Learning lines for courses on introduction, orientation, research methodology, principles, approaches and theories

Project introduction and background information

This project:

• Increases the coherence between courses of the study programme, in particular between integrating courses with activating didactics (such as the introduction, orientation and research methodology courses on plant sciences in BPW and the planning and design studios in BLP) and supporting courses on concepts, principles, approaches, theories and methods.
• Defines learning lines that link up learning outcomes and course content of supporting courses to those of integrating courses.
• Gives students and teachers easy access to learning outcomes, course materials, assignments, literature, (online) lectures, online excursions, self-tests and assessment strategies of all courses of the study programme.

Objective and expected outcomes

• Teachers to position and adjust their course regarding level and content in the context of the curriculum, and to refer students to specific prior course content to refresh their background knowledge
• Bachelor students to position each course in the context of the curriculum, and to get an overview and tool to refresh knowledge from prior courses, based on short self-tests before the start of the course
• Master students that did their bachelor elsewhere to actively refresh or catch up with essential bachelor-level knowledge to prepare for MSc-courses
• Programme Committees to define clear learning lines that link up learning outcomes and course content of supporting courses to those of integrating courses.
• Develop a Course Library for BPW and BLP that provides students and teachers access to learning outcomes, assignments, literature, (online) lectures, online excursions, self-tests and assessment strategies of all courses of a study programme.

Results and learnings

• Define learning lines for BPW and BLP that link up learning outcomes and course content of supporting courses to those of integrating courses. Use integrating courses with activating didactics as a starting point.
• Define users requirements: what should students, lecturers and other users be able to do with the tool?
• Inventory in which databases/ Education Management Systems learning outcomes, assignments, literature, (online) lectures, online excursions, self-tests and assessment strategies of WU courses are currently stored.
• Investigate which (preferably existing) tools can link up these databases/ Education Management Systems effectively to provide a Course Library at programme level.
• Build and fill Course Libraries for BPW and BLP.

Recommendations

The final course library should be easily accessible and easy to manage and maintain. Most importantly, the course library will be perceived satisfactory:

• When teachers actively refer to course content of previous and follow up courses. This could be tested by additional questions in PACE course evaluations
• When students indicate improvement in the coherence of the curriculum in programme evaluations (NSE, MSc Graduate Evaluations)
• When bachelor and master students are able to pass self-tests of courses successfully