informatik introducing bologna study programmes in a german university prof. dr. klaus g. troitzsch...

Informatik

Introducing Bologna study programmes in a German university

Prof. Dr. Klaus G. TroitzschUniversität Koblenz-Landau, Germany

19/04/23 1Introducing Bologna study programmes in a German university

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Informatik

The Bologna programme in Germany

• Germany aims at the finalisation of the transition to Bologna by 2010 --- with the exception of some disciplines with state examinations (medicine, law and several others).

• The process started in the late 1990s.• The University of Koblenz-Landau was

among the first to enter in to this transition process, and the first to have a BSc/MSc study programme accredited.

19/04/23 Introducing Bologna study programmes in a German university

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Informatik

Traditional study programmes

• Traditionally, study programmes in the sciences were one-tier, comprised nine semesters (with an intermediate examination after four semesters) and led to the Diplom degree (in engineering, mathematics, …, political science and psychology),

• study programmes in the humanities were of the same structure but led to a Magister degree (M.A.),

• and where state examinations are requested, study programmes comprised between seven (pharmacy, plus three years of internships), eight (law and teaching, with two years of internship) and twelve semesters (medicine) --- these did not lead to proper academic degrees except a doctoral degree after additional research.


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Informatik

The transition

• In 1998, by the fourth amendment to the national higher education legislation it became possible to design experimental study programmes according to the Bologna ideas, with BSc or BA programmes typically comprising six semesters and consecutive MSc or MA programmes comprising another four semesters.

• One of the motivations was to reduce drop-out rates and give students an opportunity to enter the employment sector earlier than at the typical graduating age of 25+ years. Another was to give study programmes, mainly in the humanities, a stricter structure, and to enhance compatibility among European universities.


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Informatik

Motivation in universities

• Early in the Bologna process, German universities had additional motivations:– ministries of education would support the

development of new study structures with special funding

– while no standards had been passed at that time, universities and faculties were rather free in designing new study structures

– colleagues with strong international ties had seen Bologna-like structures working properly in other countries


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Informatik

The way to Bologna

• The wrong way: just cast the old contents into the new structure.

• The better way: invent something entirely new; examples:– information management B.Sc. and M.Sc.

programmes at UKL (accredited in 2000, re-accredited in 2006)

– two-tiered teachers’ training, B.Ed. and M.Ed. programmes at UKL and other universities in Rhineland-Palatinate (accredited in 2008)


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Informatik

Information Management at UKL


50

% m

anagem

ent

scie

nce

and e

conom

ics

20

% info

rmati

on s

yst

em

s,so

cial asp

ect

s,

rese

arc

h m

eth

ods

20

% c

om

pute

r sc

ience

20

%

info

rmati

on

syst

em

s, s

oci

al

asp

ect

s,

rese

arc

h

meth

ods

40

% m

anagem

ent

scie

nce

and

eco

nom

ics

20

% inte

gra

tion

20

% c

om

pute

r sc

ience

10

% m

ath

em

ati

cs

2 y

ears

Maste

r3 y

ears

Bach

elo

r

at least six weeksinternship in a firm,preferably abroad

one semester abroad

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Informatik


1

2

3

4

5

6

Curriculum BachelorSemester

internship

mathematicsbasics of management science

and economics

computerscience

computerscience

IS, social aspects,research meth.


general management

general management

special aspects, e.g.finance, e-commerce …

special aspects

computerscience

mathematicsbasics of management science

and economicscomputerscience

com

pu

ter

scie

nce


IS, social aspects,

research meth.

Curriculum Master

computer science

informationsystems

managementspecials

project

1st semesterco

mp

ute

r sc

ien

ce management specials

specialisation computer science

specialisationinformation systems

management specials

Masterthesis

management specials

speci

alis

ati

on

info

rmati

on

sy

stem

s

info

rmati

on

syst

em

s

speca

lisa

tion

co

mp

ute

r sc

ien

ce2nd semester

perhaps abroad

3rd semesterperhaps abroad

4th semester

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Informatik

Teacher training in Rhineland-Palatinate


ed

uca

tion

scien

ce

first su

bje

ct (to b

e ta

ught a

t school)

seco

nd

subje

ct (to b

e ta

ught a

t school)

4th semester MEd

Bachelor of Education awarded

Master of Education awarded and state examination passed

1st semester BEd

2nd semester BEd

3rd semester BEd

4th semester BEd

5th semester BEd

6th semester BEd

1st semester MEd

2nd semester MEd

3rd semester MEd

differentkinds ofinternshipin differentkinds and levelsof school

common for futureteachers of all school types

partly differentfor futureteachersof differentschool types

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Informatik

Are we happy with the new system?

