Camilla Skjold Ødegaard

Bachelor i webutvikling

Carlos Vicient-Monllaó

The learning outcome description for the study program is updated and relevant and the courses and the connection between them contribute to the students achieving the learning outcomes. However, the study programme would benefit from new subjects and arenas for students to build their identity in the department of design. Some of the courses must be reviewed and improved according to feedback provided by students and course coordinators.﻿The physical learning environment was under very severe pressure in previous academic years academic. This improved after moving the department to the new premises, however, we observe that the learning environment has clearly suffered due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the challenges are related to student’s motivation, digital lectures, and group work.

<h1>Courses</h1>&nbsp;Overall, the courses contribute to the students achieving the learning outcomes of the programme. However, it has been observed that:&nbsp;(a)&nbsp;a significantly high number of subjects are shared with other study programmes (up to 58% of the study points) which prevents students to start developing their identity within the programme and the department during the first year;(b)&nbsp;monitoring students and helping them out with personalised feedback is specially challenging during the first year where most of the foundation courses are large - ranging from 80 up to 210 students with different academic backgrounds. Teaching assistants are a valuable resource, but the number of applicants is low;(c)&nbsp;&nbsp;courses whose learning outcomes represent core competences of the programme’s profile should be owned and transferred back to our department, rather than relying on other faculties. However, this is not possible due to a heavy workload of employees affiliated to the programme.&nbsp;<h1>Statistics</h1>&nbsp;The number of primary applicants (antall primærsøkere) grows since 2017 going from 67 candidates in 2019 to 82 candidates in 2020 (see attachment - figure1-applicants.png).&nbsp;The gender distribution for primary applicants is consistent over time with only 21% female applicants in 2020 (see attachment – figure2-gender.png).&nbsp;The candidate production (kandidatprodukjon totalt) improves in 2020 (see attachment – figure4 -production.png). However, the number of candidates graduating over time (antall fullførte kandidater) drops down for the class of 2018 where only 36% of the total candidates graduated in the spring 2021 compared to 61% in the previous year (see attachment - figure3-completed.png and figure5-BWUpr12.08.21.pdf). It is worth noting that this is the last group of students that belong to the study programme before its major revision carried out in 2017-2018. It can also be observed that the number of dropouts for BWU2019 (students graduating next Spring 2022) has dropped from 15 students in 2018 to 6 in 2019 and, therefore, we can project that up to 66% of the students might be able to graduate next spring.&nbsp;<h1>Student’s perception of the quality</h1>&nbsp;The student survey (Studiebarometeret) carried by NOKUT in the FALL 2020 (see attachment – figure6.png) was answered by BWU2019 students and it shows that the quality of the study programme is perceived as better than other years. The overall satisfaction of the students (question: “Eg er, alt i alt, nøgd med studieprogrammet eg går på”) scores 3.7 points out of 5; 1.3 points above previous year’s response. It can also be noted that the students’ responses improve in all the areas evaluated in the survey: undervisning, tilbakemeldingar, forventningar, læringsmiljø, organisering, tilknytning til yrkeslivet, inspirasjon and Heilskapsvurdering (see attachment – figure7.png). However, some of the areas are rated slightly below the national average.

