The Nordic Journal of STEM Education is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal publishing in the broad field of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Higher Education. ISSN 2535-4574
The Nordic Journal of STEM Education licenses all content of the journal under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) licence. This means, among other things, that anyone is free to copy and distribute the content, as long as they give proper credit to the author(s) and the journal. For further information, see Creative Commons website for human readable or lawyer readable versions. Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms: 1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. 2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. 3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access
The Tutorial Educational Program (TEP): A Structured Model for Student Engagement in Higher Education
This paper presents the Tutorial Educational Program (TEP), an initiative designed to enhance academic engagement through integrated experiences in teaching, research, and community outreach. Inspired by the Brazilian Programa de Educação Tutorial (PET) and adapted to a Swedish higher education context, TEP offers undergraduate and master’s students structured opportunities to participate in departmental activities while developing critical, collaborative, and leadership skills. The program addresses challenges such as low retention in technology-related fields and employs a selective admissions process that emphasizes academic performance, motivation, and gender balance. Students work as part-time assistants under faculty supervision across three interconnected pillars. TEP follows a cyclical operational methodology of recruitment, participation, evaluation, and transition. This study evaluates TEP using multi-stakeholder survey and interview data, showing that participants perceive gains in pedagogical competence, academic identity, research understanding, and time-management skills. Teachers and administrators report increased reliability, continuity, and reduced coordination workload, while broader benefits for departmental teaching and outreach are identified. Early experiences indicate other benefits, including reduced administrative workload, continuous teaching and outreach support, and development of transferable skills. These findings highlight the potential of structured mentorship programs to support student development, research readiness, and institutional collaboration in higher education.
Copyright (c) 2026 Claudio D. G. Linhares https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Student views on active learning in the Geoscience curriculum
Active learning is increasingly implemented in higher education, yet students' perspectives on this pedagogical approach remain diverse. This study explores geoscience students' views on active learning within a course at the University of Bergen (UiB) and in relation to their broader study program. Through longitudinal qualitative interviews with two student cohorts, we identified seven main categories related to active learning with few subcategories each: student views on specific active-learning approaches, on instructor characteristics, on assessment systems and exams, on feedback for learning, on prerequisites for active learning, and on active learning vs. other approaches. Four central conclusions were drawn. First, student views on active learning varied significantly, ranging from highly supportive to critical, expressing a diversity of views on active learning. Second, students distinguished between their opinions on active learning in theory and its practical execution, often expressing appreciation for its benefits despite challenges in adapting to new learning strategies. Third, students struggled with balancing autonomy and structured guidance, as active learning frequently disrupted their established study habits. Fourth, time played a crucial role in shaping student attitudes—initial frustration with active learning often gave way to long-term recognition of its effectiveness in fostering deeper learning. These findings suggest that successful implementation of active learning requires addressing student expectations, providing structured support, and considering the broader curricular context. The study highlights the need for longitudinal assessments of student perspectives to fully capture the evolving nature of their experiences with active learning.
Copyright (c) 2025 Robert Kordts, Kjersti Daae, Mahaut de Vareilles, Eirun Gandrud, Anne Digranes Årvik, Mirjam Sophia Glessmer https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Comparative judgement as a learning tool in university mathematics
Comparative judgement (CJ) draws on the idea that it is easier to judge which of two objects weighs more, than to judge the weight of one object. In education, CJ can be used to rank students’ responses to a task, as an alternative to assessing each response due to marking rubrics. Research has shown rankings made by students to be valid and reliable, and hence possible to use as a base for summative assessment. Moreover, research has indicated that assessment by CJ can serve as a learning activity for students, i.e., enhance students’ learning. This paper reports from an exercise in a calculus course, where the students judged each other’s responses by CJ. One of the purposes of the exercise was to explore whether the CJ-process would provide a learning opportunity for the students. The exercise was compulsory, but the results did not count towards their final grade. First, the students were required to respond to the conceptual task “How would you describe the derivative?” Their one-page responses were uploaded to the web engine No More Marking(NMM). NMM randomly selects pairings of responses, where students by a mouse click should judge which response shows the best understanding of the derivative. Each student should fulfil at least 11 such pairwise judgements. The research data contain students’ responses to the task (N = 64), output from NMM based on students’ judgements (N = 61), and student interviews (N = 5). However, the results of this paper are based mainly on data generated by the five interviewees. Excerpts from the interviews support that CJ can improve students’ learning. Despite this, output from NMM shows the interviewees spent rather short time on their judgements. This ambiguity reveals the question of whether active participation in CJ can improve students’ learning still needs further exploration.
