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Obligatory Assignments and ExamThe course utilized a short essay for the OA, which allowed students to get feedback on their essay-writing approach before the final exam. The exam was also an essay. The quality of submissions for the exam was very impressive, so this approach seemingly worked well.OverallThe student feedback for the course was very positive. Some earlier communication from the reference group members suggested that the lecture slides might work better with less content on them. I therefore ran a couple of lectures with only minimal bullet points alongside the visual elements. The cohort then strongly favoured the previous style with slightly more content on the slides, so I returned to that for the rest of the course and advise that this might be a good idea in future iterations. Students stated that the slightly expanded slides were easy to follow and worked better as a study aid. Students were happy with the content and focus of the module, though some students were at first unsure about its aims. The aims and format of the module were detailed in the handbook and in the first lecture, but this information perhaps needs to be reiterated in week 2 as well to make sure students are clear about what to expect. Two aspects of the course which were particularly praised were the fact that the lectures incorporated interactive/discussion elements and the approach of the seminars, which gave students lots of time to engage with and discuss a diverse range of primary sources. Students did complain about the amount of reading, but this was likely due to a lack of understanding of what is expected of them at university level.

NTNU:TIA:REST

Institutt for språk og litteratur

Department of Language and Literature

Spesifiserte trykte og håndskrevne hjelpemidler tillatt. Ingen kalkulator tillatt.

Engelsk

Mer om vurdering

Eksamen skal i sin helhet besvares på engelsk. Informasjon om hvilke ordbøker som er tillatt brukt under eksamen er tilgjengelig i pensumheftet for engelsk ved semesterstart. 

Anbefalte forkunnskaper

Engelsk som programfag over to år på studiespesialisering i videregående skole eller tilsvarende, samt ENG1201 Språkferdighet og grammatikk.

Faglig innhold

Emnet gir en innføring i historie og kultur fra et eller flere engelsktalende land i en gitt historisk periode. Fokus vil være på nasjonsbygging og -endring. Emnet vil introdusere studenter for relevante forskningsmetoder innenfor historiefaget, samfunnsstudier eller kulturkunnskap. Emnet vil også gi studentene muligheter til å granske ulike kilder og tekster fra relevant faglitteratur. Nærmere beskrivelse av faglig innhold gjøres tilgjengelig i pensumlisten ved semesterstart.

Kursmateriell

Læringsutbytte

KunnskapKandidater som har bestått emnet- har grunnleggende kunnskap om historie og kultur i et eller flere engelsktalende land.- har grunnleggende kunnskap om den nyeste forskningen knyttet til historie og kultur i et eller flere engelsktalende land.- har grunnleggende kunnskap om akademiske tilnærminger og metoder som kan brukes i historiefaget, samfunnsstudier eller kulturkunnskap. FerdigheterKandidater som har bestått emnet- kan reflektere over aktuelle politiske, sosiale og kulturelle tema knyttet til et eller flere engelsktalende land fra et historisk perspektiv.- har produsert et selvstendig skriftlig arbeid som omhandler et eller flere aspekter ved et engelsktalende land. Generell kompetanseKandidater som har bestått emnet- kan uttrykke seg godt skriftlig på engelsk.

Læringsformer og aktiviteter

Forelesninger og/eller seminarer og/eller veiledning. Det forutsettes at alle studenter regelmessig bruker gjeldende læringsplattform. Godkjent obligatorisk aktivitet er gyldig i to semester (semesteret godkjenningen gis og påfølgende semester).

1 skriftlig innlevering (ca. 1000-1500 ord)

Historie og nasjon

Engelsk kulturkunnskap

Bachelor i engelsk

Fremmedspråk - bachelorstudium

Lektorutdanning i språkfag for trinn 8 – 13

Europastudier - bachelorstudium

Engelsk - årsstudium

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Development of the course The lecturer of the course the spring semester of 2022 was a ph.d student, who taught the course for the first time. Given my lack of experience and prior knowledge from teaching the course, few new changes were put in action for development of the course. The main challenge when planning the course was to plan for both digital as well as on-campus teaching and to adapt to the altered corona restrictions from the planning of the course in December 2021 to February 2022. Changes from digital teaching during the spring semester 2021: The course was taught by another ph.d student of the English section during the spring semester of 2021. That semester the course was an entirely digital course, both lectures and seminars. The one major change which was made in 2022 was to record the lectures in Panopto, with a video of the lecturer speaking, instead of voice-over of a Powerpoint only. This decision was made by me after the start of the semester, when several students asked if not I could do it that way. I did also consider recording the lectures in classrooms or lecture rooms with recording equipment, but chose to not go for that format. Changes to the curriculum The required readings of the course were barely changed from 2021 to 2022. Two chapters of David Goodhart's book from 2017, The road to somewhere: The populist revolt and the future of politics was added to the reading list.

