News from our educations
Distance learning, online exams this spring - and new courses in fall 2020!
Teaching and xxamination during a pandemic
The Corona pandemic has turned our worklife upside down. At the time of writing, Aarhus University remains physically closed down with very limited access for individual employees who perform critical functions. Most VIP employees probably work from home. On 7 May, a political agreement was reached on phase 2 of a controlled reopening of Danish society. The concrete guidelines for the partial reopening of clarified and agreed upon right now by Ministry and universities and will be announced as soon as possible. Read more here.
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I myself have not been to Flakkebjerg, Foulum or Aarhus for many weeks - and have moved from a commuter to attend a lot of virtual meetings. Teaching is also conducted at a distance. It has given great challenges for all teachers, course and education managers to make distance learning work, while at the same time not affecting the individual courses too much, despite many of the practical exercises and excursions to research centers and companies, which is a trademark for our research-based education, could not be completed this spring.
It has been a really big challenge to switch to distance learning in such a short time. New technical tools needed to be in place immediately, and didactic tools was put into use (which can only contribute to the closeness, identity and structure of online student life that the students demand. Challenges and problems in guiding students Bachelor projects, thesis (and not least PhD projects) had to be resolved in the best possible way. The overall study management at Nat Tech has stated that they are very grateful for the great effort being made in the teaching context to make everything work in this extraordinary situation.
In connection with the Covid-19 situation in the spring of 2020, a 'Education-plus-forum plus' (UF +) was established in March, which is chaired by Vice Dean Finn Borchsenius and has as permanent participants the five study leaders as well as chairmen and vice-chairmen for the three study boards of Nat and Tech. In addition, representatives of the study administration as well as the STLL (ST Learning Lab) educational center will attend. At 2-3 weekly virtual meetings, UF + aims to make temporary guidelines for handling various aspects of study progress as a result of the Covid-19 situation. This includes rescheduling of tuition for distance education, adjustments of course content (eg learning objectives, exam format) for examining in the studyboard, guidelines for exemptions from bachelor projects and thesis, and not least planning for rescheduling for online exams. A big THANK YOU to all course and education managers as well as educators at AGRO, ANIS and FOOD for the patience and good cooperation in this exceptional situation!
Due to COVID-19 exams for summer 2020, as well as re-exams for winter 2019-2020, have now been rescheduled for online exams. Lists and exam schedules can be found here:
With the government's announcement last week, it is now possible to have oral exams on campus instead of Zoom. However, students still have the opportunity to choose an exam via Zoom if needed (i.e., exchange students who have returned home). The Vice Dean will inform the course coordinators directly regarding guidance and rules.
AU has decided to use Zoom as the primary technical solution for digital teaching. Zoom is also the digital solution that AU will use for digital oral exams because of its ease of use, stability and the special solution that AU can get via DeiC (Danish e-Infrastructure Cooperation) with login via WAYF as a protected server environment. See: https://newsroom.au.dk/news/vis/article/au-user-zoom-to- teaching-and-examination-and-the-is-en-safe-losing/
Information and guidance on how course administrators and teachers can convert traditional exam formats into digital formats can be found here: https://medarbejdere.au.dk/corona/eksamen/
The Science and Technology Learning Lab provides guides and workshops on written and oral online exams: https://stll.au.dk/fjernundervisning-paa-nat-tech/digital-eksamen/
Also, a number of other events cannot be conducted during the Covid-19 situation. For example, AU's Alumne Day and Quota-2 tests for Nat Tech have been canceled, however, we have planned a virtual orientation meeting with the interested applicants.
New courses are coming this fall
As part of the action plan after evaluating our education in 2019, a new course has been established at the bachelor program: 'Agricultural Economics' (5 ECTS). In the ANIS line of the undergraduate program, 'Sustainable Livestock Production' (10 ECTS) focuses on 3 of the 17 UN SDGs. AGRO participates in collaboration with Ghent University (Belgium), Universität für Bodenkultur (Austria) and Universität Göttingen (Germany) in an Erasmus-Mundus Joint Master Degree Program named 'International Master of Science in Soils and Global Change' (IMSOGLO). Here, graduate students in the 3rd semester can take a number of existing and new courses such as 'Assessing Soil Erosion Risk' (5 ECTS), 'Global Soil Threats and Ecosystem Services' (10 ECTS), 'Soil classification' (5 ECTS) and 'Arctic Soils' (5 ECTS).
Biographical information
Laura Rasmussen, a bachelor student in the 6th semester in the livestock line, is our new student study guide. Søren Borg participates in AGRO Education Committee for our new section. Bo Vangsø Iversen takes over the position as Head of Education for the Master's program Agro-Environmental Management from Lars Juhl Munkholm.