Copyright (c) 2025 Niclas Larson https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Disruptive players: How Classroom Incivility impacts Educator Engagement and Performance
Research studies within higher education have often focused on student learning, and on the role of the educator in creating effective learning. In today’s increasingly student-focused interactive classroom, there is a heightened need to consider the role of the students, and their awareness of their influence on the learning environment and their effect on a lecturer’s drive and enthusiasm. Classroom incivility, which covers a wide range of negative student behaviour, is emerging as an increasingly problematic aspect within higher education. Even minor disturbances can accumulate to have significant impact on the lecturer’s confidence, motivation and enthusiasm. In course design we need to consider the classroom perhaps less like students with a teacher, and more like a sports team with a coach. The idea is ultimately to work together to achieve the desired learning goals, and the ability of a team to perform lies in the hands of both players and coach.
Copyright (c) 2025 Ingrid Anell https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Power of WIL: Advancing Work-Integrated Learning in Discipline-Based Higher Education Programs
Profession-oriented and discipline-based higher education programs differ significantly in implementing work-integrated learning (WIL). Discipline-based programs in fields like mathematics, biological and social sciences have only recently begun to integrate WIL and often lack comprehensive development. This umbrella review examines pedagogical strategies and key stages for advancing WIL in discipline-based curricula. Systematic searches across several databases yielded 1,651 abstracts published January 2000 to November 2023. These were screened, focusing on WIL in discipline-based programs. An in-depth review and thematic analysis of 11 selected reviews revealed an underrepresentation of discipline-based programs in WIL literature. Themes include curriculum design, assessment, learning outcomes, employability, satisfaction, internship stakeholders, international placements, and Indigenous students. The findings address barriers and promotors to WIL and can be used to support educators, practitioners, leaders, and researchers in enhancing WIL. Specifically, WIL should be integrated, relevant, and authentic, and it should involve all stakeholders, focus on pedagogics through constructive alignment, and emphasize learning as crucial for success.
Copyright (c) 2025 Monica Alterskjær Sundset, Ragnhild Sandvoll, Torstein Låg https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Conference proceedings - MNT-konferansen 2025
The Nordic Journal of STEM Education is proud to present the proceedings from the MNT Conference 2025. The theme for this year's conference was "Competence – more than the sum of knowledge and skills. How should we design educational pathways with a focus on competence?" These proceedings include 60 contributions on education, teaching, and learning in STEM from authors representing 19 different institutions from across Norway and abroad. Contributions - and their associated extended abstracts published in these proceedings - were in either English or a Norwegian language.
MNT Konferansen - Conference submissions
Copyright (c) 2025 The authors https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Understanding student sense of belonging in introductory STEM courses
Women have been found to experience lower sense of belonging compared to men in STEM classrooms, which can lead to underperformance and withdrawal from STEM programs. Sense of belonging is believed to impact how students respond to challenges, which can subsequently affect whether students remain engaged in their coursework and how they perform in the course. Most research about sense of belonging has occurred in the United States, and other countries remain understudied. Scandinavia is an interesting context because there is high gender equality broadly, but the same gender differences found elsewhere are present at Scandinavian universities, where more men earn STEM degrees than women. We studied students’ sense of belonging in four STEM courses at a university in Norway. We employed a mixed-methods study with a concurrent triangulation design and found that women had significantly lower sense of belonging compared to men, and that students with lower sense of belonging received lower course grades. We asked students an open-ended question about the challenges they faced in their courses and how they responded. We found that students with low sense of belonging disproportionately reported feeling overwhelmed and stressed. In their responses to the open-ended question, students shared desired changes to course structure and instruction. Based on those comments, we highlight evidence-based practices that instructors can use to improve their students’ sense of belonging.
Copyright (c) 2025 S.P. Hammarlund, E.M. Christiansen, M.K. Kiani, M.S. Glessmer, S. Cotner, R.A. Costello https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Working to overcome the fear of student discomfort and peer judgment while teaching for sustainability
How we teach is strongly influenced by the culture we teach in, especially what (we believe) our colleagues think is good and acceptable. Understanding the reluctance to changes in teaching practice, including fear of disapproval from colleagues and students, investigating and reappraising those fears, and starting to talk about alternative interpretations is a first step towards overcoming the inertia with inhibits changes in teaching practices that are urgently needed for a sustainable future. To start these conversations and work towards change, we here present a teaching situation. A teacher, author 1, stepped out of the culturally accepted role according to feedback from a colleague. Triggered by this feedback, the teacher questioned herself on whether this part of the lecture was appropriate and on how the students perceived the situation, and talked to another colleague, author 2, about the situation. To inform the reflection, we asked students for feedback. We speculate on and discuss the implications of their responses, and invite you to join the conversation.