Assessment of the course and the students’ achievement of the learning outcomes As a 7,5 credit course, the course History and Nation has been taught with 12 digital lectures, and 6 seminars throughout the spring semester. The lectures were recorded digitally via Panopto, and made available after recording. The lectures were published on Mondays or Tuesdays, occasionally later in the week due to illness, cases when the lecturer was athome with sick child or due to technical issues. At the start of the semester, the first two lectures were published as Powerpoint-slides with audio recording. Several students asked for a Panopto recording instead, and I made that adjustment after some weeks of teaching. The two first lectures were also re-recorded due to the technical issues of the recordings. I contated the section for teaching and learning support and received great techincal and pedagogical help with in a hands-on instruction meeting. This was necessary in order for the lecturer to learn the software and tools of Panopto. Still, an issue throughout the semester was varying technical standard of the lectures, which was adressed in the reference group report. Several students remarked how the use of view mode in Powerpoint sometimes made it difficult to keep track of the lecture, and that sometimes the sound quality was sub-optimal. The format of the lectures also divided the students who responded to the questionnaire,some of them liked the fact that the lectures were scripted, others thought it became too textual without improvisation outside the script. This is a reasonable type of feedback, and I agree that the format of the lectures, the way the were carried out as digital lectures were not always optimally suited to the digital teaching environment. I would however like to add that I tried to separate lectures in shorter videos (3x 20 minutes) when possible.Many students also gave feedback about how they felt that the connection between the lectures and the required readings were not always that clear. Some of this could be ascribed to the postponed start of the seminars, in which the assigned readings would be discussed, did not begin until week 9. If life circumstances and corona had not been in the way, starting with the seminars from mid-January would have given me an opportunity to clarify for the students the difference between the format of the lectures and the seminars, including how to relate the readings to the lectures.It should however be added that each lecture had assigned reading questions to it, and the students were repeatedly encouraged to use the reading questions as tools of guidance for their reading as well as a way to think about the most important aspects of the lectures. The students also gave feedback that they would like lectures from a lecturer who knew the lectures and readings better, and could speak more freely from the script. The required readings have consisted of 2-3 texts per lecture, on average 40-45 pages of reading pr. week. For the seminars. Each lecture had assigned readings to it, and the course was divided in four themes on British modern history since 1945. Two lectures on decolonization, two on the Special Relationship, one lecture on the Four Nations and devolution of UK, three lectures on the topic of post-war immigration and racism in UK, Blackboard and communication with students The main channel for communication with the students has been Blackboard for general messages, and e-mail for individual contact. One noticeable error from my part at the start of semester was that I had forgotten to make the course available to all students by clicking on "public", on the visibility/ accessibility of the course. This was fixed in week 2 after several students had reached out and made me aware of the issue. In order to avoid such an error in the future the course coordinator should make sure to follow the course planning preparation checklist. Preferably, a short meeting with the mentor before Christmas holiday or summer holiday (dependent on when the course will be taught) could be wise, in order to rule out such errors. Communication with the students and changes to the semester plan The students reported a mixed experience from communication with the lecturer. Some students would receive feedback quickly, while others had to wait for a long time to receive a reply from the lecturer. This was partly caused by 14 days leave of absence in relation to childbirth, and I did not reply to mails at that time. At the start of the semester the amount of requests was overwhelming that I did not reply to every question separately, but instead tried to communicate collectively through Blackboard. Many of these requests were made concerning the seminar groups and the organization of this. Some of these issues could have been solved with a bi-weekly Q &amp; A which was part of the efforts of the digital teaching environment during the semester of 2020.z Lectures All lectures throughout the semester were held digitally. They were recorded in Panopto, and published and made available to the students via Blackboard. The lecture format was a video recording of the lecturer (me) speaking to a given Powerpoint presentation. The Powerpoint presentations were uploaded separately, but not consistently at the same time as the lectures. The students gave feedback that they liked the overall structure and progression of the lectures, in The decision to uphold the digital lectures were withheld even after the corona control measures at NTNU were removed 12 February. I chose to do so for two main reasons, firstly, I had already started teaching in that format of digital lectures, and after consulting with the two members of the reference group I was told that it was probably a split 50-50 decision whether the students preferred the digital teaching or the on campus teaching. Secondly, I found it difficult to start teaching on campus at a time of high levels of infection nationally and locally, in particular since I at that time had an infant baby at home. Under different circumstances I might have chosen differently, in order to get my students back on campus, and to strengthen the student environment before and after the lectures. Perhaps most importantly, I think the quality of the lectures would have been better if they had been held on campus. However, this semester my concerns for corona were weighted into this decision, and I chose a middle-way, with on-campus seminars as the physical teaching environment. Seminars and seminar groupsDue to corona-restrictions, the course could only offer on campus seminar groups for 2/3 of the students. The rest of the students had to stick to digital seminars.The restrictions