Centre Director, Torben K. Jensen
Centre for Teaching and Learning (CUL)
School of Business and Social Sciences (BSS)
Aarhus University (AU)
tkj@clu.au.dk; www.cu.au.dk/en
Quality enhancement by use of
Educational IT
Pedagogical week, NHH, Bergen, September 22-26,
2014.
Educational development at Center for Teaching and Learning
(CUL), School of Business and Leaning (BSS), Aarhus
University (AU), Denmark
Context
Aarhus University
Approx. 40.000 students and 9.000 employees
1. Faculty of Science and
Technology
1. Faculty of Health
2. School of Business and
Social Sciences
4. Faculty of Arts
School of Business and Social Sciences
Currently, there is approx. 1,180 teachers at 7 departments
spread out on the following categories:
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Student teachers: 280
PhD students: 236
Postdocs: 38
Assistant professors: 90
D-VIP: 140
Associate professors: 255
Professors: 139
The main academic area consists of the
following seven departments:
1. Department of Economics and
Business
2. Department of Business Administration
3. Department of Business
Communication
4. Department of Law
5. Department of Political Science and
Government
6. Department of Psychology and
Behavioral Science
7. AU Herning
 Approx. 14,000 full-time- + approx. 3,000 part-time students
Centre for Teaching and Learning (CUL)
21 employees
Higher education teaching and
learning: 8 employees
Administrative staff: 5 employees
Educational IT: 8 employees
CUL’s main activities
 Teaching
 Courses for teachers at all career levels
 Most courses are mandatory
 Strong incentives to the heads of department and the individual teacher
 The courses are in general evaluated as (very) rewarding
 Development
 Development projects at different levels
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Course level
Educational-/department level
The faculty: BlackBoard, digital exam, digital evaluation
University: Analyses every third year of (1) study environment, (2) quality
in the PhD process and (3) psychological workplace environment
 Research
 Practice-oriented research:
 Research at an international level where data from BSS always is included
and where the aim always is to contribute to better decisions and
judgments for managers and teachers at BSS
 Research that supports the course activities and the development
work
Key figures for the course activities
 Numbers of participants in course activities pr. year at BSS:
 All first year students, 130 TA, 35 70 students, 40 assistant
professors, 85 associate and full professors spread over the two
courses in supervision and Go Online.
 In addition, staff participants in voluntary and required courses
 In the course of a few years CUL meets the teachers at BSS 3-4
times
 The total mandatory formal educational training corresponds to
about 8 weeks
 CUL has a yearly budget of 10 million DKK (1,2 million Euro)
and costs 1% of the total revenue of BSS and about 15% of the
Dean’s strategic costs
 CUL has 21 employees, which corresponds to 3 full time
positions per department at the school.
Links
 Center for Teaching and Learning (CUL)
http://cul.au.dk/en/about-the-centre/
 Large scale educational development (practice paper)
http://cul.au.dk/fileadmin/CUL/Dokumenter/Om_CUL/Practice_at_B
SS_for_the_development_of_teaching_and_teaching_competencie
s_2014.pdf
 BSS's incentive structure for participation in university
educational courses:
 http://cul.au.dk/fileadmin/CUL/Dokumenter/Kurser/BSS_Courses
__incentive_structure_and_course_evaluation.pdf
Investment in Edu-it at School of
Business and Social Sciences,
Aarhus University
Investment in educational it at BSS
2013: implementation of a new, common
LMS (BlackBoard)
 System integration, support, instruction material
(on line + f2f), training,
 Entry into service: 14,000 students, 1,200
teachers, 100 course clerks, 2300
courses/semester
2014: implementation of digital examination
system (Wiseflow)
 Workflow without paper: Providing the task,
down- and upload by students, distribution of
examination scripts to teachers and censors,
marking and filing
 written homework assignments + ‘skoleeksamen’
(with and without aids) (Flowlock))
 88% of all exams S2014 were implemented
digitally; 25,000 have attended more than 300
digital written exams
2015: development and implementation of a
new, common digital course evaluation system
 Course evaluations for the teachers and key figures
(BI) for the directors of study from 2300 courses pr.
semester
2012  Medielab facilities
2012  GoOnline
 course for assistant professors, associate
professors and full professors
Question
 Why spend resources on educatioanl IT: Money,
jobs, management attention, time?