Copyright (c) 2025 Mirjam Glessmer, Léa Lévy https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Metallmani: et engasjerende læringsspill om produksjon av metaller
Board games can be used as an engaging learning activity that can increase students’ knowledge, understanding, motivation, and build a positive learning environment. We have developed a new board game, Metallmani, where each player manages their own company within the metallurgical industry. While playing, players must buy raw materials and invest in various processing plants, pay to run the processes, sell the products, and deal with CO2 taxes and other societal issues. The winner is the one who has the most money when the game ends. The game was developed for use by students in the Bachelor program of Chemical Engineering but can also be used by upper secondary school students. Based on feedback from students (N = 45) the game provides the students with an opportunity to use Norwegian technical terms, gain an overview over the connections between metallurgical processes and sustainability, and increases interest in metallurgical processes. Students enjoy playing the game and find it fun. Using the game is both an academic and a social activity, providing opportunities for developing competences in a safe learning environment. There are also many opportunities to further develop the game and use it in various ways.
Copyright (c) 2025 I.G. Aakre, E.Y. Tokle; E. Vik; K. Kleveland https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Empowering Students: Transitioning to Self-Assessment of Written Exercises in Physics Courses
In Norwegian tertiary education, physics students typically spend considerable time on mandatory problem-solving assignments that they need to pass to qualify for the final exam. Frequently, the summative dimensions of these assessments are emphasized to a higher degree than the formative ones, which may limit the learning potential. In response, we modified these assignments by incorporating self-assessment, peer learning, and reflective practice, aiming to enhance formative feedback and student engagement. This paper reports on the implementation of these modified assignments in two physics courses at UiT the Arctic University of Norway. Using student responses to an end-of-semester survey (N=64), we explore how the students participated in and perceived the modified assignments and their outcomes. The results indicate a predominantly positive response and a sense of improved learning, especially among first-semester students. Nevertheless, problem areas were also identified, such as a persistent focus on getting the correct answers rather than the learning process, and challenges with group dynamics. We discuss the implications of these findings for refining the assignments and suggest directions for future research.
Self-Regulated Learning, Self-Assessment, Peer Learning, Feedback, mandatory assignments
Copyright (c) 2025 Børge Irgens, David Micheron, Ida Friestad Pedersen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Innføring av studentaktive læringsmetoder for å utvide studentenes forståelse av programmering
Many students associate programming with writing code in a programming language, but the programming process is much more than coding. Programming is a way of thinking, decomposing, and solving problems, where there is usually no single correct answer. In teaching programming subjects, it can sometimes be difficult to get students to plan and reflect on the choices they make when coding, and they often end up choosing the first solution they find. In this project, a pilot study was conducted where two different student-active learning methods were implemented in a programming course. The methods are intended to help students understand that programming is more than coding and to teach them various parts of the programming process. The two activities used in the project are brain teasers and oral assignment, both of which encourage creativity, reflection, and problem-solving among students.
Studentaktiv læring, programmering, problemløsning, grubleoppgaver, muntlig obligatorisk oppgave
Copyright (c) 2025 Tanita Fossli Brustad https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
STEM students prefer assessment practices known to reduce the impact of test anxiety
Undergraduate introductory STEM courses often rely on few, high-stakes exams to assess student learning. This assessment strategy engenders high test anxiety and negatively impacts academic performance. We know little about how students want to be assessed—particularly those who experience high test anxiety. Applying a humanist learning framework, we asked students at a university in Norway to envision their ideal assessment practice. Our analyses affirm that test anxious students performed worse in their STEM courses, and students with marginalized identities in STEM were more test anxious. Additionally, we found that students overwhelmingly want more assessments. We also found that first-generation students, a student group rarely studied in Norway, want different types of assessments to replace high-stakes exams. In sum, student preferences aligned with assessment practices known to reduce the impact of test anxiety. Our results support calls for creating STEM environments where student voices are valued.