opened up more as the corona restrictions were lifted. However I was still uneasy to let every student choose whichever group they wanted to come to. Digital seminar Three participants first time, one the second time. I was not prepared well enough for the Zoom-seminar, and failed to sufficiently adapt the format to a Zoom-group. In the end, I chose to cancel the digital seminar, but did not communicate this on Blackboard, in stead I only asked the three students to join one of the on-campus seminar groups. This was done out of protocol, as all such cancellations should be made on Blackboard. However, when students asked whether they could join the on-campus seminar groups all were welcome to those. In hindsight, I should have sent direct messages on email to the students who were signed up for the digital seminar with the start of the seminars, providing the link to the zoom-meeting room. Instead I posted the link on Blackboard. The Zoom-link required the students to be signed in on their NTNU- accounts, and this appeared to have been an issue for several of the students who participated in the seminar the first time. This was changed for the second seminar, but the turnout did not improve. In general, the organization, and communication of the seminars had room for improvement, and despite the challenges of planning this during a semester of Corona. Teaching environment Due to the circumstances created by Corona, the limitations to the on-campus seminars and my choice to maintain the digital lectures, the teaching environment of the course during the spring of 2022 had its challenges and unfulfilled potential. It was painful to cut of students from participating in the on-campus seminar due to the demand that the rooms could only take 50 % of the max. number of students. It should be added that the seminar groups seemed to create a good teaching environment, and the students feedback also added how the seminars were a meeting place. The digital teaching environment, for instance on Blackboard was not a priority by the lecturer during this semester due to the overall workload and capacity of the lecturer. Obligatory assignment The obligatory assignment was a 1200 word essay, with deadline in March. The deadline for the OA was frequently mentioned, and students were encouraged to start early with the OA. The three alternatives for the OA submission were made were available and visible on Blackboard from the start of the semester. Approximately 30 students asked for extension on the Obligatory assignment, and all were granted such. Quite many of them were due to illness (including Covid), but ca. 15 of the students asked for extensions due to mental health issues (these were granted on the same terms). Obligatory assignment and learning outcomes The two teaching assistants of the course marked the 150 obligatory assignments. The lecturer marked some of the OAs with extended deadlines. After the deadline of submissions had been passed, I arranged a Zoom-meeting, in which me and the TA's read ca 10 essays, and discussed the threshold for passing the OA, where to draw the line, and how to provide feedback. The were efficient and thorough in marking of the OAs. In general, the resources at hand in a big intro class such as ENG1404 provides few opportunities for the students to receive feedback on their written work. Ideally each student should have the opportunity to receive more feedback than what is realistically obtainable in a large intro class beyond the feedback the get from the OA. Some students asked for additional feedback on what they did well. However, the students were encouraged to write throughout the semester, share and discuss text with other students, and to work on the reading questions assigned to each lecture.One of the seminars was also solely dedicated to the Obligatorily assignment and academic writing. This seminar was also recorded and made available for all students to watch. Learning outcomes Among the aspects of an evaluation of the course curriculum, the quality, relevance and difficulty of the texts should be addressed. In the spring semester 2022, as in previous years, the curriculum consist of book chapters and peer-reviewed research articles, as well as some primary sources. Some of the students gave feedback that there would have been clear advantages by having one textbook which would follow the teaching of the course. Additionally, students sometimes struggled to see the connections between the broader topics of the lectures, and the arguments and perspectives of the assigned readings. However, several students reported that participating in the seminars in which we would do close-readings of the text helped them understand the curriculum. To a certain extent this is probably the nature of teaching introduction classes at university, Many of the students need to get acquainted with academic texts and research papers as a genre. This can be a difficult transition, and the learning experience is enhanced by participating in the seminars as well as the lectures. Still, there are obvious advantages for the teaching outcome of the course to assign a textbook as one of the key readings of the course. I believe this holds true for most students learning outcome, but in particular this would benefit the weaker students. It would also make the organization of the course easier. As for the difficulty and the relevance of the texts, there is always a room for changes and improvements in the choice of articles. Because the course was taught digitally during the semester, the adjustments that were made to the lectures were mainly made after meetings with the reference group, or self-assessment from the lecturer. Since the lectures were pre-recorded and not live, another arena for direct feedback was left out. Another adjustment which was made after the start of the seminar groups was a choice to focus mainly on the assigned readings of the course and to engage the students in close-readings and discussions of the texts, rather than primary source studies. This was partly and adjustment that the lecturer made when I was informed by students what they found challenging in the course readings and the lectures. Student active learning, in the case of presentations in seminars or group-writing are tools to consider for the future teaching in the seminars. The exam format in the spring semester 2022 was a 4 hour digital home exam. This exam format has its challenges, but as stated numerous times in this report, corona-measures set the premises for the course throughout he semester, including the exam format. A longer home-exam format has clear advantages and should be considered next time the course is offered.