NTNU:TIA:REST

Fakultet for arkitektur og design

Faculty of Architecture and Design

Nan Renée Augland

<h2>Admission and start of studies</h2> The number of primary applicants (antall primærsøkere) increases at a growth rate of 14% from 2016 to 2020 (figure1-primary.png). However, in 2021, it can also be observed a negative growth of 44% compared to the previous year (going from 82 primary applicants in 2020 down to 57 in 2021). It is worth noting that in 2020 the number of total applicants in Norway increased at a 9% growth rate respect previous year (figure2-national-primary.png). &nbsp; The percentage of female primary applicants grows for second year in a row going from 19% in 2019 to 33% in 2021.a is consistent over time with only 21% female applicants in 2020 (see attachment – figure3-gender.png). The recruitment and promotion of the study programme is not handled at a department level. It is recommended to improve the study programme website (<a href="https://www.ntnu.no/studier/bwu" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);">https://www.ntnu.no/studier/bwu</a>). Additional measures to promote the study internally (department of design) should be considered. It would also be desirable to ask the students how they learn about our study programmes during the application process. <h2>Learning environment (physical, psychosocial, organizational, digital, pedagogical)</h2>&nbsp;The student survey (Studiebarometeret) carried by NOKUT in the FALL 2021 (see attachment – figure4-studiebarometer.png) was answered by 67% of the BWU2020 students and it shows that the quality of the study programme is perceived as better than other years. The overall satisfaction of the students (question: “Jeg er, alt i alt, tilfreds med studieprogrammet jeg går på”) scores 4.0 points out of 5. This represents:<ul><li>0.3 points above previous year’s response</li><li>1.6 points above 2019’s response</li><li>0.1 above the national average.</li></ul> Therefore, the students’ satisfaction increases since 2019 (figure5-stisfaction.png). It can also be observed that the number of students attending the programme they would most like to attend also grows since 2019 (figure6-right-choice.png). The number of active students (BWU2020, 5th semester, student barometer 2021) is 65%. This is, 3% more than previous year (BWU2019, 5th semester, student barometer 2020). It is also worth noting that the average results in other study programmes gets worse or remains the same in all the areas except organisation (organisering) compared to previous year (figure7-studiebarometer-historiske.png). &nbsp;By contrast, the students’ responses given by BWU students are similar or slightly better than previous years except for the feedback area (tilbakemeldingar – further discussed below). However, the following areas are rated below the national average: Instruction (undervisning), Feedback (tilbakemeldingar), learning environment (læringsmiljø), Connection to professional life (tilknytning til yrkeslivet) and inspiration (inspirasjon).<ul><li>Instruction and feedback: the course descriptions and quality of the courses is being revised and improved. The lecturers’ workload is hight and providing personalised guidance and feedback to students is very challenging. Finally, a significant number of study points is taught by lecturers from other departments and the quality of the teaching has not been consistent across different departments. Some measures are studied to further develop the study programme matrix. &nbsp;</li><li>Learning environment: In addition to the problems stated in the previous point, it has also been observed that the digitalisation of lectures did have a negative impact on the students’ performance, motivation and expectations.</li><li>Connection to professional life and inspiration: Some measures have been already applied and it is expected to improve the results in this area in a short-term future. The number of collaborations with industry has been increased the last academic year and new guest lecturers will be invited in the future. A new elective course to offer students internships has also been created. &nbsp;</li></ul> <h2>Context and progression</h2>&nbsp;The candidate production (kandidatprodukjon totalt) is better than in 2019 but worse than 2020 (see attachment – figure8-kandidatproduksjon.png). The number of candidates graduating over time (antall fullførte kandidater) drops down since 2017 (see attachments – figure9-completed.png, figure13-gjennomstrømning.png and figure14-gjennomstrømming-program-og-startår.xlsx). Several things must be stressed in connection with these numbers:<ul><li>The candidate production from 2020 represents the last group of students belonging to the study programme before its major revision carried out in 2017-2018.</li><li>The candidate production in 2021 includes the students that started in 2019 (new version of the study programme with 7.5sp courses)</li><li>Only 44% of the students starting in 2019 graduated in the Spring 2022 while in the previous revision it was projected that 66% of the students would graduate that semester. There are still 5 active students that could graduate in the Spring 2023.</li><li>The number of dropouts for BWU2020 (9 students) and BWU2021 (8 students) is similar to BWU2019 (9 students)</li></ul><h2> </h2><h2>Relevance</h2> The relevance of the study programme’s working life is communicated to the students in the lectures as well as in the meetings with the SPL. As explained in previous sections, the number of guest lectures has also been increased and a new 7.5 internship course has been created. To further improve the collaboration and working life relevance (also perceived as improvable by students) new measures such as study trips and activities with members from industry will be suggested. <h2>International orientation</h2>&nbsp;New collaborations and agreements happened since 2019 with a special focus on Spain and German - top 4 and 5 countries for outbound NTNU students in 2022 (figure10-international2020.png). New collaborations with universities in Denmark are being studied – top 3 countries for outbound NTNU students in 2021 (figure11-international2021.png). The number of outbound students is growing since 2017 (figure12-outbound.png) ranging from 1 in 2017 to 4 in 2021. The study programme is designed to encourage students to go abround during the 5th semester. The study programme has a good distribution of subjects taught in Norwegian and English and the department of design is becoming more attractive for inbound students.&nbsp;As part of the internationalisation strategy, a study trip abroad is recommended.

