COMNET teaching and curriculum development processes

Mika NupponenM.Sc. (Tech.)

Coordinator

Department of Communications and Networking

Email: mika.nupponen@aalto.fi

Outline

• Players in the Field of Education• Teaching and curriculum development processes

– LPM-process– Feedback-systems– Academic year of teaching– Curricula reform of Bachelor and Master programmes

• ICT & teaching – Oodi – Noppa – Into

Players in the Field of Education

• University level:– Vice President Martti Raevaara (Academic Affairs (Education))– Academic Affairs Committee

• Decides on the university’s curriculum, degree requirements, and criteria for student selection, other general rules involving teaching.

• School level:– Academic & Degree programme Committees– Vice Dean (Education) Prof. Keino Nikoskinen – Coordinator of Degree Programme

• Communications Engineering : Prof. Olav Tirkkonen

– Head of Academic Affairs: Dr. Perttu Puska– School Planners & Study advisors

Players in the Field of Education (2)

• Department level:– Vice head of the Department: Prof. Patric Östergård– Coordinator– Secretary (Teaching retated issues) – Teachers:

• Professors • Docents• University Teacher -> University Lecturer -> Senior University

Lecturer• Doctoral students• Visiting lecturers• Research assistants & course assistants

Teaching Development Processes

• LPM-process• Course feedbacks • School of Electrical Engineer´s (Aalto ELEC) Quality of

Education Committee (OpLaa)• Teaching Development days

LPM-Process

• First phase (deadline in the end of January) – New courses (additions)– Removed courses (removals)– Changes (= changes of teaching period) – New Major & Minor subjects (modules)– Responsible professors

• Second phase (deadline in April)– Course lists of each Major & Minor subjects (modules)– Description texts of objectives & contents of each Major & Minor

(modules) & Curricula– Course descriptions to OpasOodi

Academic Year of Teaching

Course Feedbacks

• Student feedback is a part of the development of teaching and of the quality assurance system

• The primary goal of student feedback is the development of teaching, course contents and working methods.

• The obligation to collect feedback is set forth in Section 5 of the Universities Act (645/1997): 'The universities shall evaluate their education, research and artistic activities and their effectiveness. The universities shall also take part in external evaluation of their activities. The universities shall publish the findings of the evaluations they undertake.'

Course Feedbacks (2)

• Student feedback is collected from the course participants primarily with the help of the feedback tool of the Oodi student data system (PalauteOodi). – Also: face to face, by e-mail or in feedback sessions.

• The course participants give their feedback via PalauteOodi most often at the end of the course.

• Giving feedback allows students to influence the future development of the courses they have taken or of their degree programme.

• The feedback form has seven questions common for all courses while the additional questions used are specific to schools/departments/degree programmes/courses.

Course Feedbacks (3)

• After the end of the feedback collection time for a course, the teacher in charge of the course reads, processes and analyses the feedback and draws up a summary of the feedback based on the individual student responses.

• The teacher records the needs for development and, together with the rest of teaching staff of the course, plans the development measures to be taken.

• The department or degree programme collects the course feedback in order to use it as a basis for developing the content and structure of the degree programme.– School level: OpLaa!

• The university is in charge of monitoring that feedback is collected and used in the planning and development of degree programmes, modules and courses.

School of Electrical Engineer´s (Aalto ELEC) Quality of Education Committee (OpLaa)

• School of Electrical Engineer´s (Aalto ELEC) Quality of Education Committee (OpLaa) was established in the mid 1990´s being unique at former TKK and current Aalto University.

• Its members are teachers, professors, researchers, administrative personnel and students representing their guilds. – Students form an essential part of the committee in which they have

had a direct channel for co-operation with the Aalto ELEC School staff.

• Main functions of the committee are developing teaching, interviewing applicants for teaching positions, evaluating demonstration lectures and developing teacher tutoring.

School of Electrical Engineer´s (Aalto ELEC) Quality of Education Committee (OpLaa) (2)

• OpLaa arranges also events and small-scale lectures for teachers and students concerning teaching, evaluation, academic life and current study affairs in general. • Ope-aamiainen (= Teacher breakfast) once a month during the teaching

periods

• The main goal is to improve co-operation between teaching staff and also students.

• OpLaa makes statements and gives instructions related to theses evaluation, exams, teaching etc.

• Even if the committee is not an official authority, it has had a very significant role in the educational development at the School during its existence.

Teaching Development days

• Department arranges at least one Teaching Developmet Day per year.

