Project updates

Book seminar held in Oslo

One of the key deliverables from the project will be an edited volume that discusses a range of the key results from the project. Authors of the different draft chapters met on Tuesday the 19th of June in Oslo to discuss current drafts.

The book puts focus on the notion of quality work at various levels of the organization and draws on all of the different data sources employed in the project. It will be edited by (in alphabetical order) Mari Elken, Peter Maassen, Monika Nerland, Tine S. Prøitz, Bjørn Stensaker and Agnete Vabø.

There will also be an event to mark the launch of the book! Check the website for updates!

Project results presented at the NFHE conference in Paris

Agnete Vabø, Nicoline Frølich and Mari Elken presented results from the case studies in part B of the project at the Nordic Fields of Higher Education conference that took place 12-13th of April at Sciences Po in Paris.

The conference was jointly organised by University of Bergen, Uppsala University, the Norwegian University Centre in Paris, and Sciences Po, Paris; and gathered over 40 researchers from within and beyond the Nordic countries.

Dr. Mari Elken, NIFU
Research Professor Nicoline Frølich, NIFU
Research professor Agnete Vabø, NIFU

Mari Elken, Nicoline Frølich, Peter Maassen, & Bjørn Stensaker: “Organizing quality work in higher education institutions” 

Agnete Vabø: “Disciplinary differences in organising quality work”

Both of the presentations will also be chapters in the upcoming book!

 

Upcoming special issue at UNIPED

Following the symposium at the NERA conference, project researchers are also working with a special issue at UNIPED.

Associate Professor Thomas de Lange, UiO
Associate Professor Crina Damsa, UiO

Crina Damsa & Thomas de Lange, the guest editors of the special issue, describe it as:

“This special issue explores how various forms of student centered approaches have been implemented in higher education courses and programs. Its main aim is to examine and understand the way teaching methods and various forms of activity are employed to activate students and to achieve quality in the teaching and learning processes. In addition, the special issue addresses aspects of organization and leadership of study programmes in relation to the teaching and learning processes.

Implications for the educational practices will be identified following from the analysis of empirical cases from Norway and Finland. The articles and the commentaries cover a wide spectrum of disciplinary contexts, institutional contexts and levels of education and intend to identify and problematize aspects that might foster or stand in the way of achieving quality in teaching and learning. The contributions take a departure point in empirical data and engage with different research methodologies.

Overall, the ambition of this special issue is to provide a nuanced and research-based view on quality work in practice and inspire innovative efforts in the future.”

The contributions in the special issue will be both in Norwegian and English.

 

Results from the project presented at the NERA conference in Oslo

The 46th Nordic Educational Research Association (NERA) conference was held  8-10 March in Oslo. Researchers from the project presented seven papers from the project in a two-session symposium Friday afternoon, organised by Crina Damsa and Thomas de Lange (View the conference programme here):

  • Portfolio assessment in biology: from design to implementation by Rachelle Esterhazy
  • Simulation in nursing- Enhancing quality through technological training environments by Odd Rune Stalheim & Yngve Nordkvelle
  • Participant or observer in an online MBA? by Trine Fossland & Cathrine E. Tømte
  • Exploring how law students’ regulation of learning is related their experiences of the teaching-learning environment by Heidi Hyytinen & Anne Haarala-Muhonen
  • Study program leadership: a matter of organization? by Bjørn Stensaker, Mari Elken, Peter Maassen
  • Elements of study program plans – organising for alignment? by Tine S. Prøitz
  • Exploring plenary sessions and their potentialities for student learning by Anne Line Wittek, Thomas de Lange, Monika Bærøe Nerland & Trine Fossland

The sessions were commented by Monika Nerland (UiO) and  Eva Forsberg (Uppsala University).

Odd Rune Stalheim & Yngve Nordkvelle presenting the case on simulation.

 

Professor Monika Nerland, UiO

Note also that Monika Nerland will be one of the keynote speakers at the conference. Her talk is titled: “Contemporary knowledge dynamics and shifting demands to professional expertise”. In the talk, she employs perspectives from social studies of science and professions to discuss how the knowledge dynamics that serve professional expertise are getting more complex, comprising a range of knowledge-producing actors and interests which generate tensions in educational contexts.

Report on student centered approaches in higher education launched

This morning, the report on student centred approaches in higher education was launched at a breakfast seminar. Monika Nerland (IPED/UiO) and Tine Prøitz (NIFU) presented the key results in the report. This was followed by a panel discussion with Oddrun Samdal (UiB), Ida Austgulen (NSO), Stein Erik Lid (NOKUT) og Gunn Engelsrud (NIH).

The report presents results from 8 course level case studies that employ various student centered approaches. All of the chapters present specific lessons learned, and the final chapter concludes with a number of dilemmas for using student-centered approaches.

The report includes chapters on: 

  • Introduction by Monika Nerland and Tine S. Prøitz
  • Project-based learning in Computer Engineering Education by Crina Damşa
  • Portfolio assessment in an undergraduate course in ecology by Rachelle Esterhazy
  • Group assignments and roleplay in Organisation and Management by Line Wittek & Monika Nerland
  • Simulation in a practicum course in nursing by Yngve Nordkvelle & Odd Rune Stalheim
  • Bringing work-related elements into teaching and learning of legal education by Trine Fossland & Thomas de Lange
  • Online teaching and learning in an experience-based MBA programme by Trine Fossland & Cathrine Tømte 
  • Problem-based learning in a field course in ecology research by Heidi Hyytinen
  • Large class lectures and essay writing in legal education by Heidi Hyytinen & Anne Haarala-Muhonen
  • Quality of educational practices: Lessons learned and recommendations for the future by Monika Nerland, Tine S. Prøitz, Crina Damsa, Thomas de Lange, Rachelle Esterhazy, Trine
    Fossland, Heidi Hyytinen, Yngve Nordkvelle, Odd Rune Stalheim, Cathrine Tømte, Line Wittek

Download the report here.