 What are the potential gains?
 What are the educational reasons for investing in
educational technology at the university?
New words…
 Information Technology
 e-learning
 LMS (learning management systems)
 blended learning
 digitalized learning objects
 MOOCs (massive open online courses)
 blogs, discussion forums, wiki, electronic
conference, video conference, learning paths,
clickers; podcasts, screencasts, pencasts, audio
slides …
Research-based teaching
Well-organized teaching
Active students
In-depth learning
Business as usual…
The university's job
To deliver research-based teaching
 DK: The University Act
The Master's degree programmes must
ensure that the students master the
subject’s theory, empirical knowledge, and
method
 DK: The Qualifications Framework
Research-based teaching
1. Researcher teaches  lectures  attentive
students?
 Lecture
2. Research-type teaching  activating teaching 
working, exploring, arguing, communicating
students?
 Exercises, projects, supervision, feedback
 Methodology, discipline, and thoroughness
= in-depth learning
Didactic implications
Free us from "more chairs in”
A socialization/training during five years, which
must succeed
Progression: material, learning goals, material quantity, independence,
research-type, academic competences
Progression?
Free us from the “education market”
The university’s conditions
A bit of presence teaching
A lot of independent work between classes
Free us from "number-of-classes-guarantee"
Well-organized teaching
Teaching objectives
In-depth learning
Quality in teaching: That the students learn in-depth (selected parts
of) the science society's knowledge (master the subject's theory,
empirical knowledge, and method)
22
Didactics in course planning - a model
Course
Field of
didactic
decisions
Purpose and
learning goals
Themes and content
Exam
In-depth learning
Methods/
organization
Field of
didactic
framework
Student
preconditions
Media
- including Edu-IT
Social/cultural
preconditions
Organizational and
financial framework
Integration of new media
Entirely new teaching situation?
Media
classic
 Books, articles, material
collections
 Auditoriums, classrooms
 Furniture, board, projector,
paper, pigeon-holes, notice
boards, handouts,
 Photocopying, printing, library
 Organization: Class sizes
 Etc. …
digital
 Digital teaching material,
Internet,
 LMS - Learning Management
System - electronic meeting
place
 AULA, BlackBoard, First Class,
Campusnet,
 (Group) blog, discussion
forums, wiki, electronic
conference, video conference,
learning paths, clickers;
podcasts, audio slides,
screencasts, instruction videos
 Blended learning
 Distance learning
 MOOCs
Media
 Etc.
- including Edu-IT
The challenge - EduIT
1.
All courses can (should!) have two classrooms in future:
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
The physical classroom
A digital classroom
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
All courses have their own website
From mailbox to educational workshop: a place to organize the students'
learning/work (activate)
%
2.
%
Make activation and learning among the students more
efficient
 Use electronic educational technologies to activate students before,
during, and after classes
 Increase the quantity of feedback
3.
Economize the teacher's resources
(which may require an investment)
4.
Meet/oblige ‘generation www’
Physical classroom
Virtual classroom
Blended learning for activation
Presence teaching
- with digital activation possibilities
Students' work between the classes
- possible to organize in a digital learning space
Examples of educational technology for
increased learning
Activation of the students before
classes
 Learning paths:
 Material to be read
 Podcast (pencasts, screencasts) to be seen:
 The teacher's or other's contributions from YouTube etc.