assessments, first-generation students, humanist learning framework, introductory STEM courses, STEM equity, test anxiety
Copyright (c) 2025 Robin Costello, Sarah Hammarlund, Emily Christiansen, Kate Kiani, Mirjam Glessmer, Sehoya Cotner, Cissy Ballen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Short introductory videos for elaborative encoding of physics principles
Introductory videos play a vital role in enabling active learning in the flipped classroom model, but guidelines for their content and structure are lacking, especially regarding specific learning processes. To address this gap, we developed a series of introductory videos intended to stimulate elaborative encoding of new physics principles. Over 60 introductory videos were produced, each covering a single physics principle or definition. These videos featured a brief intro, a pretest with elaborative encoding questions, answers to each question, a posttest, and an equation retrieval prompt. In a course with approximately 150 students, we conducted student interviews (n = 13) and surveys from two cohorts (n = 50 and 44). The students varied in how and whether they engaged with the videos. Several students noticed a large difference in how much they learned from lectures. The students felt that the videos provided a good overview and made it easier to learn the content of the course. Furthermore, 73% of the survey respondents would be "very disappointed" if they lost access to the videos, underscoring their perceived importance in the learning process. Our framework for introductory videos in physics can make it easier for lecturers to incorporate a flipped classroom approach with videos.
Elaborative encoding, flipped classroom, physics education, instructional videos
Copyright (c) 2025 V. Gjerde https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Science students’ understanding of the nature of science in higher education: A Norwegian case study
Views of the Nature of Science (NOS) among science students in higher education is investigated in a Norwegian university. The research utilizes the Views of the Nature of Science questionnaire version D+ (VNOS-D+), conducting a comprehensive analysis of NOS perspectives among 41 participants in STEM courses during the autumn semester of 2023. An overall decent understanding of NOS was found among all participating science students, regardless of gender, country of origin or study program. The mean values of the results for each aspect of NOS fluctuate between 1.39 and 2.68 on a scale from 0 (inadequate), 1 (naïve), 2 (transitional), to 3 (adequate) and are distributed rather homogeneously (x̄ = 2.02), although the aspect of law and theory stands out for its prevalence of naïve responses (x̄ = 1.39). No significant improvement in NOS understanding was observed with increased academic tenure in this study. The study shows promising usefulness of the VNOS-D+ questionnaire in higher education, as a valuable tool for gaining standardized insights into NOS perspectives. This research contributes to the discourse on science education by examining science students’ understandings of NOS in higher education in a previously rarely examined location.
Copyright (c) 2024 Pascal Schaldach, Ragnhild Gya, Jorun Nylehn https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
On the relationship between students’ overall satisfaction with higher education STEM courses, and university teachers’ didactical practice. An empirical analysis
In this article, we discuss the relationship between students' overall satisfaction with higher education STEM courses (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), and the teachers' didactical practice. We analyzed student feedback from 4,683 digital course evaluations which spanned the period from fall 2020 to fall 2021 at the Faculty of Science and Technology (TN-faculty), University of Stavanger (UiS). Additionally, we collected 1854 open-ended written responses in spring and fall 2022, and conducted two focus group interviews in spring 2023 with eight students from the same population. We raise the research questions: What is the connection between students´ overall satisfaction with STEM courses, found in an institutional student evaluation procedure at UiS, and the university teachers’ didactical practice? And what can we learn from students´ evaluations and feedback that is relevant to how we perceive and strive for teaching and educational quality enhancement in higher education? Our analysis shows that there are strong correlations between students´ overall satisfaction, the evaluation questions, and how they understand what being prepared for teaching means.
Copyright (c) 2024 E. Abrahamsen, D. Husebø, J.T. Kvaløy, A. Alhourani https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Experiences with an interactive boardgame that teaches elements of a basic automatic control course
Games are key pedagogical activities that engage students in problem-solving, critical thinking, and analytical ways of thinking. This paper introduces how we integrated Zendo, a game of inductive logic, into our teaching practices. To explore the impact, we collected the data from students in their active engagement with the interactive boardgame learning environment using a quantitative survey as well as an open-ended questionnaire where 16 students documented their in-context experiences, perceptions, and responses. We analysed the quantitative data through descriptive analysis while inductively coding the qualitative data to reveal the impact of the game on the students. The quantitative analysis showed a positive impact of the game on five different constructs related to learning, such as affective factors, collaborative learning, higher order thinking, and metacognition, while the qualitative data revealed four categories including low stake learning environment, collaboration and socio-cultural influences, awareness of own inductive learning, and inspiration for learning, supporting traditional approaches. These appeared to be aligned with the sociocultural perspective, based on the idea that social interaction plays a crucial role in learning. The collected experiences show that games may supplement traditional homework, providing a learning environment that triggers students’ cognitive (reflect and internalize) and social (interact and socialize) processes, an essential supporting element of learning. Through the lens of social culture, it not only enhances student engagement but also facilitates collaborative learning experiences. Additionally, within the framework of socio-constructivism, gamification serves as a powerful tool to foster active participation, social interaction, and the co-creation of knowledge among students.
