Tema “Basic Communication and Teaching” 3 ECTS A pedagogical course for new teachers and teaching assistants Going online!?

A majority of the participants are doctoral students who teach during their assignment. According to the Higher Education Ordinance all doctoral students who teach must take a basic pedagogical course like this. But, just like any doctoral student anywhere, they know what they must focus on to reach a degree, and it isn’t teaching or teaching courses…

Why online? Huge workload Unpredictable and irregularly varying workloads Not always supported by their department How great wouldn’t it be for them to take the course, right when they need it (to receive help and guidance through their first teaching steps) and/or when they have the time to work with it Also, it is harder to fill the English version of the course with enough participants, but we must at the same time provide it in English for those who need it

These are the main issues I now struggle with and that I would like you to help me with: I do not want to loose the wonderful community a course like this provides: doctoral students with different backgrounds and different specializations share experiences on teaching and learning (a topic seldom discussed elsewhere) I do not want them to loose the great opportunity to receive instant feedback and discussions on their thoughts and actions from me, other teachers and from other course participants I do not want to loose the safe, respectful and inspiring environment we create together when we meet face to face How can I keep the group work where a mixed group with shared interests (labs, project works, seminars…) perform a field study with interviews, and present their findings on a 20 minutes lecture where they must involve the listeners? How can we make sure we will not walk backwards in our work with making the supervisors understand how important this course is? Maybe they think that they have won the battle? “Excellent, now you can take the course on the beach this summer”

Thanks for listening and helping out with the development of GKU online! Anna-Karin Högfeldt