Responsibilities for teachers at the Department of Informatics
FOR EMPLOYEES AT THE DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATICS
The teacher's role encompasses pedagogical as well as administrative aspects.
The teacher's administrative tasks include the following:
- Maintain course pages on Canvas and web
- Report and certify (attestera) grades
- Conduct course evaluations (this is the course director's responsibility but the task can be delegated to a teacher on the course).
A teacher can also be appointed as course director. This is done by the director of studies.
The course director's role and responsibilities are decided by the Department board and includes the above as well as the following tasks:
- Plan, budget, and schedule course
- Coordinate teachers on the course
- Fill out and submit scorecard
- Maintain syllabus
- Maintain and develop course
Course pages on Canvas and web
Each teacher must update and maintain information about their courses on Canvas.
At least one month ahead of the start of the semester, the administrator creates the relevant courses in Canvas. A template for the course page design is applied and basic information such as schedule, syllabus, literature list, contact information, examination rules, information about academic misconduct etc. is added and the page is published. This gives admitted students a chance to inform themselves well ahead of the course start.
As soon as the course is created the teacher can start working on the content. As the course is already published, it is important to be careful about which material is published and which is not.
The teacher is responsible for ensuring that the following appears somewhere on the course in Canvas:
- Mandatory attendance and what applies if absent.
- Lesson plan and reading instructions
- Examinations – what type and how they are conducted
- How the expected study results, teaching and various examination assignments relate to the grading criteria and how different exam assignments are weighted in the grade (unless this is already indicated in the grading criteria).
- Information on how course evaluation takes place
The teacher is responsible for keeping the course descriptions up to date, which are published on the corresponding course page on the LU web. Each course should have one description in English and one in Swedish. For changes and updates email Carla Böhme who implements the changes.
Report and certify grades
The examiner must ensure that grades are reported and certified according to the instructions available. This task is normally delegated to the respective examiner on each sub course.
Course evaluations and score cards
The course director must, within a reasonable time after the course has been completed, fill out a scorecard. The scorecard is based on students' and teachers' impressions of the course in the form of course evaluations and other communicated impressions.
The course director is responsible for the course evaluation being carried out. The task can be delegated to the others in the teachers' team.
The administration of student surveys and archiving of course evaluation documents is carried out by:
- Viktoria Svenby for first cycle (basic- and bachelor level) courses
- Emilia Svefelt for second cycle (advanced) courses
- Carla Böhme for third cycle (doctoral) courses
Plan course
It is the course director's job to plan the course in collaboration with fellow teachers on the course. The planning includes, among other things, budgeting and scheduling.
Budget course
The director of studies will, based on given courses and the expected number of students, calculate the resources required for courses and assign staff based on a standard cost/revenue analysis.
If the course needs to exceed or go below the estimate that is provided, this must be discussed with the director of studies as soon as possible.
In order for this process to work, the course director needs to make a budget for the course based on the existing template for course budgets. The template used at the Department of Informatics contains the standards used for calculating time spent on courses and will, once filled in, generate a total estimate for the course. The number of students and groups can be obtained from the director of studies.
The course budget must be submitted to the director of studies well ahead of the start date of the course.
Schedule course
The course director schedules the course to meet the course budget. The teaching elements that have been budgeted should therefore also be found in the course schedule.
The administrator will send a message to the teachers when it is time to start working on the schedule for the upcoming semester. The proposed schedule is upon completion submitted to Carla Böhme. Please include the following in the schedule suggestion:
- lectures, lessons, seminars, and guest lectures
- workshops, labs, and repetitions
- examinations, re-examinations, and exam feedback sessions
- assignment publications and deadlines
- learning portfolio submission deadline
Examinations should not be scheduled during the weekend or after 19:00. We are obligated to schedule three examinations for a course:
- Ordinary examination
- Re-take examination (5-7 weeks after the ordinary examination)
- Another re-take examination (normally scheduled in August for Spring courses and May for Autumn courses)
Changes to the schedule must be avoided after the schedule has been published. After a course has started, schedule changes may only be implemented in case of unforeseen events or in agreement with the students. These changes must first be approved by the Director of studies Björn Svensson.
Exchange students must be able to finish their studies before they leave, often in late December. If this is not possible, arrangements must be made so that they can finish from home, for example by online examinations. This applies only to courses that are offered to exchange students.
Coordinate teachers on the course
It is the course director's job to arrange meetings between the teachers on the course.
It is advisable to have teachers' team meetings before the course starts and after the end of the course.
The meeting before the start of the course can, for example, discuss the schedule, the distribution of work, the examination structure and the correction, the connection between lectures and lessons, etc.
At the meeting after the end of the course, the focus should be on evaluation of the course and how the course could be improved.
Maintain syllabus and course
The course director is to ensure that the course is maintained and developed. Of course, this is done in collaboration with other teachers on the course when the course is run by a teachers' team.
It is also the course director's responsibility to make sure that the syllabus is correct and followed. This implies that the types of teaching and examinations stated in the syllabus are actually used and represented in the course budget and that the course learning outcomes are met.
Contact
Björn Svensson
Lecturer and Director of studies