The learning outcomes description for the study program is updated and relevant and the courses and the connection between them contribute to the students achieving the learning outcomes.&nbsp;&nbsp; To address the issues that still persist (detailed in the following paragraphs), at least a new full-time professorial position affiliated to the BWU programme is necessary.&nbsp; Same issues highlighted in previous reports persist:&nbsp;<ul><li>Perspective: the BWU study programme needs new subjects for students to build their identity in the department of design and to find a path after the bachelor - a significantly high number of subjects are shared with other study programmes which prevents students to start developing their identity within the programme and the department during the first year&nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>Tutoring/feedback: tutoring students and providing them with personalised feedback is specially challenging during the first year where most of the foundation courses are large - ranging from 80 up to 210 students with different academic backgrounds. Teaching assistants are a valuable resource, but the number of applicants is low;&nbsp;</li><li>Core competence: courses whose learning outcomes represent core competences of the programme’s profile should be owned and transferred back to our department, rather than relying on other faculties. However, this is not possible with the current resources of the department, in particular due to a heavy workload of employees affiliated with the programme.&nbsp;</li></ul> In addition to the previous points, it has also been observed that:&nbsp;<ul><li>The research environment is not robust enough due to</li></ul><ol><li class="ql-indent-1">&nbsp;&nbsp;the heavy workload of the professors affiliated with the programme,&nbsp;</li><li class="ql-indent-1">the lack of a path toward a master program after BWU, and&nbsp;</li><li class="ql-indent-1">the weak collaboration between the students enrolled in MIXD and the BWU professors.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li></ol><ul><li>The study offer is academically up-to-date and have clear relevance working life but it lacks a clear relevant path for further studies <a href="https://lovdata.no/dokument/SF/forskrift/2017-02-07-137" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">tilsynsforskriften § 2-3</a> – the master programme should be more relevant for BWU students and teachers affiliated to the the study programme should be able to participate in the postgraduate education.&nbsp;</li><li>The study programme should have a bigger focus on societal problems. Sustainable Web design should be considered as a broad topic for the programme.&nbsp;</li><li>More focus on academic writing is required&nbsp;</li></ul>

There are some challenges and issues that are hard to solve at a programme level and may require the collaboration of the factulty.&nbsp;<ul><li>Number of suspected cheating and plagiarism cases raises up since the pandemic. Handling those cases is an overhead for course responsibles and routines in Gjøvik and Trondheim may be different.</li><li>The exam office practices and routines involving external examiners and grade appeal is challenging and complex. Moreover, the process is only meant to meet students’ rights but never used as a self-reflection tool to improve our own grading criteria.&nbsp;</li><li>Lack of IT support and access to relevant services and tools used by industry. This also prevents the department and the students to showcase their works – which would not only be beneficial to students and their learning outcomes but also to the department and study programme as a promotional tool.</li></ul>