• Somewhere outside of Otaniemi

• Teachers with major responsibilities in teaching should participate, but also those with minor responsibilities (like teaching assistants) or someone with a general interest in teaching issues are welcome

• Content:– Topical issues in teaching– Practical issues related to (the arrangement of) teaching, exams,...– Discussion of curricular reform (master level)– Possible team work,..– Possible invited speaker(s)

Curricula reform of Bachelor and Master programmes

• In the reform, studies will be more clearly divided into Bachelor's degree and Master's degree studies.

• Old Bachelor's degree programmes combined and integrated in fewer degree programmes.– students will no longer apply to narrow study paths but instead

to wider programmes within which they can choose areas of specialisation.

– The schools of technology will introduce the new Bachelor's degree programmes in autumn 2013.

• Master program reform is in starting point – New master's degree programmes in autumn 2016.

Basic Studies (70 cr)

Aalto-studies + compulsory (10 cr)

Curriculum may decide (60 cr)

Major (60 op)

B.Sc seminar (10 cr)

Minor (25 cr)

Elective studies (25 op)

Basic Studies (82 cr)

Module B1 (20 cr)

Module A1(20 cr)

Module A2 (20 cr) Elective studies

(10 cr)

B.Sc. sem. (10 cr)

Module O ( 18 cr)

Old B.Sc Degree Programme. New B.Sc Degree Programme.

New B.Sc Degree Programme

• Basic Studies:– Mathematics 25 cr

• Linear Algebra 1 (5 cr)• Differential and Integral calculation 1-2 (5 + 5 cr)• Probability and statistics (5 cr)• Fourier analysis (5 cr.)

– Physics 10 cr.• Mechanics (5 cr)• Electricity and Magnetism (5 cr)

– Programming 12 cr.• Python (5 cr.)• C (5 cr)• Mathematical softwares 2 cr. (Matlab, Mathematica)

– Other:• Electrical Engineering Workshop (8 cr)• Signals and Systems 5 (cr) • Aalto Studies

New B.Sc Degree Programme

• ELEC-C1110 Fundamentals of Automation and Control Engineering • ELEC-C7110 Fundamentals of Information Technology• ELEC-C7210 Modelling and Analysis of Communication Networks• ELEC-C7220 Information Theory• ELEC-C7230 Transmission Methods in Communication Systems • ELEC-C7240 Internet Technology • ELEC-C7310 Application Programming• ELEC-C7320 Software Defined Radio• ELEC-C5210 Stochastic Processes in Communications• ELEC-C5230 Digital Signal Processing Basics• ELEC-C5340 Applied Digital Signal Processing

Old M.Sc Degree Programme New possible M.Sc Degree Programme.

Module B2 (20 cr)

Module A3(20 cr)

Special module (20 cr)

Elective studies(20 cr)

Methodological studies (10 cr)

Masters thesis (30 cr)

Masters thesis (30 cr)

Master´s Programme X (40 - 65 cr)

Elective studies(25 - 35 cr)

A M.Sc. degree (120 ECTS) is composed of •1 Master´s Programme • MSc Thesis • Elective studies or/and a Minor

ICT & teaching : Oodi

• Oodi consists of two parts: WinOodi, which is the officials' user interface, and WebOodi, which is used by students and teachers.

• In WebOodi student may – check and change your personal data– check information about courses and their descriptions– register for courses, examinations, and other teaching events– check his/her study attainments– order transcripts of records (unofficial)– draw up personal study plan– give course feedback

ICT & teaching : Oodi…

• In WebOodi teacher can– Follow and manage teaching events (courses, examinations,

practice groups) to which the Oodi official has assigned him/her as the responsible teacher

– Write more detailed descriptions of these events– Add inquiries for more information to the events. The students

respond to these questions when registering for the event– View the students registered for a course and their basic

information– Add students to courses/examinations and accept/reject

registrations– Print out a list of registered students, which can be edited for e.g.

registering exam results

ICT & teaching : NOPPA

• The course portal Noppa is a tool for both students and teaching staff of Aalto University for everyday course work and communication.

• Noppa is composed of course home pages that include e.g. – course overviews, schedules and exercises, – course materials, – information about assignments and exams, – news and results

ICT & teaching : INTO

• Into is a portal for Aalto University students into information relating to studies and to Aalto services.– Bachelor and Master's Students: The most important source of information

for Bachelor and Master’s students; content is organized by School and by degree programme/department. Here you will find, for instance, information on degree structures, guidelines for the practices concerning studies, enrollment for the academic year, graduation and exchange studies as well as news.

– Doctoral Candidates: The most important source of information for doctoral candidates, organized by doctoral programme. Contains information related to doctoral studies.

– Services: A set of links to the Aalto services that support students and studies (e.g.Library, IT Services).

– Campuses: Links to practical information concerning the campuses.– About Aalto: General information and news about Aalto University.

ICT & teaching: Summary