 Assignments to be solved together with fellow students
 Assignments to be uploaded to the course website
 Feedback on fellow students' assignments (on the course
website)
 Submit questions to the teacher prior to the next meeting
 'Flipped classroom': One-way communication and material
assessment prior to the meeting with the students
... Activation of the students before
Example of the use of wiki:
 The framework: an introductory course, which go through the
'list of kings'
 Political Theory and the History of Ideas: Plato, Aristotle,
Machiavelli, Hobbes …
 The class is divided into study groups and each produce two
wiki texts during the semester:
 Study group 1:
 Wiki 1: Everything in the semester's material that sheds light on Plato
 Wiki 2: Everything in the semester that relates to the concept of justice
 Study group 2:
 Wiki 1: Everything in the semester's material that sheds light on Aristotle
 Wiki 2: Everything in the semester that relates to the concept of forms of
government
 The wikis are part of the examination
... Activation of the students before
 Example of the use of screencast
 In the course Principles of Micro and Principles of Macro,
introduction course to Economics at 1st semester of Economics
and Business Administration, BSS, AU
 Educational challenge: very different preconditions in
Mathematics
Activation of the students during
classes
 Discussion and material assessment on the basis
of submitted questions to the teacher
 Clicker teaching (responsive systems) and peer
instruction
Activation of the students after
classes
 Feedback in the form of expanded multiple-choice
(quiz)
 Example: The Study of Law at the University of Southern
Denmark
 Peer feedback with (or without) electronic support
 The Lund model
 Solving a task individually
 Correcting two assignments in groups with support from a
teaching guide
Preconditions
 Technical: A solid Learning Management System (LMS)
as the technical basis
 From post office to learning space
 Well-educated teachers:
 Can make and justify didactic decisions
 Produce teaching material
 Organize the students' work
 Active students demand a prior instruction
 Assume responsibility for the students' learning
 Certain technical skills
 Go Online as course and development concept
GoOnline course
Step 1 (20 hours):
1. Introduction to a range of online tools, including
basic and more advanced features in
BlackBoard, clickers, wiki, blog, discussion
forums, podcasts, audio, slides, screencasts,
learning modules, quiz, pencasts, etc.
2. Introduction to the role as E-moderator in theory
and practice,
3. Students alternate between the role of a student
in a 'blended' course and the role of the teacher,
which produces Web-based teaching
elements/materials.
Step 2 (10 hours):
1. Redesign of own course
 Identification of main challenges in the existing
course
 Analyze of possible digital solutions
2. Supervision from instructors and colleagues
Step 3 (30 hours):
Implementation of the plan in the next semester's
course.
2. Production of digital teaching material
1.
 Technical support for production, if necessary, throughout
the entire semester.
3. Writing a report and sharing experience with
colleagues
Link to course description: http://cul.au.dk/en/trainingcourses/go-online-course-on-blended-learning/
(Mild) Educational leadership
 On the one hand: The GoOnline course is
mandatory for professors
 On the other hand: You can choose to say no to
the use Edu-IT in your courses
 But the choice has to be made on an informed
basis.
Main point
 Educational IT – must support the students' active
learning before, during, and after classes
 If new technology does not support the students'
active (in-depth) learning, we do not need new
technology whatsoever
 Educational IT is not about:
 Filming lectures
 Distance learning
 Distribution of teaching material
Potential gains from the use of
educational it
1. Increasing quality in learning
i.
activate students before, during, and after
instruction to
ii. increase student performance
iii. increase the amount of feedback
iv. differentiate teaching
v. variety and dedication
vi. clearer educational choices, more transparency
i.
blended learning courses are often better planned a
campus courses
… potential gains from the use of educational it
2. Economising on resources
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
Distribution of teaching materials
reduced needs for classrooms?
Fewer teachers?
Paperless examinations
… potential gains from the use of educational it
3.
Economising with teacher ressources
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More collaboration among lecturer around the learning
management system (BlackBoard) and the individual
course sites: subject matter, teaching material and
didactic know-how
In-service training of teachers: competencies for
distance learning as by-product of blended learning
4.
increasing flexibility with regard to access to teaching
and learning material: time, place, device
5.
meeting generation www
6.
preparing students for the upcoming working life

Future blended learning environments there
Prerequisites
 Technical requirements:
 a solid Learning Management System (LMS) as the
technical basis
 From ‘post office’ to ‘learning space’
 Well-trained educators who:
 can make and justify didactic choice
 can produce (digital) teaching material
 can and will organise the student’s work
 Activation of students requires a previous instruction
weeks before
 assume responsibility for the student's learning
 possess certain technical skills