Copyright (c) 2025 D. Rotondo, P. Jimarkon, D. Efjestad Fjereide, K. Dikilitas https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Student-Produced Films in Laboratory Courses as Learning Incentive and Exam Option
An increasingly digitalized society demands that both educators and students master the use of digital tools in all teaching and learning activities. In laboratory-based courses, the practical elements of teaching are difficult to digitalize without sacrificing the important hands-on experience, leaving the remaining components such as seminars, reports or exams as possibilities where the classical concepts can be supplemented or replaced by digital solutions. In this paper we report on the use of digital film production as an alternative option for written laboratory reports and a means to intensify the learning outcome from practical experiments. Films were produced by students of the Bachelor course “Green Biotechnology and Bioenergy” on selected parts of the course. Simple and budget-friendly measures were implemented to carry out the filming. The films replaced the laboratory reports for the respective experiments. A seminar served as an interactive platform for the students to present their films to their fellow students and exchange feedback before the films were assessed by evaluators as part of the examination. The pedagogical benefits of this teaching method and its suitability as an assessment form were later analyzed to shed light on the question if student-produced films are a promising way to impart digital expertise effectively while acquiring practical skills in an informative and creative manner. Beyond advocating student-produced films as a possible exam concept for practical courses, our article demonstrates that self-executed filming was able to provide a more creative, interactive, and thus more motivating teaching atmosphere with mutually advantageous learning experiences for all parties involved.
GoPro camera, laboratory course, student produced films
Copyright (c) 2025 Liv-Irene Berglund, Kirsten Krause https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Formative feedback through digital MCQs: Students´ perceived learning in a bachelor-level physiology course
Feedback is defined as a process in which students can benefit from information about their own performance to improve the quality of their work and learning strategies. This case study examines how students in a bachelor-level physiology course experienced their learning when receiving formative feedback through digital multiple-choice questions (MCQs) in the web-based learning platform Canvas. The poorly attended colloquia in the course were replaced by a compulsory assignment comprising eight modules of MCQs. The MCQs could be repeated multiple times by the students providing ample low threshold, low risk opportunities to test knowledge and understanding and to receive feedback on whether they had achieved the learning objectives of the course (“feedback loops”). A student survey at the end of the course underlined the potential of using MCQs for automated feedback and learning. Thematic analysis of semi-structured one-on-one interviews with eight random students from the course identified two main themes related to student learning: the importance of the MCQs format and how student characteristics can affect MCQ-aided learning. Challenges were related to the formulations of the MCQs, and the feedback received, and to procrastination of the students’ work with the MCQs reducing the learning outcome of the work. We discuss the potential of further developing and integrating online formative feedback loops through MCQs as a systematic approach to enhance learning and emphasize the importance of student and teacher feedback literacy when working with assessments tasks such as MCQs.
Copyright (c) 2024 Monica A Sundset https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Engineering Students’ Experiences with GeoGebra and Student-Produced Screencast Assignments in Mathematics
This paper reports on engineering students’ experiences from the introduction of GeoGebra/screencast assignments in two Mathematics 1 courses for engineering students. The purpose of the assignments was to help students gain a deeper conceptual understanding of mathematics by letting the students explore the mathematics in GeoGebra and to increase student engagement by asking them to present their knowledge in a screencast. The results show that students believe that they gain a better understanding of the topics compared to normal calculation assignments but that some challenges such as discomfort when presenting orally and the time required are prominent.
Mathematics, GeoGebra, Student-produced screencasts
Copyright (c) 2025 Per Persson https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Teaching Linear Algebra to Engineering Students in Two Different Educational Settings:
The present paper holds a twofold perspective on a new teaching format in a linear algebra course given to engineering students. The design resembles the flipped classroom, but with various adjustments. The first part highlights the basis on which the design was built, both research results and practical issues, but also the implementation of the teaching. It did not proceed quite as expected. The second part focuses on the outcome. It concentrates on students’ feedback on learning in the course. To inform this part, answers to a questionnaire is related to results from a previous linear algebra course that was taught traditionally, and to students’ interpretation of achievements. Drawing both on the analyses of data and research literature, an adjusted teaching format is suggested to better facilitate for learning. This contributes to knowledge on how research-based teaching arrangements may develop.
