Dr. Dan Y. Jacobsen: The LAOS-project at NTNU; UNIQUAL Conference

2 Overview: –The Norwegian Quality Reform –More resources are needed –Previous experiences with student resouces –Lessons learned –Keys to a theoretical rationale for the project –The acronym LAOS –The LAOS-project; an institutional responsibility –The term “learning assistant” –Tasks for learning assistants –The LAOS training model –Two major changes –A preliminary evaluation –Some dilemmas

Dr. Dan Y. Jacobsen: The LAOS-project at NTNU; UNIQUAL Conference The Norwegian quality reform, some key issues: –A shift in focus from teaching to learning –Tighter follow-up of the individual student. Obligations on both sides are stated in individual “contracts”, however not legally binding. –An increase in individual tutoring. –More exams underway (formative evaluation) to inform students about progress towards the learning goals. –Portfolio evaluations are encouraged and “grand final exams” ought to be reduced

Dr. Dan Y. Jacobsen: The LAOS-project at NTNU; UNIQUAL Conference More resources are needed: –The trivial side of the reform medal is the obvious need for more resources –There is a considerable lack of academic- scientific human resources within most disciplines to meet the student-centred learning needs of the quality reform –This is so even with better budgets –Talented students could be the necessary answer to these challenges

Dr. Dan Y. Jacobsen: The LAOS-project at NTNU; UNIQUAL Conference Previous experiences at NTNU: –Student assistants in the civil engineering faculties –Students guiding groups of younger students in the faculties of humanities and social sciences –Students as PBL tutors at the medical faculty –Students serving as tutors at the “experts in team” initiative

Dr. Dan Y. Jacobsen: The LAOS-project at NTNU; UNIQUAL Conference The lesson learned: –Students can do a good job in these settings if they are given proper training –Students without such training are more likely to do a less productive job in terms of learning, e.g. they tend to give solutions rather than providing a climate for learning

Dr. Dan Y. Jacobsen: The LAOS-project at NTNU; UNIQUAL Conference Keys to the theoretical rationale: –Sociocultural learning theory –Theoretical offspring from research on problem- based learning –Co-operative learning –Cognitive congruence –Knowledge about tutor conduct and learning guidance

Dr. Dan Y. Jacobsen: The LAOS-project at NTNU; UNIQUAL Conference LAOS is (Norwegian and) short for: Learning Assistant Training System; –We wanted to create a system for training learning assistants at a large scale –This training should build on prevailing educational ideas in the Norwegian Quality Reform –We wanted the system to be a permanent part of the NTNU organisation

Dr. Dan Y. Jacobsen: The LAOS-project at NTNU; UNIQUAL Conference The LAOS-project; an institutional responsibility The “board” of the project organisation for the quality reform The university board Committee for Quality in learning ICT in learning Quality insurance systems Academic programmes LAOS -project Section for university pedagogy

Dr. Dan Y. Jacobsen: The LAOS-project at NTNU; UNIQUAL Conference The term “learning assistant”: –By using this particular term we wanted to underline these students’ responsibility to be focused on their role as catalysts for learning; i.e. they should assist their peers in learning and facilitate group learning processes –The term should have a meaning outside the university (brand or trade mark).

Dr. Dan Y. Jacobsen: The LAOS-project at NTNU; UNIQUAL Conference Tasks for the learning assistant: –Tutoring younger students in group learning settings, e.g. process tutoring in PBL-tutorials or other forms of co-operative learning –Supporting students involved in writing processes or otherwise producing documents later to be used in portfolios for assessment –A certain degree of guidance (help?) related to subject matter –Assisting teaching and tutoring in laboratory settings –Be a mediator between the students and the professors, institute.

