In 2016 an internal departmental survey performed on 6th semester students (Interaktive Digitale Medier) with 31 respondents indicated a certain inconsistency in students perception of teaching activities and the problem based project activities. The survey showed that 50% failed to connect the scheduled teaching-modules, delivered mainly through traditional classroom teaching and lectures, with the problem related project activities. Further analysis revealed a positive bias towards the project-activities in terms of learning importance. The congruence between academic and professional (job-related) identity will be affected negatively when students fail to integrate modules and projects in a meaningful way. The module activities create a foundation for the students’ scholarly  knowledge  and  practical  competencies, a pedagogical and didactic challenge therefore exists when students evaluate these activities as secondary to the project activities.

Our aim will be to address this challenge of “aligning” the theoretical and practical perspectives, as well as understanding the academic and non-academic interests which are necessary for the students’ learning and developing a joint academic and professional (job related) identity. As a framework for addressing the challenge, we will explore and operationalise the engaged scholarship (ES) approach, established independently by Boyer and van de Ven1, excelling in addressing this problematic.

The advantage of using this approach is that it presents multifaceted models of the relation between the study activities of Problem formulation, Theory building, Research design and Problem solving anchored in real world problems. Hence, the engaged scholarship approach focus on the relationship between theory, methodology and practice, as in a PBL perspective, and centres on establishing students’ scholarly and professional identity and build knowledge, skills and competencies. This process of engagement stands in a dependent relationship to the teaching activities and the teaching team engagement.

Familiarity with the PBL model is expected at this level.

To explore the challenge of building an integrated identity we will develop a four part course/masterclass centred on the four  ES perspectives.  The immediate aim is  to  facilitate reflection on these  perspectives relating to both project and module activities. The masterclass will NOT use traditional didactic approaches, but WILL require active participation and contribution by the students as learning is more efficient (and fun) in a dynamic and engaged environment. The activities will similarly require  the  teaching  staff  to function as a team. Activities include, but are not limited to:

Teaching team

• Pre-semester and monthly meetings among teachers, supervisors and semestercoordinators. Purpose is to align and exchange status and experience.
• Reflective activities: Students and teachers debate the academic and disciplinary implications of connecting module and project activities.

Surveys:

• Surveys on students learning create foundation for engaged and formative dialogues to develop new didactic trajectories that support the formation of students identity.

Dissemination:

• The outcomes of the activites are disseminated and shared with study board to secure anchorage in the organisation.

External stakeholders:

• The rootedness and relevance of students’ competencies is evalauted to reconcile and mediate between academic and non-academic interests.

The investigation will cover 8th and 9th semester at the KDM dept.. Evaluation will be a mixed methods setup.

PROJEKTANSVARLIG

Tom Nyvang, nyvang@hum.aau.dk

PROJEKTDELTAGERE

Bo Allesøe Christensen og Morten Lund