The annual Learning Forum at UNIS October 2019
Photo: Eva Therese Jenssen
The sixth annual Learning Forum at UNIS was held in October 2019 with around 65 participants joining the forum. Scientific staff, support staff and student representatives enjoyed 2.5 days of discussions, presentations and reflections on teaching and learning.
As in previous years, the annual Learning Forum aimed to continue promoting a collegial teaching practice at UNIS. Through lectures, sharing sessions and workshops sixteen colleagues shared their experiences and thoughts on different teaching and learning methods and aspects of course planning and organization. The participants were also updated on the ongoing educational quality work at UNIS, as well as ongoing activities in bioCEED and iEarth. The logistic department had a nice presentation on some of their challenges related to field excursions and fieldworks with students. A short presentation of the new interdepartmental Diku-founded research project on field teaching (FieldPass), was also given.
Two external lectures were invited to share some of their thoughts around teaching and learning. Kristina Edström, Associate Professor in Engineering Education Development at KTH Royal Institute of Technology spoke about how to increase student learning without spending more time on teaching and gave participants some good examples on how to implement this in own courses. Oddrun Samdal, Vice-Rector for Education at UiB and chairman in the board of bioCEED, challenged the participants on the concept of fixed versus more open curriculum, and how the latter can possible lead to better learning for students.
Four workshops were held with focus on 1) The teaching trick – how to improve student learning without spending more time teaching led by Kristina Edström, 2) Interdisciplinary Education at UNIS led by Hanne Christiansen, 3) Course alignment and field teaching led by Pernille Bronken Eidesen and co. and 4) Rethinking our basic security course, summer and winter led by Ivar Nordmo (only for logistic/tech staff).
The program for the Learning Forum can be accessed here
