Can do! Has read the book?

Reading books and being a skillful professional (or a future professional) are by no means opposites. And I'm definitely not against reading books! An interesting thing, however, is whether we really assess what students can do - how they are able to use their theoretical skills in practise. Or are we just assessing whether s/he can answer our questions in an exam? Has s/he read the book?

Competence-based curricula - and assessment - are very topical to me right now. Last Monday I met people from other universities of applied sciences round the same table discussing the issue. Next week there will be two workshops on competence-based learning here at SAMK. I'm already looking forward to our international week!

Anne

PS. Don't forget to give feedback on the thesis writing instructions. Both student's and supervisor's viewpoints are needed: What do you think about the "Instructions on Writing a Bachelor’s or a Master’s Thesis"? Is it useful, accurate etc? What kind of changes and corrections are needed? Please answer the survey to help us know if something should be done.

Toimiiko opinnäytetyöohje?

Opinnäytetyö on iso osa tutkintoa, ja ohjeet opinnäytetyön tekemiseen ovat kovassa käytössä. Ne kaipaavat varmasti myös päivitystä.

Nyt - kahden viikon ajan - on hyvä tilaisuus sanoa kaikki se, mitä opinnäytetyöohjeesta ikinä on halunnut sanoa. Toimiiko se opiskelijan työkaluna? Onko puutteita, virheitä, jotain ylimääräistä? Pitäisikö AMK- ja ylempi AMK -ohjeen olla samassa nivaskassa? Pitääkö ohjeen ylipäänsä olla yksi nivaska vai voisiko se olla webbiin rakennettu?

Haluaisin kuulla palautetta ja kehittämisideoita sekä suurista linjoista että pienistä yksityiskohdista, sen mukaan mitä kunkin käyttäjän kohdalle on osunut. Tekstiä kirjoittaessa kun välillä ajatellaan laveasti ja välillä myös viilataan pilkkua.

Käyttäjäkokemusta halutaan kaikilta: sekä opiskelijoilta että ohjaajilta - ja tässä ohjauksen saa ymmärtää laajasti. Jos olet jotenkin ollut tekemisissä opinnäytetöiden kanssa, niin lämpimästi tervetuloa vastamaan. Vastaamaan pääset heti tästä.

Anne

What we study here (transl. in English)

Today I have worked with the translations of the degree programme curricula - scanned through the curricula which I got from the translation agency. Translations are interesting: in some cases there are just opinions, and in other cases there is only one correct translation. And even these are cultural agreements, either on organisational, national or some other level.

Part of the translations is ready and available in pdf format in the net. There you'll find the new curricula of the degree programmes conducted in English, too.

Anne

Quality of education

Quality of education – what is it? How is it measured? Who says what’s good quality, and what’s bad?

This is the first day of my blogging life. Now, in the beginning, I have a plan to write about the quality of education, more or less. Keeping focused should be fairly simple because (almost) everything we do here at SAMK has something to do with the quality of education. Good or bad. It’s all about daily life things – it’s about teaching, counselling, questioning, answering, talking, listening, encountering… It’s about comprehensive quality. And this all has quite a lot to do with “comprehensive brand” which I very much believe in. That means, roughly, that everything we do (and even what we choose not to do) constructs us and our image and reputation. Good and bad. And in-between.

Let’s see what happens. Let’s see what we learn. That’s what I’m going to write about. More or less. I’m going to write about daily life matters, “big” and “small”. From them we usually learn something. And let’s see what I’ll learn. This is a new thing for me, and I’m curious.

BTW, this blog will be bilingual: some days in English, others in Finnish. Kanske även på svenska.