Presentation to the 2022 National Conference - Institute of Medical Ethics (IME) on encouraging the wider use of visual material to enhance the teaching of ethics

1. Kris Lines
Can (or should) serious Medical Law &
Ethics concepts be expressed in a more
visual and engaging way?

2. My Background…
 Kris Lines
 Senior Lecturer in Law
(Medical Ethics & Law lead for both Aston Law School & Aston Medical School)
 Geek
Source: Ashwin Kumar (Flickr: CC BY-SA 2.0)
*views are the author’s and not necessarily the institutions…

3. Past Presentations:
- Transmedia: ‘Why so serious?‘ - Could an immersive transmedia approach enhance
future legal education…’ (Graphic Justice, 2017)
- Technical aspects of Stop-motion / Lo-Tech alternatives in law: ‘It’s not just the
students that need to be animated: Using stop-motion techniques to encourage
engagement with deeper theoretical literature...’ (ALT 2021)
- What are you working on now? (Pre-Production - GNM Short): ‘Is Lego a gateway
drug to graphic learning…’ (Graphic Medicine, 2021)

4. Preaching to the Choir?
- We can definitely create more visual ways
to illustrate ethical concepts…
- But, ‘SHOULD’ we?
- If so, WHEN? And for WHAT?
Source: Evbestie (Wikipedia: CC BY-SA 4.0)

5. Outline…
- (Very quick) outline of my stop-motion vignettes
- The ‘SHOULD’ question?
- The ‘HOW’ question?
- Edutainment vs Serious Ethics!

6. Brickfilms

8. Brickfilms

9. Excerpt: Brickfilm2

10. Public Access / CC…
https://youtu.be/7fotU_8gWvU
My Brickfilms on YouTube:

11. Advantages
My lock-down project:
 Easy / Quick (1minute to watch rather than 45 mins to read)
 Allows repeat viewing, or the inclusion of ‘Easter Eggs’
 Memorable
 Allows context / dynamic / relatable?
 Less technical skill than drawing full Graphic Novels
 Trackable through course data analytics in our course VLE platform
 Open-access (through YouTube)

12. Disadvantages
 Risk that the video is seen as superficial / ‘dumbing-down’?
 Diverts away from the original source article
 Inappropriate for some sensitive topics?
 Amateur production (reliant on personal resources, friends, family)
 Time-consuming

13. SHOULD ethics be more visual?

14. Who is the Audience?
Source: Nikolayhg (Pixabay)
Source: Ernestoeslava (Pixabay)
Source: Bru-n0 (Pixabay)
Students? Clinicians? The Public?

15. Are all topics acceptable?
Source: Gilad Raphaelli (Flickr: CC BY 2.0)

16. Are all topics acceptable?

17. Are all topics acceptable?
Source: Bhopal Medical Appeal (Flickr: CC BY-NC 2.0)

18. Dynamic vs Static?

19. Grounded in Academic debates?
Legitimacy?

20. Production Values?

21. Resource Location?
Walled Gardens? Free / Freemium?

22. Style?
Academic? Edutainment? Performative?

23. Conclusions

24. Conclusions
 Is there an incongruence between ‘serious’ ethics and edutainment?
 Should we be providing more engaging and audio / visual media, not just peer-reviewed papers?
 If so, how? Through which platforms? And for what purpose(s)?
 Both can co-exist, but it is important to clearly set out who the target audience is, and the type of resource being
used.
 Happy to chat further if anyone is interested…

25. You may now wake up the person next to you...

26. QUESTIONS?
Twitter: @KrisLines Email: k.lines@aston.ac.uk