<h1>Admission and start of studies</h1>The number of primary applicants (antall primærsøkere) increases at a growth rate of 36% from 2016 to 2022 (figure1-primary.png) compared to the 14% growth rate from 2016 to 2021. Therefore, the growth rate from 2021 to 2022 is 19%, with 68 primary applicants in 2022. However, in 2022, it can also be observed a negative growth of 17% compared to 2020 (going from 82 primary applicants in 2020 down to 68 in 2022). It is worth noting that in 2020, the number of total applicants in Norway increased at a 9% growth rate with respect previous year and in 2022, the total number of applicants in Norway decreased at a 12% rate compared to the previous year (figure2-national-primary.png).&nbsp;The percentage of female primary applicants decreased in 2022 after a positive trend since 2019. Going from 19% in 2019 to 33% in 2021 and down to 32% in 2022 (see attachment – figure3-gender.png).The recruitment and promotion of the study programme is not handled at a department level. Since the last revision, the study programme website has been improved (<a href="https://www.ntnu.no/studier/bwu" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(5, 99, 193);">https://www.ntnu.no/studier/bwu</a>), but additional measures to promote the study internally (department of design) should still be considered. It would also be desirable to ask the students how they learn about our study programmes during the application process.<h2>Learning environment (physical, psychosocial, organisational, digital, pedagogical)</h2>The student survey (Studiebarometeret) carried by NOKUT in the FALL of 2022 (see attachment – figure4-studiebarometer.png) was answered by 78,3% of the BWU2021 students (compared to 67% of respondents in 2021), and it shows that the quality of the study programme is perceived as better than other years and is consistent with results collected during the fall of 2021.The overall satisfaction of the students (question: “Jeg er, alt i alt, tilfreds med studieprogrammet jeg går på”) scores 4.2 points out of 5. This represents:<ul><li>0.2 points above the previous year’s response and 0.5 points above answers from 2 years ago.</li><li>1.8 points above 2019’s response</li><li>0.3 above the national average.</li></ul>Therefore, the students’ satisfaction increases since 2019 (figure5-satisfaction.png). It can also be observed that the number of students attending the programme they would most like to attend also grows since 2019 (figure6-right-choice.png). The number of active students (BWU2020, 5th semester, student barometer 2021 – data for 2022 not available) is 65%. This is, 3% more than previous year (BWU2019, 5th semester, student barometer 2020).Figure7-studiebarometer-historiske.png shows the results since 2019. It's important to highlight that students have rated the study program above the national average for similar programmes in the following categories:<ul><li>Organization (Organisering) received a rating of 3.8, which is 0.5 points higher than the average.</li><li>Connection to professional life (tilknytning til yrkeslivet) received 3.8 points, which is 0.2 above the average.</li><li>Overall Assessment (Helhetsvurdering) received a rating of 4.2, exceeding the average by 0.3 points.</li></ul>All the previous categories have improved every year since 2019. Notice that the Connection to professional life (tilknytning til yrkeslivet) was ranked below the national average in the previous barometer. However, this year, the results are 0.2 points above the average. This could be explained by the increased number of guest lectures from industry, the study trip to Oslo, the study trip abroad and the new internship course offered as an elective.The categories of Instruction (undervisning), Feedback (tilbakemeldingar), and Form of assessment (Vurderingsformer) all fall 0.1 points below the national average. However, it's worth highlighting that the Feedback category received a rating of 3.6, which is 0.7 points higher than the previous year's score of 2.9. This significant improvement in the latest results is noteworthy.With respect to Instruction and feedback, the course descriptions and quality of the courses was revised and improved in the last study programme revision. However, the lecturers’ workload is still very hight and providing personalised guidance and feedback to students is still very challenging. Finally, a significant number of study points are still taught by lecturers from other departments, and the quality of the teaching has not been consistent across different departments. The measures studied during the last revision were paused due to the lack of financing.The Learning environment (læringsmiljø) and Own commitment (Eget engasjement) both received ratings 0.6 and 0.7 points below the national average, respectively. The reasons for these comparatively low scores require further evaluation. Some initial indicators suggest that students may not spend sufficient time on campus, expressing a desire for more group study spaces, and citing irregular time schedules, resulting in days when they do not have lectures, leading them to stay away from the university.&nbsp; <h1>Context and progression</h1>The candidate production (kandidatprodukjon totalt) is better than in 2019 and 2022 but worse than 2020 (see attachment – figure8-kandidatproduksjon.png).The number of candidates graduating over time (antall fullførte kandidater) shows a slight improvement for the class of 2020. However, the numbers still remains below the 2017 levels (see figure9-completed.png). <h1>Relevance</h1>The study program's connection to the working world is conveyed to students both in lectures and during meetings with the Student Program Leader (SPL). As mentioned earlier in this document, we increased the number of guest lectures, introduced a new 7.5-credit internship course, and scheduled two study trips—one to Oslo and another abroad. <h1>International orientation</h1>Our programme provides a range of courses taught in English to prepare students for studying overseas and to facilitate the inclusion of exchange students in our programme. Students can go abroad during the 5th semester as exchange students. Furthermore, all our students travel abroad during their second year as part of the study programme trip. During the study trip, students meet other students from foreign universities, participate in workshops and activities with them, and learn about their study programmes and opportunities for further education there.The number of foreign students has been on the rise since 2017 for the fall semester, as illustrated in Figure 12 (figure12-outbound.png). The figures have increased from 1 student in 2017 to 4 in 2021, 6 in 2022, and 4 in 2023. While our study program actively encourages students to pursue studies abroad during the 5th semester, it's important to note that BWU offers courses throughout all years and semesters to accommodate inbound students.