Copyright (c) 2024 Ragnhild Johanne Rensaa https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Different Assessment Methods in a Civil Engineering Course
Due to the outbreak of Covid-19, there has been a need for exploring different assessment methods and approaches to teaching. The purpose of the present paper is to share the experiences and discuss three different assessment methods that have been used in the same university course within civil engineering studies over the last three years. The three assessment methods which have been explored are (i) a conventional four-hour unseen exam with calculation tasks performed at the campus, (ii) a 24-hour home exam with calculation tasks and (iii) a portfolio-based assessment with an additional oral exam. The choice of assessment method clearly influenced the grades where the portfolio-based assessment with the additional oral exam produced more than a grade higher average than the two other assessment methods. Interestingly, there were no indications of gender differences between the assessment methods. Females and males achieved similar average grades in all the introduced modes of assessments. Based on comparisons between the portfolio results and the following oral exam there are indications that the improved grades were not only a function of an “easier assessment method” but might also be because of better performance which may partly be induced by the mode of assessment.
Copyright (c) 2024 Vidar Hellum https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Automatisk rettet eksamen i generell kjemi
En god avsluttende eksamen vurderer i hvilken grad intendert læringsutbytte har blitt oppnådd på en objektiv, reproduserbar og helst autentisk måte. Det er imidlertid lite tilfredsstillende hvis en faglærer bruker mye tid på vurdering av læring framfor vurdering for læring underveis i semesteret. Derfor kan det være attraktivt å utforske muligheter med en digital automatisk rettet eksamen, spesielt i emner med mange studenter. I dette bidraget beskriver vi hvorfor og hvordan vi har lagt om en eksamen i et emne i generell kjemi fra en sekstimers bruk-og-kast-eksamen på papir til en tretimers gjenbrukbar automatisk rettet digital eksamen. Vi drøfter også fordeler og ulemper med å bruke en slik eksamen som skoleeksamen eller hjemmeeksamen, systematisk kvalitetssikring av eksamensoppgavene, spørsmål knyttet til sensorens rolle i sensur av en automatisk rettet eksamen, graden av autentisitet for en slik eksamensform og avslutningsvis også overførbarhet til andre fag. Selv om en automatisk rettet eksamen ikke vil være den beste løsningen i alle fag og på alle nivåer, så mener vi at den kan være verdt å vurdere som eksamensform i grunnleggende realfaglige emner med mange studenter.
Copyright (c) 2024 Maarten Beerepoot, Aleksi Kosonen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
A roadmap for developing higher permafrost education in Norden
We perform a first permafrost higher education curriculum survey in Norden. Permafrost is part of the education within both bio- and geosciences and engineering, and the variation in educational activities reflect this. Five permafrost-specific geoscience and engineering permafrost courses exist, whereas there are 23 bachelor and 25 master courses with a permafrost content ranging from 1% to 50 %. The is large potential and clear needs for closer permafrost teaching collaboration. This could focus on permafrost course development, teaching methods, sharing practical experiences including fieldwork and further developing the educational offer. Such collaboration could establish: 1) An online, joint Nordic specific course on permafrost, sharing the special permafrost competences existing across the universities using digital teaching tools, 2) Nordic collaboration on developing joint, both general but also specific, PhD courses on permafrost, 3) Lifelong education in permafrost, and 4) Internships a part of active permafrost education to better meet the future employers and society’s needs. The Nordic region might also gain largely from establishing an overview-providing interdisciplinary joint Nordic course aiming to characterize the region and its diversity broadly including both natural and social sciences, and naturally covering different topics including permafrost and seasonally frozen ground. The mapping done for this paper will function as a first overall roadmap catalogue providing an overview of all offered courses on permafrost. The overall outcome of our survey shows large potential for increased and deeper inter-university collaboration for further developing joint permafrost higher education both in the form of courses and other educational activities between institutions across Norden, and potentially with ambitions for joint permafrost degrees between several institutions. Based on the presented results and the mapped different future plans for permafrost education across Norden, we discuss the implications of our results, specifically concerning the potential for increased collaboration in Nordic permafrost education. These focus on permafrost course development, teaching methods, sharing practical experiences including fieldwork and further developing the educational offer. In more detail increased collaboration could establish: 1) An online, joint Nordic-specific course on permafrost, sharing the special permafrost competences existing across the universities using digital teaching tools, 2) Nordic collaboration on developing joint PhD courses on permafrost, 3) Lifelong education in permafrost, and 4) Internships as part of active permafrost education to better meet the needs of future employers and society. The Nordic region might also gain largely from establishing an interdisciplinary joint Nordic course, aiming to characterize the region and its diversity broadly and including both natural and social sciences, and naturally covering different topics including permafrost and seasonally frozen ground.
