Instructions for organisers and supervisors of Langnet courses

based on the memorandum prepared by the Langnet Education Committee (Marja-Liisa Helasvuo, Merja Koskela ja Heini Lehtonen) in March 2009. See also below: information for organizers of Langnet sub-programme seminars!

Planning and launching a course

• The earlier even tentative information about a course can be given, the better doctoral students in various life circumstances and stages of research can make plans to participate.
• Information about the credits obtainable from the course and the criteria for setting the scope of the course should be available well in advance of the course. The credits obtainable from the courses must be commensurate and must comply with Langnet’s general policy on the awarding of credits.
• The courses may offer optional numbers of credits for completion.
• In the course presentation and at the beginning of the course, the course objectives should be stated explicitly and should answer questions such as: What does the course and its assignments aim to achieve and what are the learning objectives? Doctoral students may also be encouraged to set their own objectives for the course.
• As the doctoral students’ research topics and methods are varied, the courses should feature a variety of approaches: one and the same broad topic can be approached through various frameworks provided that a suitable selection of lecturers and teachers are chosen for the course.
• When selecting preliminary reading and designing the course, the instructors and organisers should take into account that the doctoral students’ knowledge of and competence in the topic of the course may vary. The course description should indicate what basic knowledge and skills will prove useful on the course.
• The methods of completing the course should support the students’ primary goal, i.e., writing the doctoral dissertation; course assignments which will allow the student to receive feedback for a text or presentation related to his or her own research topic will be valuable. On the other hand, consideration must also be given to the provision of a diverse linguistic education as well as preparation for future doctoral-level assignments.
• Course assignments must be carefully considered and explicit instructions must be provided. The assignments should advance the students’ research or provide them with the skills considered essential in research or doctoral-level jobs.
• It is recommended that efficient use be made of tools such as Moodle for course communication, distribution of preliminary reading, handing in course assignments and for providing feedback.
• Course literature should be readily available to all doctoral students.
• As the research topics of the doctoral students vary, there should be some degree of choice in the preliminary reading for the course.

Implementation of a course

• Organisers and instructors are highly encouraged to favour teaching methods that will activate the doctoral students:
  •The length of an uninterrupted lecture should not exceed 1.5 hours and should ideally be shorter.
  •Lectures can be animated through questions and joint or group discussions (which should be summarised for the entire class) or through brief reading, writing or analysis assignments (which should be summarised for the entire class). The mind stays alert and active when the course day includes varied working methods!
  •Presentations by individual students or presentations of groupwork completed in advance may alternate in contact teaching with the presentations of invited lecturers.
  •The teaching methods and learning assignments should encourage the students to actively think for themselves, formulate questions, discuss and compare new perspectives with prior knowledge.
• A feasible timetable must be planned well in advance. Sufficient time should be allowed for breaks.
• Students should be allowed brief period of reflection at the end of the course to focus on what they learned during the course. This matter can be discussed by inviting every participant to say a few words or the participants can discuss it in groups or online using tools such as Moodle. This will highlight the learning process and make the students aware of the relationship between the objectives and outcomes of the course.

Feedback

• Doctoral students must be given appropriate feedback for all written assignments and oral presentations. If possible, the feedback could be given in a consultation or using online tools so that the doctoral student can ask questions about the feedback.
• After the course, doctoral students must provide feedback on the course and evaluate their own learning.

Guidelines for assessing the workload of Langnet courses

The Education Committee recommends that the total scope of all Langnet courses be at least 5 credits. The table below presents an outline of how the course workload can be calculated. The numbers of hours serve as a guide only and depend on the topic of the course and the chosen teaching methods. The supervisors responsible for the course may refer to the table when planning the implementation of the course together with any lecturers.

Information for organizers of Langnet
sub-programme seminars
Updated 160608/UV

Coming later