&nbsp;The learning outcomes description for the study program is up-to-date and relevant. However, there are several ongoing challenges and areas for improvement:<ul><li>Identity Building: The study program would benefit from introducing new subjects and opportunities for students to establish their identity within the design department. Currently, many subjects are shared with other programs, hindering students from developing a unique program and department identity in their first year.</li><li>Support for Large Classes: Monitoring and providing personalised feedback to students, especially in the first year when foundation courses are large, is challenging. Teaching assistants are valuable, but there is a shortage of applicants.</li><li>Course Ownership: Courses with core competencies aligned with the program's profile should be managed and taught within our department rather than relying on other faculties. This might require considering the addition of a new full-time position dedicated to the program.</li></ul>In addition to these ongoing concerns, there are further observations:<ul><li>Research Environment: The research environment is not sufficiently robust due to heavy workloads among program-affiliated employees and weak collaboration between these employees and master's students.</li><li>Further Study Pathways: While the program is academically up-to-date and relevant for the working world, it lacks a clear path for students to continue their postgraduate education. Efforts should be made to make the master's program more relevant for BWU students, and teachers affiliated with the program should have the opportunity to participate in postgraduate education.</li><li>Societal Emphasis: The study program has increased its focus on addressing societal issues, with a particular interest in Sustainable Web design as a broad programme theme.</li><li>Academic Writing: A more substantial emphasis on academic writing is still necessary for program improvement. However, it remains uncertain how generative tools like ChatGPT will impact this aspect, both positively and negatively.</li></ul>&nbsp;

Several challenges and issues persist since the last revision, and addressing them may require collaboration at the faculty level. These include:<ul><li>Academic Integrity: The number of suspected cases of cheating and plagiarism has increased since the onset of the pandemic. Handling these cases places a burden on course responsibles, and differences in routines between Gjøvik and Trondheim can complicate the process.</li><li>AI and Generative Tools: The use of AI and generative tools introduces additional challenges in assessing students' work, necessitating consideration and adaptation.</li><li>Exam Office Practices: The practices and routines involving external examiners and grade appeals are complex and challenging. Unfortunately, these processes are primarily geared towards safeguarding students' rights and have not been utilised as self-reflection tools to enhance our grading criteria.</li><li>IT Support and Industry Tools: Insufficient IT support and limited access to industry-relevant services and tools hinder the department and students from showcasing their work. This not only impacts student learning outcomes but also restricts the department and study program's promotional capabilities.</li></ul>

Bachelor i webutvikling - BWU