Copyright (c) 2024 Hanne Hvidtfeld Christiansen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Studentaktiv læring med store studentgrupper: flervalgsoppgaver i sentrum
To viktige prinsipper for å øke studentenes læring i undervisning er aktiv deltagelse og formativ vurdering. Innføring av disse prinsippene i undervisning med store studentgrupper kan imidlertid by på utfordringer, særlig i nettbasert undervisning. En mulig løsning kan være bruk av flervalgsoppgaver som diagnostisk testing med innsamling av svarene og påfølgende formativ vurdering, der flervalgsoppgavene er satt i sentrum av undervisningen. I dette bidraget er vi opptatt av følgende to spørsmål: Hvordan påvirker denne undervisningsformen studentenes oppmerksomhet, motivasjon og opplevd læringsutbytte? Hva er fordeler og ulemper med gruppediskusjon som en del av opplegget? Vi har introdusert undervisning med flervalgsoppgaver i sentrum både med gruppediskusjon i et fysikkemne og uten gruppediskusjon i et kjemiemne. I en felles skriftlig studentevaluering i nettbaserte implementasjoner i de to emnene rapporter studentene høyt opplevd læringsutbytte, økt motivasjon til forberedelse og deltagelse, samt at flervalgsoppgavene hjelper å holde oppmerksomhet oppe. Vi ser også at andel riktige svar på de aller fleste oppgaver øker betydelig etter gruppediskusjon. Økt tidsbruk med gruppediskusjon fører imidlertid til at antall oppgaver som behandles halveres. Undervisning med flervalgsoppgaver i sentrum er fleksibel fordi det kan implementeres i ulike fag, både fysisk og på nett, både med og uten gruppediskusjon og uten skaleringsproblemer med større studentgrupper, som kan være fordelt over ulike campuser. Dermed kan undervisningsformen overføres til mange andre begynneremner i STEM-fagene.
Copyright (c) 2024 David Micheron, Maarten Beerepoot https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Exam as an instrument for student-active learning in STEM education – An example from a reliability analysis course
Exams have a powerful role in higher education typically in the form of summative assessment, where the goal is to evaluate student learning at the end of the course; to test whether the students have achieved the learning objectives. Beyond representing a final activity in the course, exams have a role in giving students exam-relevant problems to solve, and to communicate a set of standards. It can be argued that this problem-solving activity contributes to learning and will make the students better equipped to perform well on the final exam. From the teacher’s perspective, the designing of exams represents a task creating specific awareness to the course content and student capabilities. In this paper, focus is on student activity and in-depth learning, where we investigate a potential to use exams more actively in learning activities prior to the summative assessment. A way suggested in this paper and tested for a reliability analysis (probability and statistics oriented) course, is to have the students design on their own an exam set with solutions, preferably in groups. The students have access to supervision and are given feedback on their product. There is a rationale that this activity may add motivation, and results indicate a positive learning benefit from the initiative, which is also supported by feedback collected from the students in the course evaluation. Main feedback being that it makes them see problems from different perspectives and taking a more active role. Besides, the format to work together with other students on solving a low-stake but value-adding task without direct influence on their grade was appreciated. The way allows for creative thinking and reflection. It extends the traditional use of exams and represents a way in line with problem-based learning thinking.
Copyright (c) 2024 Jon T Selvik, Eirik B Abrahamsen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Ingeniørstudenters opplevelse av gruppeavtale: Er det lurt å skrive en avtale?
Samarbeidsferdigheter er viktig i arbeidslivet, og gruppearbeid er en utbredt læringsaktivitet i høyere utdanning. Ulike forventninger blant gruppe-medlemmene kan skape problemer for gruppearbeidet, og en gruppeavtale kan være et verktøy for å oppnå en felles forståelse i gruppa og unngå konflikter. Evalueringsskjema (n= 498) viser at ingeniørstudenter har positive erfaringer med å skrive en gruppeavtale i Ingeniørfaglig innføringsemne første semester, men studentene bruker gruppeavtalen i ulik grad. I studentintervjuer (n= 3) blir gruppeavtalen sin rolle for å unngå eller løse eventuelle konflikter dratt frem, og det kommer frem at gruppene utarbeider avtalen på ulike måter. Evalueringsskjemaet viser at et betydelig flertall av studentene sier seg enig i påstandene «Det var lurt å skrive en avtale» og «Jeg vil ta initiativ til å lage en slik avtale i fremtiden». Studentene som oppgir å ha brukt gruppeavtalen aktivt er mer positive til både gruppeavtalen, i hvilken grad medstudentene bidro i gruppearbeidet, og prosjektet for øvrig.
