Both Health and AU have a new funding pool ready for teaching staff who want to try a new and more digital way of teaching. This year, there is a shared application process for the two pools, and thus an even greater chance of getting money for your idea. The application deadline is 11 October 2019.

2019.08.20 | Mette Louise Ohana

Employing digitisation to renew the teaching is at the top of the agenda throughout the university. This year Health and AU are earmarking DKK 500,000 and DKK 2,000,0000 respectively to back the initiative. The goal is to increase the learning outcome the students get from the teaching by finding new ways of teaching.

If you are a member of the teaching staff at Health, you can apply for grants from the funding pools for new teaching initiatives which will take place in 2020.

 "We’re already underway with transforming our teaching activities at Health into more digital forms of teaching, and we will continue along this path. So using the revision of the academic regulations that we’re working on at the moment as a chance to develop the teaching further is an obvious step to take. I want to encourage our teaching staff to seize the opportunity and get some financial support for this work," says Charlotte Ringsted, vice-dean for education at Health.

Evaluating applications

The two pools have slightly different criteria. At Health, an application is primarily assessed based on the idea’s pedagogical and didactic quality. In addition, there is an assessment of the number of students and courses or ECTS that are covered by the project, as well as a wish to consider as many of the faculty's study programmes as possible. Applications are assessed by CESU and Charlotte Ringsted.

AU also looks at the quality of the idea and how many people it can benefit across the academic environments. Additionally, there is an assessment of how innovative the idea is. Here the Education Committee decides who will receive funding from the pool.

"It's important that we can see the specific purpose of the digitisation in the application. Whether it’s so as to introduce peer feedback for assignment assessments, use conceptual maps to provide an overview and coherence in a conceptually and methodologically difficult course, or to help students prepare for lectures using tests or quizzes,” says Liza Strandgaard, head of the undergraduate unit at the Centre for Health Sciences Education (CESU).

At Health, the evaluators will assess which of the criteria and objectives for the pools the individual application matches best.

Last year, the money went to...

In 2019, projects were given grants of between DKK 25,000 and DKK 100,000. There are no upper of lower limits for funding applications. Last year, Health gave grants to various forms of digital support for students' learning outside the university and the clinic.

For example, Assistant Professor Malene Flensborg Damholdt from the Department of Clinical Medicine received funding for the development of video-filmed cases and podcasts for teaching patient communication on the Master's degree programme in medicine.

Associate professor Sebastian Schlafer from the Department of Dentistry and Oral Health received funding for the production of training videos in prosthetics, endodontics, periodontology and cariology on the odontology programme. The videos provided an opportunity to focus on e.g. treatment, patient relations, inter-professional cooperation and ergonomics.

Charlotte Steffensen from the Department of Clinical Medicine received funding to develop digital learning modules for Blackboard that could support the teaching in the dedicated emergency medicine week on the final semester of the Master's degree programme in medicine.

How to apply

Lecturers, course managers, degree programme directors and others who have responsibility for designing courses can apply – and everyone can use the same application form regardless of the pool they are applying to. The form and relevant guidelines can be found on CESU’s website (in Danish), and you are also welcome to contact CESU if you require help.

Find inspiration to redesign courses in CESU’s inspiration catalogue (in Danish) and read more about who has previously received grants from Health’s pool.

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The purpose of the digital initiative

The objective of Health's EDU IT initiative is to increase the students' learning outcomes through:

• Activating and inclusive forms of instruction
• Discussion and collaboration between students and also between students and teaching staff
• Feedback from lecturers to students and between the students
• Monitoring of the academic progression in the degree programme
• The students' learning in and from authentic arenas such as e.g. exercises and practical situations
• The students' learning in and from independent assignments and projects during the degree programme
• The students' and teaching staffs' digital competences

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Contact

Head of undergraduate unit Liza Strandgaard
Aarhus University, Health - Centre for Health Sciences Education (CESU)
Email: lis@cesu.au.dk
Mobile: (+45) 2033 4777

Vice-dean for Education Charlotte Ringsted
Aarhus University, Health
Email: charlotte.ringsted@au.dk
Mobile: (+45) 9350 8222