Dear colleagues!
We are near the end of the spring semester, and many of us are busy with preparation of exams or assessing exam papers. This is also a period for administration, planning for next semester, writing applications and finishing manuscripts, so these are work-intensive times. Fortunately, in a few weeks there will be a break in teaching, and we will get some weeks with better possibilities to administer our own time – and vacation to collect our minds and gather strength before the autumn semester starts!
We recently had the department “Teaching Day”, where we had information on the last version of the exam software Inspera, and discussed some thoughts and guidelines on assessment and censoring. This is indeed a challenging area, where the academic staff is given the great responsibility of deciding whether a student passes or fails. This is not to be taken lightly, and we must do the job as well as we can.
These are exciting times with artificial intelligence really emerging as potentially very useful and at the same time perhaps with some causes for concern. We need to follow the development and be aware of the new possibilities both in research and teaching. A recent article in Khrono is worth reading: Fem måter kunstig intelligens allerede har endret høyere utdanning på (khrono.no)
I always recommend following the seminars from the faculty’s Enhet for læring (Center for Medical Education), «Pedagogisk påfyll»! In addition, I remind you of the podcast on teaching in higher education from NOKUT, «NOKUT-podden». There is a series of interesting podcasts on different ways of teaching with inspiration and tips.
Good luck to all our master students with your final exams, and good luck to you all with the last weeks before summer! Keep your spirits up and let us all contribute to our good work environment!
All the best,
Arne.
