but understand what it does. A similarity report measures overlap with sources, not dishonesty. Chapter 1380 takes the distinction up carefully, because a student who quotes properly and cites fully can show high similarity while doing nothing wrong.
A worked example
Two projects on the same subject, set in the same class.
Topic A: Discuss the objectives of legal education in India. It can be answered from any textbook. Ten students will submit substantially the same thing, three will have bought it, and the teacher cannot tell which.
Topic B: Examine the legal services clinic of your own college or of the nearest District Legal Services Authority against regulations 3 to 24 of the NALSA (Legal Services Clinics) Regulations 2011, and state which requirements are met and which are not. It cannot be copied. It requires the student to read the regulations, visit the clinic, ask questions and compare. It produces a finding nobody else has.
Same method, same marks, same weeks. The difference is entirely in how the topic was set, and it is the most useful practical point available on this part of the syllabus.
The Project and the Assignment
Quick revision
The project method sets independent work over a period, using primary and secondary sources, producing an assessed written product. Project and assignment differ in scale, not in kind.
Merits: teaches the whole operation of finding out; produces writing at length, which the Semester IV dissertation later requires; permits depth; is individually paced; carries marks; and can be connected to real inquiry.
Demerits: plagiarism and purchase; the process is invisible; feedback is usually too late; supervision is expensive; and unequal access to resources produces unequal work.
Four fixes: assess the process in stages; change the topics; require primary sources; and set something local that cannot be copied.
MU's own standard: the LL.M. dissertation and project must be below ten per cent similarity on Turnitin with the report enclosed as an appendix.
Test yourself
1. What does the project method teach that no classroom method teaches? The whole operation of finding out about a legal question: locating the sources, reading them, deciding what matters, building an argument and writing it up at length.
2. Give three demerits of the method and one fix for each. Plagiarism and purchase, fixed by assessing the process in stages and changing the topics each year; the invisibility of the process, fixed by requiring a synopsis, outline and draft; and late or absent feedback, fixed by marking the intermediate stages when the comments can still be used.
3. Why is a topic that can be answered from a textbook a badly set project? Because it produces substantially identical work, cannot be distinguished from purchased work, and teaches nothing about legal research. A topic requiring the student to compare a local institution against a printed instrument cannot be copied and produces a finding of their own.
4. What is MU's own standard for similarity in the LL.M. dissertation? Below ten per cent, checked on Turnitin, with the plagiarism report enclosed as an appendix to the dissertation and to the interdisciplinary project.
The rest of this subject
These notes are cut from the University's printed syllabus. Open the syllabus itself, or the past papers, for the same subject.