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This course report applies to NEVER 3040, NEVR 3050, and NEVR 8010.  I have been teaching the courserecurrently since the spring of 2016, taking over teaching duties for May-BrittMoser, who was the previous course coordinator. For the first 5 years theexternal examiner was Bolek Srebro, a retired professor from the University ofBergen with several decades' worth of teaching, mentoring and researchexperience. He was external examiner for several years already before I becamecourse coordinator. Since the course is an independentstudy, there is a limited amount of curriculum which can be developed based onevaluations and discussion, but the following changes in the course have beenmade since I took over as coordinator: Based on discussions with Bolek Srebro, the followingelements were added to the course and oral exams:*The number of required papers wasreduced from 25 to 20 in NEVR 3040 and NEVR 8010, and from 35 papers to 25 forNEVR 3050. This was so the students could focus only on the most relevantliterature (quality over quantity). A tradeoff was that the students now add asingle, descriptive sentence stating the relevance of each paper to the topic.This was to help both the examiners and students have an informed overview ofthe topic and relevant literature. *At the start of each evaluation, eachstudent tells some of their own personal story- who they are, what they arestudying for the MSc / PhD project, and why they chose the topic they did.*After the presentation is delivered andthe discussion / examination with the student is completed, we now always askhow the student felt about how they did. We ask them to reflect on what theylearned from the independent study, if it helped them expand their perspectiveon the topic or their own work, and if it was helpful in their ongoingresearch.  Based on feedback from the student course evaluation:It should be noted that only 4 of theseven students answered the questionnaire from the Fall 2021, but the commentsmade it clear that the students would benefit from more detailed instructionsearlier each semester, and that they wished to see examples of past goodpresentations. Based on this:*A longer, more detailed set ofinstructions is sent to the students within the first 2 weeks that the semesterbegins. The initial, "semester start" e-mail now includes (i) severalexamples of what a "good" literature list looks like (i.e. it isformatted correctly, the number of papers is appropriate for the exam level(e.g. max of 20 papers for NEVR 3040, max of 25 papers for NEVR 3050, and thetopic and list are well-organized).*Examples of what "good"previous presentations looked like (examples taken from previous students whodid well and were willing to share their presentations).

Since each exam and student are considered individually, this takes the form of a post-exam discussion with the student. The extent of the students' learning is reflected in the quality of the presentations, which can range from decent (B/C borderline) to excellent (easy "A"s). The quality of the NEVR8010 exams tend to be very high, and almost always with topical &amp; interesting discussions with motivated students who learned a good deal. We also make it a point to explain *why*we chose the grade we did (usually either an A or B), and give them concreteexamples from the presentation about what was good and what was difficult. Wegive them pointers if they were speaking too quickly, spent to much time on onesub-topic, or did not clearly convey the material (usually from a lack offigures or illustrations, or overly complicated figures). Beyond this (as mentioned above), aftereach exam concludes, we now ask the students to reflect on what they learnedover the semester, ask if they found it useful or having practical relevance totheir own work. We found that students typically either (i) benefitted theirresearch project by digging more deeply into the literature surrounding theirresearch topic, or (ii) benefitted by broadening their horizon in taking on atopic they otherwise would not have investigated so deeply.

None. But I will add that Bolek Srebro hassince fully retired and no longer acts as external examiner for the course.Since then I have done one semester with Ioanna Sandvig (Spring 2021), and onesemester with Rosamund Langston (Fall 2021). Both examiners were excellent,easy to work with, and invested in their roles. Rosamund Langston will act asexternal sensor again in Spring 2022. I also have found that I have had goodagreement with the different external examiners about the grades merited by thepresentations for NEVR 3040 and 3050. It is very useful to have a 2nd opinionwhen the grades are borderline.

NTNU:TIA:REST

Kavliinstitutt for nevrovitenskap

Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience

Engelsk

Anbefalte forkunnskaper

Passed NEVR3001, NEVR3002, NEVR3003, NEVR3004.

Mer om vurdering

For the exam the student will have to deliver a 40-minute lecture, leaving 15 minutes for a post-lecture discussion with the examiners. The lecture should NOT be an open-ended survey of literature, but instead focus on a particular theme or debate within a sub-field of current neuroscience. The discussion will provide an informal opportunity to answer questions related to the lecture and to the field of neuroscience in general.The language of examination is English.

Forkunnskapskrav

Admission requirements: The student should be enrolled in Master of Science in Neuroscience, Master of Science in Molecular Medicine or Medical Students on Student Research Programme. Candidates not enrolled (e.g. from Dept. of Mathematics) can be assessed individually by the course coordinator.

Faglig innhold

The course is meant to deepen the student’s knowledge of a particular topic pertaining to the biological foundation of behaviour and cognition and should be pursued by students wishing to delve especially deep into a selected topic (deeper and broader in scope than NEVR3040). They are to assemble the relevant literature (list of ~25 sources, including scientific articles, reviews and/or book chapters) and give an informed lecture on an approved topic. These could range from, but are not limited to, the neural mechanisms of sleep, motivation, learning and memory, language, attention, perception, or emotions. Other topics may include disease themes (e.g. stroke, dementia); a critical review of new developments in neuroscience methodologies (new techniques, etc.); computational themes, e.g. neuroinformatics, applied statistics, network models of brain function. Additional topics are welcome but must be approved by the course administrator.

Kursmateriell

The student selects the appropriate reading list together with a supervisor, which should be comparable in breadth to one or a few lectures from the master's level courses. The reading list shall contain 30-35 papers depending on the extent, and must be approved by the course coordinator.After the deadline for course registration is passed, the student will be contacted by an administrator providing information on submission of reading list and the exam date.

Læringsformer og aktiviteter

Private study. Students in the MSc Neuroscience program can gauge the target breadth by referring to lectures given in one of the master’s level courses in the MSc Neuroscience program (NEVR3001, NEVR3002, NEVR3003, NEVR3004). The student can, for example, follow a selection of the lectures in these courses, but NEVR3050 requires a more in-depth understanding of the topics than the courses, as well as NEVR3040. The language of examination is English.<ol><li>The reading list shall contain approximately 25 papers (not less than 24, not more than 30) and must be approved by the course coordinator.</li><li>In the reading list, the student will include a short (one sentence) statement under each paper describing the relevance of that paper to the topic.</li><li>The student delivers a 40-minute presentation followed by an open discussion on the topic, usually lasting 15 minutes.</li></ol>

Læringsutbytte

After completing the course NEVR3050 the student:<ol><li>can give an up-to-date oral presentation of any topic in neuroscience by reading relevant literature;</li><li>can understand and discuss scientific papers in neuroscience, be critical and constructive, and be able to suggest alternative experiments;</li><li>has sufficient knowledge to answer broader questions in neuroscience without reading books or papers first.</li></ol>

Selvstudium i nevrovitenskap 2

Nevrovitenskap

Biologi

Filosofi

Fysikk

Kjemi

Medisin

Psykologi

Neuroscience (Master's Programme)

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Selvstudium i nevrovitenskap 2 - NEVR3050