Dr. Dan Y. Jacobsen: The LAOS-project at NTNU; UNIQUAL Conference Tasks for the learning assistant: –Preparing equipment, models etc. to be used in laboratory teaching –Formative feed-back on learning tasks –Participate in summative evaluation at the end of the semester, e.g.projects, portfolios or exams –Be mediators between students and scientific staff –Participate i regular meetings and planning with the scientific staff and the unit

Dr. Dan Y. Jacobsen: The LAOS-project at NTNU; UNIQUAL Conference The LAOS training model: –We wanted to develop an influential tool for the development of quality in learning –We wanted to create a training programme available to all the learning assistants at NTNU –Furthermore, we wanted the same training model to be shared by all units at NTNU –This model should comprise of a shared focus as well as of issues specific for each department –We also wanted the competence for training the learning assistants to be a part of the institutional competence at NTNU

Dr. Dan Y. Jacobsen: The LAOS-project at NTNU; UNIQUAL Conference The recruits; –We wanted to attract the talented students from each department –and also to “recycle” the successful ones –The role as learning assistant should be associated with a certain status, thus making it more attractive –The students involved should be rewarded, either money-wise or in terms of study-credits

Dr. Dan Y. Jacobsen: The LAOS-project at NTNU; UNIQUAL Conference Training goals: –train the learning assistants according to standards defined in the “quality reform” –increase the assistants understanding of learning and thus develop their ability to tutor younger students based on their own experiences –the training should contain elements which are also of general interest to the students such as process-oriented writing and group mentoring –there should be coherence between the the general and specific parts of the curriculum developing the candidates into well functioning assistants at the different faculties or departments (extract from the official curriculum)

Dr. Dan Y. Jacobsen: The LAOS-project at NTNU; UNIQUAL Conference Programme organising: General part - Goal: understanding learning processes 12 hours General part - Goal: understanding learning processes 12 hours Specific part- Goal: understanding “local” assignments and learning procedures 8 hours Content related to subject matter on each faculty or department. Each unit is responsible Content related to subject matter on each faculty or department. Each unit is responsible -Tutor roles -Process oriented writing -Reflections on learning and learning processes -Tutor roles -Process oriented writing -Reflections on learning and learning processes

Dr. Dan Y. Jacobsen: The LAOS-project at NTNU; UNIQUAL Conference Five moduls: GENERAL PART GENERAL PART SPECIFIC PART Training integrated with work as learning assistants during the semester to ensure integration between theory and practice Modul 1 Modul 2 Modul 3 Modul 4 Modul 5

Dr. Dan Y. Jacobsen: The LAOS-project at NTNU; UNIQUAL Conference Two major changes from this plan were made: –Integrated training (over the semester) was abandoned: This happened mostly because the staff wanted the learning assistants to be fully trained when entering the learning-rooms –Module five was changed from “reflections on learning” to more locally “tailor made” contents This happened because the different departments wanted further individualisation as to their needs and the particular needs of their learning assistants. The focus was on pedagogical matters.

Dr. Dan Y. Jacobsen: The LAOS-project at NTNU; UNIQUAL Conference A project challenged by differences in learning cultures? Gløshaugen campus: Natural Sciences and engineering Dragvoll campus : Humanities and social sciences

Dr. Dan Y. Jacobsen: The LAOS-project at NTNU; UNIQUAL Conference A preliminary evaluation shows: –Dragvoll student are more satisfied with the programme than the Gløshaugen students. –Females are more satisfied with the programme than males –Obviously this has to do with the learning style and also individual needs in the different groups as compared with the content of the programme

Dr. Dan Y. Jacobsen: The LAOS-project at NTNU; UNIQUAL Conference A small illustration: (from Hårvik 2003) In the evaluation the students were asked about the usefulness of the module on process-oriented writing : –A Dragvoll student: …must under no circumstance be cut out. At least not for us Dragvoll students! Clearly the most useful segment of the general part based on the fact that we worked on real problems. Useful related to giving the students actual tips for writing. Excessively positive. –A Gløshaugen student: It becomes relatively irrelevant for a math. student assistant (sic) to learn about process oriented writing. Parts of the training could perhaps be more related to the tasks you actually do, math and other assignment solving subjects are after all a large part of the NTNU

Dr. Dan Y. Jacobsen: The LAOS-project at NTNU; UNIQUAL Conference Some dilemmas: –Different cultures can mean different challenges and thus different possibilities as to developing the role –Is there, for instance, a conflict between learning traditions in each department and the educational ideals of the quality reform? –Are there differences between the students’ expectations and the role as learning assistants? –Is there coherence between the training programme and the actual tasks for learning assistants in each department? –Could there be a conflict between short range needs and the long term goals, i.e. developing a new role? –To what extent have the professors been involved in cordinating the training for students in their own department (subject)?

Dr. Dan Y. Jacobsen: The LAOS-project at NTNU; UNIQUAL Conference