Alle trykte og håndskrevne hjelpemidler tillatt. Alle kalkulatorer tillatt.

Eksamen skal i sin helhet besvares på engelsk. Informasjon om hvilke ordbøker som er tillatt brukt under eksamen er tilgjengelig på eksamensoppgaven.

Emnet gir en innføring i historie og kultur fra et eller flere engelsktalende land i en gitt historisk periode. Fokus vil være på nasjonsbygging og -endring. Emnet vil introdusere studenter for relevante forskningsmetoder innenfor historiefaget, samfunnsstudier eller kulturkunnskap. Emnet vil også gi studentene muligheter til å granske ulike kilder og tekster fra relevant faglitteratur. Nærmere beskrivelse av faglig innhold gjøres tilgjengelig i pensumlisten ved semesterstart.

KunnskapKandidater som har bestått emnet- har grunnleggende kunnskap om historie og kultur i et eller flere engelsktalende land.- har grunnleggende kunnskap om den nyeste forskningen knyttet til historie og kultur i et eller flere engelsktalende land.- har grunnleggende kunnskap om akademiske tilnærminger og metoder som kan brukes i historiefaget, samfunnsstudier eller kulturkunnskap.  FerdigheterKandidater som har bestått emnet- kan reflektere over aktuelle politiske, sosiale og kulturelle tema knyttet til et eller flere engelsktalende land fra et historisk perspektiv.- har produsert et selvstendig skriftlig arbeid som omhandler et eller flere aspekter ved et engelsktalende land. Generell kompetanseKandidater som har bestått emnet- kan uttrykke seg godt skriftlig på engelsk.

Forelesninger og/eller seminarer og/eller veiledning. Det forutsettes at alle studenter regelmessig bruker gjeldende læringsplattform. Godkjent obligatorisk aktivitet er gyldig i to semester (semesteret godkjenningen gis og påfølgende semester).

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This was, perhaps not very surprisingly due to circumstances, a challenging semester. All lectures were digital, and out of 6 scheduled seminars only two could be held on campus. However, while the reference group report mentions that some students found it hard to stay motivated and work continuously throughout the semester, an overwhelming number of them have done it successfully, which is reflected in the exam grades. 202 students have taken the exam, and the grades are the following: A - 22B - 55C - 90D - 28E - 6F - 1This indicates that despite the challenges of this semester, vast majority of students have achieved the learning outcomes.

