By Uffe Kjærulff, Vice Head of Department
The Board of Directors at Aalborg University has decided to establish a new cross-disciplinary PBL teaching and research unit to ensure that Aalborg University remains leading in PBL research and PBL pedagogical practice, nationally and internationally.
At the Department of Computer Science, we fully support the continuous development of the "Aalborg Model" for problem-based learning. For this reason, we launch several internal initiatives to help both students and staff achieve and enhance the needed competences related to PBL.
This spring, we offer PBL workshops to all CS students on the 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th semesters for the first time. The workshops are organized to support the students in achieving transferrable PBL skills; i.e., skills that can be employed during their studies at AAU and later on in their professional careers.
The purpose of the workshop for the 8th-semester students is to help them formulate their individual, accumulated PBL skills achieved during their studies and to provide advice on actively using the skills in their job-seeking and in their professional career in general. You can find more information on the PBL workshops on Moodle.
As for staff, the PBL Development Group at CS has proposed a start-up programme for new project supervisors that will be employed for the first time in the autumn of 2021. The programme has three entry levels depending on the experience of the new supervisor. The programme aims to align experience with expectations such that project supervision turns out successfully for both the new supervisor and the students.
Digitalisation and PBL
On another note, we have launched a number of initiatives within the frame of the AAU Digitalisation project regarding education and PBL (PBL Digital@AAU). In 2020, six smaller projects were carried out at CS, three of which will be documented in videos to inspire other teachers to take up similar teaching approaches.
Also, this year, we aim at trying out a new format for life-long learning, where graduates and others from the industry can be upgraded through online, do-it-yourself courses at master’s level. The goal is to offer many of our master’s courses in an online DYI format with minimal extra effort and offer graduates and other professionals a subscription through which they can get easy access to knowledge upgrading.
Furthermore, as part of PBL Digital@AAU, all students admitted at AAU in 2022 and onwards will have subject-specific learning goals related to digital competences. This means that by November 1st this year, all study regulations must incorporate explicit learning goals on digital competences. Vice Head of Studies, Ulrik Nyman, is in charge of the process at CS.
All in all, we believe these initiatives are important steps in the further development of the Aalborg Model at CS.