Copyright (c) 2024 Iselin Grav Aakre, Marte Sørtveit Mørkve https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
How formal initiatives to improve teaching can lead to more significant informal conversations and increased sharing practice
University teachers grow professionally from conversations about learning and teaching with colleagues. Significant informal conversations can be facilitated through formal activities initiated from the institutional side. This case-study shows how a formal institutional initiative to enhance educational quality has facilitated more significant informal conversations. Such conversations power constructive feedback to the organisation, improve the formal quality development work at the institutional level, and increase the use of collegial experiences across the institution. We identify the formal initiative “Collegial sharing sessions” as particularly efficient for fuelling significant informal conversations within and across departments.
Copyright (c) 2023 Pernille Bronken Eidesen, Oddfrid T. K. Førland, Lena M. Håkansson, Hanne H. Christiansen, Tina Dahl, Elise Strømseng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Gender inequality in the academic context is influenced by implicit bias – namely the process of automatic associations. Implicit gender biases might influence teaching, assessment, review, and recruitment processes and hence equality within higher education. Data on the extent to which implicit gender bias in relation to career choices is present in the general population has been collected during many years in the web-based Project Implicit but has not, to the best of our knowledge, yet been investigated among teaching staff in a STEM-focused faculty at a Swedish university. In this study, we measured the implicit gender bias of 51 participants with teaching experience, ranging from doctoral students to professors at the Faculty of Engineering at Lund University (LTH). Our results show that implicit gender bias – where men are more closely associated with STEM subjects and women with liberal arts subjects – is present, even though the majority did not indicate beforehand that they explicitly associate either men or women with STEM. We further show that our results compare well to those of Project Implicit. The main takeaways from this paper are: there is a widespread issue of implicit gender bias among teaching staff at LTH and the population at large; and there is a dire need for increased awareness of such mechanisms to approach the goal of a gender-equal academic environment.
Subtle bias, subconscious bias, equality, stereotypes, implicit attitudes, diversity, higher education, teaching, IAT
Copyright (c) 2025 J. Lindström Månefjord, J. Åström, J. Allansson https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Good traditions should be followed! One such tradition is that Nordic Journal of STEM Education publishes a special volume with papers prepared based on presentations at the biennial MNT (STEM) conference. In line with this volume 8 of the journal is dedicated to articles discussing topics that were presented at the MNT conference in Stavanger in March 2023. The conference attracted a record number of high-quality abstract submissions – far more presentations than we possibly could fit into the two-day program. The scientific review committee therefore had to face a tough challenge to select presentations that could get a slot time for an oral presentation. Many good contributions were therefore presented as posters during the two days. The record interest for contributing with presentations at the conference was also accompanied by a record crowd of participants. Thank you to everybody who came to Stavanger for the conference and a very warm thank you to alle the local organizers making the conference a success! When we meet again in two years’ time it is NTNU’s turn to host the conference. We wish them good luck with their preparations, and we are already looking forward to the next MNT conference in 2025! The all-time high participation at the MNT conference tells us that the interest in learning and sharing knowledge on how to conduct good education for our students is growing. It is very enjoyable to see that, and we know that our subjects are key in order to solve many of the challenges that the society is facing. We hope that the papers published in this volume will be inspirational!
Copyright (c) 2023 Thomas Gjesteland; Magne Olav Sydnes https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Informal Inferential Reasoning on Simple Linear Regression Encouraging Critical Thinking
Informal inferential reasoning (IIR), described as making evidence-based generalizations about a population based on samples, is considered important for the development of argumentation-, inference-, critical thinking - and aggregate thinking abilities. This article aims to explore how undergraduate students’ IIR can develop in an inquiry problem-solving session on simple linear regression, through individual think-aloud protocols with follow-up conversations with five students. Our findings suggest that enabling and supporting the students to grapple with their own hypotheses is important for their development of IIR encouraging critical thinking. From initial hypotheses with limited argumentation and little regard to the probabilistic nature of statistical inferences, the students’ reasoning evolved in terms of making probabilistic generalizations from data when they were given time and concurrent probing to elaborate on, and question, their own arguments and inferences. We also suggest that in addition to emphasize the signal in the noise, giving attention to the noise around the signal can be fruitful for their IIR.
Copyright (c) 2024 Marte Bråtalien, Margrethe Naalsund https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0