The learning outcomes are outlined at the NTNU course webpage, and have been posted on Blackboard as well as communicated clearly to the students. This is still a fairly new course, and it seems to be functioning well as a general introduction to British history, politics and culture after the Second World War. The focus of the course is placing Britain, and the domestic changes the country has undergone, in the context of the changing post-Second World War world though four overarching themes of decolonization, the Special Relationship, immigration and multiculturalism, and last but not least, Britain's relationship with Europe. The reference group report states that the students have enjoyed the content of the course, and 'especially learning about British history'.

The course consisted of 12 lectures and 6 seminars. In addition, four 45-minutes Zoom Q&amp;A sessions were arranged after each theme of the course. The lectures were posted on Blackboard in the form of narrated Powerpoint slides (here it should be mentioned that many of the students would have preferred the lectures to be recorded in Panopto instead of Powerpoint, but I only received that feedback a few days before the concluding lecture and thus it was too late for me to change this), and these were always accompanied by 3-5 reflection questions. The majority of seminars were held synchronously over Zoom. Two of the seminars were held at Dragvoll, but the students who did not want to/ could not attend them at Dragvoll had the option of participating via Zoom. In addition, the students have been on many occasions encouraged to use the discussion forum on Blackboard, which many of them did, especially in the time before they had to hand in their OAs and exams. Lectures were, as previously mentioned, recorded and uploaded on Blackboard. While this certainly has some disadvantages, I believe that in such a large course, with over 200 students registered, recorded lectures are a better choice than trying to hold them in real time online. In terms of the content of the lectures, this was only slightly revised compared to the last time the course was held. I have made some mostly minor changes, which I believe made the course even more cohesive. According to the reference group, the students enjoyed the content of the course.Seminars, on the other hand, have been more tricky. Due to having to teach them online, and due to the fact that from the beginning of the semester I planned for the exam to be digital, the content of the seminars had to be changed compared to the previous years. The previous times the course was held the seminars mostly focused on working with primary sources, which the students have enjoyed. However, with the changed exam format, I decided that testing the students' knowledge and understanding of working with the primary sources specifically wouldn't work. Further, knowing that this fully digital semester would most likely be challenging to many students, I decided to decrease the work load by removing the majority of primary sources from their curriculum. Instead, four of the seminars were solely dedicated to academic writing to prepare the students for their obligatory assignments and their exams, where the first seminar was sort of a mini-lecture on academic writing, and the remaining three were mostly based on questions and discussions of the different elements of their obligatory assignments. The last two seminars were dedicated to exam preparation where we discussed potential exam questions, first in groups and then in a plenary session, and where students had yet another opportunity to ask me to clarify any questions they might have both about the course content and practical things. The reference group report stated that while some students were happy with the seminars, others were displeased with the content, and would have liked for the seminars to contain 'something other than only working on the OA', and 'several students felt that it was too early to start the OA when the seminars started and therefore chose not to attend'. I can see both perspectives here, and in retrospect I would probably have reduced the number of seminars dedicated to academic writing, and paid more attention to the timing of these, so that I wouldn't expect the students to work with the OAs for this course while they have other more pressing deadlines for the OAs for their other courses. On the other hand, however, I have received quite a lot of feedback from the individual students saying that they found the academic writing seminars immensely helpful and felt much more confident about writing their OAs, their exams, and writing academic essays as well as working with academic sources in the future. My impression then is that the most motivated and diligent students have very much benefitted from the seminars, and I could see this being reflected in the exams. Perhaps in the future the amount of seminars solely dedicated to academic writing could be reduced, but I would be reluctant to let go of them completely. I strongly believe that at this stage in their education a lot of focus should be placed on training the students in academic writing, and that this is an extremely important skill for them to master not only to successfully complete ENG1404, but also in their future academic careers. O&amp;A Zoom sessions were generally well attended, and it seems that the students appreciated having the option to ask questions and discuss some issues in more detail. However, despite the quite high numbers of participants, it was usually the same smaller group of people that were actively engaged in asking questions and participating in the discussions. I tried to make asking questions as little intimidating as possible, and emphasized that if the students don't want to ask questions in plenum they can send me a private message. Some of them used the option, but in general it seems like many students aren't comfortable speaking in front of others on Zoom, especially in larger groups. I have tried to think of solutions to that, and ways to encourage students to do it, but unfortunately it doesn't seem like I have been very successful at this. This being said, from what I have been told, the students were actually speaking and discussing in the seminar breakout rooms and then even turning on their cameras. I can't think of any brilliant solutions to the problem of meagre participation in online teaching activities, but hopefully with the Covid situation changing for the better, this won't be the most pressuring issue to address after summer.