• The evaluation of the experience with the Bologna system in Germany is controversial:– higher workload for both teachers and students– more bureaucracy, better information for students– examination per term and per subject, no comprehensive

(oral) examination at the end of the programme– better and more graphic structure, less autonomy for

students– semester abroad for bachelor students nearly impossible– syllabi more transparent, module handbooks more

informative and reliable than any earlier course descriptions

– employability of bachelors in some disciplines (particularly in school education!) questionable, in others granted


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Informatik

Evaluating universities

• The object of evaluation (and quality assurance) is the core product of a university:– the responsible

• refers to responsibility towards students / disciplines / societies

– warranty • content-related and organisational securing of processes,• less than guarantee, more than just provision

– on a functional study process • not necessarily successful, as success can only be judged

ex post

– for all enrolled students

19/04/23 Quality assessment at the University of Koblenz-Landau

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Informatik

Identify evaluation goals

• quality aspects have to be defined – this is the task of the departments / faculties of a university who define the desired contents of a study programme

• departments / faculties include both professors/lecturers and students


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Guidelines for data collection

• quality assurance is an empirical process – empirical data about the courses offered and the progress of individual students have to be collected and analysed

• keep track of all offered courses with number of students participating, marks received by students and by teachers

• keep track of the progress of individual students


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Informatik

Indicators and instruments

• warranty: workload questionnaire (standardised)

• responsiveness: – achievement questionnaire (standardised)– narrative interviews and focus groups (non-

standardised)– discussion among the faculty members of a

study programme

• study process: statistical data of the examination office

• students: entrance questionnaire19/04/23 Quality assessment at the University of Koblenz-Landau

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Informatik

Questionnaires used• The questionnaire on workload and feasibility of studies (WLS;

– is a three-part questionnaire that is completed at different times during a running semester. This is done online. The students are asked by email to participate .

• The Trierer Inventory on lecture evaluation (TRIL) – is available in three versions (s. Appendix B): for evaluation of input events (usually lectures: TRIL2BM1), discussion events (usually

seminars: TRIL2BM2) and exercises (TRIL2BM3). The questionnaire is completed on paper in the lesson, ideally approx. 4-6 weeks before the end of the lecture period. Thus, the lecturers receive feedback in time to talk about it with their students.

• The questionnaire on achieving the learning objective – is the result of a multi-stage procedure. In a first step, the lecturers indicate the qualification objectives from the module description that

are relevant for their lectures. In teaching-related courses of study, this also includes whether or not the curricular standards of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate are implemented. In a second step, the lecturers phrase teaching objectives assigned to the qualification objectives. Then these learning objectives are rendered as a questionnaire by the method centre. Finally, the questionnaire is completed by the students around the end of the semester. The appendix includes an example for a lecturer questionnaire (Appendix C) and the resulting student questionnaire including the teaching objectives phrased by the lecturer (Appendix D).

• The initial studies survey (StEiB) – is used to ask freshmen on the transfer from school to university (selection of subject and location of studies, taking up studies and

usefulness of information given by university facilities), the study requirements (financing, dealing with typical initial problems; previous performance, acquisition of key competences in school and their relevance for studies) and objectives in studies. This questionnaire is to be distributed in large freshmen lessons and either completed on site (with the consent of the lecturer) or at home and handed in at a central office. Time for completion is approx. 30 minutes. The departments are able to add subject-specific questions.

• An alumni survey – is already regularly performed with all graduates of the state of Rhineland Palatinate by the Zentrum für Qualitätssicherung of the Mainz

university (ZQ, also see Hochschulevaluierungsverbund Südwest e.V.). Graduates of the university of Koblenz-Landau who completed university in 2005 were the first to take part in the survey. The survey includes not only information on subject, type and location of graduation, but also questions on a general final assessment of the studies (satisfaction with and success of studies, realisation of original objectives) and on the transfer from studies to working life, acquisition of key competences by the studies and their relevance in working life. Further graduates are to be asked in future. If applicable, surveys are to be performed by the universities directly in future. The departments are able to add subject-specific questions.


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Informatik

Collect data

• subjective evaluation of courses by students

• data about the progress of individual students

• distribution of – students per study programme and semester, – marks given in each module, – general marks at the final examination, – numbers of students in each course, – drop-out rates


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Explore and analyse data

• explore: simple statistics, mainly univariate

• analyse: find out dependencies between variables

• data mining: use different statistical methods for classifying students, teachers, courses …


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Informatik

Feedback results to the stakeholders

• discuss the student evaluation results among faculty members

• offer help to faculty members with negative evaluation results

• find out which students need mentoring• find out which modules are attractive /

difficult / boring … and which are not


Boxplots show the distribution of general marks given by students to teachers. The median of the best evaluated teacher is one standard deviation above the mean, the evaluation of the worst evaluated teacher is 2.5 standard deviations below the mean (-2 is good, +4 is bad).

best evaluated teacher ……………………….………………………………………. worst evaluated teacher

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Informatik

Our current electronic questionnaire

• Currently the computer science faculty uses an electronic questionnaire whose results look much like the following


informatik introducing bologna study programmes in a german university prof. dr. klaus g. troitzsch...

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