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Quality Assurance of Courses

NMBU shall offer societal and academically relevant courses with high educational quality. All courses offered by NMBU shall have been approved and described in accordance with NMBU’s quality assurance guidelines for approval of courses.

NB! This page is under development. Please see our Norwegian page for updated information. If you miss any information, please contact bodil.norderval[at]nmbu.no or ellen.granvin[at]nmbu.no

  • NMBU's routines for quality assurance of establishment, discontinuation, approval and revision of courses.

    NMBU's routines for quality assurance of courses

    All courses offered by NMBU shall have been approved and described in accordance with the NMBU’s quality assurance guidelines for approval of courses. 

    Requirements for courses are described in "Regulations concerning quality assurance and quality development in higher education and tertiary vocational education" ("Forskrift om kvalitetssikring og kvalitetsutvikling i høyere utdanning og fagskoleutdanning") and Academic regulations for NMBU.

    Guidelines for course descriptions

    • All courses offered at NMBU shall always be correctly described in Felles Studentsystem (FS), and the online version (emnesøk) of the course description will always be the applicable version.
    • The Faculties use the tool EPN (online course registration) to fill in the course description.
    • EPN is opened annually for changes, updates or new registrations of course descriptions.

    Course description

    Only courses approved in accordance with NMBU's quality assurance procedures for the approval of courses, and described in accordance with the guidelines for course descriptions, shall be offered at NMBU. All courses offered at NMBU shall always be correctly described in Felles Studentsystem (FS), and the online version (emnesøk) of the course description will always be the applicable version.

    Establishment and discontinuing of courses

    Only courses that are fulfilling the requirements can be approved and offered at NMBU. The Faculty Board itself establishes and discontinues coruses based on redommendations from the Faculty's Education Committee (FAK-SU). The Faculty Board is responsible for the approval of plans for quality assurance and quality enhancement (NMBU's Academic regulations, Section 20-1).

    Establishment of a course
    1. The course coordinator must discuss his/her idea and get the all clear to go ahead with it in line with the routines that the Faculty Board has determined.
    2. When the all clear has been given, the course responsible will register the course via "Emneplanlegging på nett" (EPN) - an online course registration system.
    3. The course coordinator will send the course to approval via EPN, and the course is formally established by the person / body that the Faculty Board has authorised this.

    More detailed information regardin establishment of PhD courses is available in Norwegian only.

    Revising and registration of courses

    Course descriptions are to be revised each year using "Emneplanlegging på nett" (EPN). The faculty appoints the person(s) responsible for preparing, quality assuring and approving the course description and registering it in the database using (EPN). The Education Committee at the faculty offering the course assesses and approves the course description.

    Each year, the online course registration (EPN) is opened for changes, updates or new registrations of course descriptions. Information about the procedures is sent out at the end of January. EPN opens on about 1 February and all course information must be filled in and approved by the faculty by the deadline (approximately 1 April).

    The Department of Academic Affairs will transfer the course from EPN to FS within 1 July, and it will be possible to do a search on the course on www.nmbu.no/studies/courses. If there is a need for changes in the EPN registration outside the period mentioned above, the faculty must inform fs@nmbu.no.

    Laws and regulations

    The course must be in accordance with national laws and regulations and NMBU's regulations, including:

  • More information regarding establishment of PhD courses is available in Norwegian only.

  • UNDER REVISION.

    Guidelines for conducting and following up on course evaluations

    Course evaluations at NMBU play a central role in the work on developing the quality of courses and programmes. The evaluations are an integrated part of the course coordinator's ongoing work on the course, and is to help students be actively engaged in their own learning (see NMBU's Learning Philosophy).

    It is implemented in three steps.

    The purposes of the evaluations are:

    • To contribute to the development of the quality of the pedagogical plans and academic contents of the course.
    • To contribute to students' active participation in their own learning.
    • To function as a basis for decision-making when developing the course and programme.
    • To help document the development work in the course and programme.


    Implementation of course evaluations at NMBU

    Step 1– Conducting a formative evaluation during the course

    Evaluations are carried out during every course, each time it is offered. The course responsible selects the appropriate methods and time for the evaluation. The method is to be tailored to the purpose of the course evaluation and focus on surveying student perceptions of the academic and pedagogical course contents, the learning process and learning outcomes. The evaluation is to help students actively participate in their own learning.