There was one obligatory assignment in form of a 1200 word essay (3 questions to choose from) to be completed in mid-March. The students have received extensive feedback which could also be applied to their exam. According to the reference group, the feedback about the obligatory assignment was mainly positive, where the students were pleased with the task they were given and the amount of time they were given to write it. The reference group report also mentions that some students still struggled with lack of motivation to do the work both because of the Covid situation, and because they found it hard to juggle the other obligatory assignments that were due around the same time. As course coordinators of the basis-courses we did have a brief chat about the OA deadlines and tried to make them not overlap, but perhaps in the future we should coordinate this even more and make sure that the OA deadlines are more spread.The final exam was a 2-week home exam in form of a 1500 word essay, where the students had two questions to choose from. While some specific formal criteria were different, overall the exam was very similar to the OA in terms of requirements and assessment criteria. This is also something the students have been told from the beginning, also to encourage them to put effort into writing their obligatory assignments and make use of the academic writing seminars. As shown by the grade distribution at the beginning of this report, the students overall have done quite well, especially considering the challenging Covid situation and the fact that virtually all teaching activities were digital. I also believe this form of assessment is actually very suitable for this course, and I would most likely consider keeping the exam a home exam even when we are allowed to go back to regular school exams.

Emnet gir en innføring i historie og kultur fra et eller flere engelsktalende land i en gitt historisk periode. Fokus vil være på nasjonsbygging og -endring. Emnet vil introdusere studenter for relevante forskningsmetoder innenfor historiefaget, samfunnsstudier eller kulturkunnskap. Emnet vil også gi studentene muligheter til å granske ulike kilder og tekster fra relevant faglitteratur.

Nærmere beskrivelse av faglig innhold gjøres tilgjengelig i pensumlisten ved semesterstart.

Forelesninger og/eller seminarer og/eller veiledning. Det forutsettes at alle studenter regelmessig bruker gjeldende læringsplattform.
Godkjent obligatorisk aktivitet er gyldig i to semester (semesteret godkjenningen gis og påfølgende semester).

Kandidater som har bestått emnet
- har grunnleggende kunnskap om historie og kultur i et eller flere engelsktalende land.
- kan reflektere over aktuelle politiske, sosiale og kulturelle tema knyttet til et eller flere engelsktalende land fra et historisk perspektiv.
- har grunnleggende kunnskap om den nyeste forskningen knyttet til historie og kultur i et eller flere engelsktalende land.
- har grunnleggende kunnskap om akademiske tilnærminger og metoder som kan brukes i historiefaget, samfunnsstudier eller kulturkunnskap.
- har produsert et selvstendig skriftlig arbeid som omhandler et eller flere aspekter ved et engelsktalende land.
- kan uttrykke seg godt skriftlig på engelsk.


Lektorutdanning i språkfag - masterstudium (5-årig)

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This is a fairly new course, and it seems to be functioning well as a general introduction to British history, politics and culture after World War II. The focus of the course is placing Britain, and domestic changes in Britain, in the context of the changing post-World War II world through the themes of decolonization, the Special Relationship, multiculturalism/immigration, and Britain’s relationship with Europe. The course worked well until the Covid-19 lockdown started, with a fairly good turnout both at the lectures and the seminars. While the lockdown and switch to digital teaching had its challenges, the reference group states that the lecturer handled the issues that arose ‘quite well’. The remaining 5 lectures of the semester were posted on Blackboard as Power Point slides, and as audio recordings of the lectures. The remaining two seminars were cancelled, and instead 3 zoom sessions were arranged in the week before the exam where the students were encouraged to ask any questions they might have, whether of practical nature, or related to the content of the course. While only around 20 students joined each of the zoom sessions, the discussions were very interesting, and those who joined found them very useful. The reference group stated that the zoom meetings helped a lot, giving them both the opportunity to ask questions, and to interact with the lecturer. Audio recordings of the lectures were very helpful, the reference group says.

This is a fairly new course. The learning outcomes are up to date, and have been communicated clearly to the students. 193 students took the exam, and the grade breakdown was the following: A: 25, B: 47, C: 84, D: 26, E: 6, F:5This means that 81% of the students have achieved the learning outcomes.

The reference group states that being able to send an email and ask questions about the exam on the forum on Blackboard was very beneficial, and that the response time was great and they could expect ‘a very useful reply in no time’. Further, they state that the OA was good practice for the exam, making the exam look less daunting then it otherwise could have been.The seminars were, according to the reference group, ‘quite good’. They were more ‘laid back’ and gave the students ‘the opportunity to ask questions and clarify certain aspects that students may wonder about that they did not understand from the lectures or pensum’. The seminars, however, turned out to be less relevant to the final exam than they would have been had the exam took the form as originally planned (this is explained in more detailed below).The reference group states that a lot of what they learned during the course was known to them from before, ‘though there were new elements that were interesting and helped broaden our knowledge of the subject’. It has to be added, however, that during the semester, the lecturer was told by several students that the pace of the course was quite fast, and there was a lot of new information. This discrepancy in the assessment of the level of the course is perhaps caused by the fact that students from four different study programs take the course (Lektor i Engelsk, Engelsk Bachelor, Engelsk årsstudium and Europastudier), but it’s definitely something that the lecturer will consider when preparing the course next spring. The ’pensum’ of the course consists of various book chapters, academic articles and primary sources, all available to the students on Blackboard. The students think having digital resources is very useful. They like the fact that they don’t need to buy course books, and that their reading isn’t limited to a few specific texts. However, the reference group also mentioned that there was ‘not always a clear coherence between the texts we were supposed to read and the lectures’. To be fair, it is not always easy to find articles/book chapters that are a perfect match to what I want to communicate to the students during the lectures, and ones that are sufficiently introductory without being either too narrowly focused or too advanced. However, I believe that the abovementioned reference group comment largely stems from the fact that many students seem to think that the lectures ought to be a summary of their readings. Next time I will have to be clear on the fact that the lectures aren’t designed to go through their readings, but rather, while also providing an overview, elaborate on the most important elements and problematize these to give the students more in-depth knowledge and understanding, and stimulate independent thinking. This being said, I have already made notes about which texts worked well and which didn’t, and next spring the readings for at least 3 of the lectures will be updated.Last but not least, the reference group mentions that the students would be interested in learning more about the election system in the UK, and the structure of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. They also mention that while the lectures about immigration were ‘really exciting’, and while the covering of the history in this course was ‘thorough and detailed’, it was also on occasions ‘a little dry’, and not as exciting as the American Society course. This course has a different focus, and it is not the British equivalent of the American Society course, which the students end up comparing this course to. This will have to be communicated explicitly to the students next spring.

The exam was originally supposed to be a 4-hour school exam, which was turned into a term paper due to the Covid-19 situation. As a consequence, the exam format had to be modified, which the students were notified about as soon as the decision was made. The reason for the change in the exam form was also communicated clearly, and the students were allowed to vote in a poll about the length of the exam. They were given two options: either a 3-week exam with a 2000 (+/-10%) essay, or a 2-week exam with a 1500 (+/- 10%) word essay. 156 students participated in the poll, and the majority (55%) voted for the latter option. The reference group stated that they really appreciated that they were able to affect what form the exam would take. As already mentioned, the reference group stated that while the seminars were good, ideally they should be more relevant to the last exam. The reason that the seminars turned out to not be very relevant for the final exam was the change in the exam form due to the Covid-19 situation. Originally the exam was supposed to consist of part A and part B, where part A would be two short answers about primary sources, which the seminars were geared towards, and part B was to be an essay testing the students on the breadth of knowledge of the course material and academic writing skills. Since the students had access to all support material when writing a term paper from home, the lecturer decided that the section about primary sources had to be let go, and the exam was only a longer essay question. This consequently rendered the seminars less relevant to the final exam than they would be had the exam format not had to be changed.If digital exams are still necessary or encouraged due to the Covid-19 situation next spring, I will have to consider changing the focus of the seminars away from reading primary sources and perhaps more towards academic writing in general.

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Historie og nasjon - ENG1404