    The following checklist can be used when selecting a method and time for the evaluation conducted during the course:

    • The contents, learning objectives and learning outcomes for the course
    • The links between learning activities and learning outcomes
    • The placement of the course in the programme
    • The size and composition of the student group
    • Representativeness
    • Anonymity
    • The course coordinator's need for information
    • The programme and faculty management's need for information

    The results must be described in the course report.

    Step 2 – Conducting a end of semester evaluation

    A final evaluation is held in every course, each time the course is offered. To assure that students not can be indentified (that replies not can be traced back to individuals), the evaluetions are only held on courses with at least 5 registered students. The final evaluation is conducted during the last weeks of education (the two last weeks in the parallel and the last week of the block). The evaluation consists of seven graded and two open text questions. The Department of Student Affairs manages the evaluation via Canvas using the tool EvaluationKit. This evaluation shall be viewed in the context of the evaluation conducted during the course.

    The results of the evaluation must be described in the course report.

    Questions in the end of semester course evaluation:
    To what degree do you agree with the following statements? Scale from 1 (Small degree) to 6 (Large degree):

    • I've had a clear understanding of what I was supposed to learn in this course
    • The course was well structured and organized
    • The lectures in the course contributed well to my learning outcome
    • Other learning activities (labs, field work, assignments etc.) contributed well to my learning outcome
    • I am satisfied with the academic feedback and/or guidance
    • I learned a lot in this course
    • All in all, how satisfied are you with the course?

    Two open text questions:

    • What worked well in this course and contributed most to your learning?
    • Do you have suggestions on how to improve the course?

    The lecturer and Head of Teaching/Head of Institute/Dean can find the results for courses via Canvas - Use the menu (Konto -> Profil -> Course Evaluations).
    The Dean/Head of Teaching has access to the results for all courses on his/her faculty.

    For courses with less thant six replies, the system will not show the result.

    Step 3 – Conducting a periodic evaluation of the course/courses during a joint meeting

    A periodic evaluation of the course/courses is conducted in a meeting every 3-6 years, with students, peers and other relevant representatives from the disciplinary community participating. The evaluation shall focus on the totality of the course, connections between courses and the place of the course in the programme. The disciplinary community can design this evaluation in the manner that best serves the development of the course. A periodic evaluation can be held for several courses at the same time, if appropriate.

    The results of the evaluation must be described in the course report.

    Follow-up on results and development of courses

    The faculties choose a system for follow-up on course evaluations and routines for developement of courses. The follow-up on evaltuations and the work regarding measures for course development shall be documented.

    Roles and responsibilities

    Course evaluations are the responsibility of the faculty and is an activity that belongs to the disciplinary community surrounding the programme. The faculty choose how to organise the work on the evaluations, with the following as a point of departure:

    The Dean has an overarching responsibility for steps 1-3 of the procedure for course evaluations being implemented within the stipulated frameworks and for results being followed up.

    The course responsible[2] is responsible for:

    • The evaluation during the course being conducted in accordance with the procedure.
    • Periodic evaluations being conducted in accordance with the procedure.
    • Feedback being provided to students about the results of the course evaluations and any improvement measures.
    • The course report being filled out every time the course is offered and that it is made available.

    The Academic Affairs Committee (FAK-SU) and/or Programme Committee discuss the course reports at a time and in a manner appropriate for the faculty.

    Students actively participate in steps 1-3 of the evaluations. Further student participation is ensured through student representation in permanent forums.

    The Department of Student Affairs is responsible for the final evaluation being conducted towards the end of each teaching period (before the examination).

    The Learning Centre plays an active role in preparing and maintaining the portfolio of methods for course evaluations during the course, and also provides advice and guidance about the methods.

    Analysis of results and reporting

    The course responsible makes an overall assessment of the results of the evaluations and proposes improvement measures. The assessments are included in the course report. The course reports are made available through an appropriate publication tool, where they can be read by all staff and students.

    [1] The Faculty of Veterinary Medicine : Course block coordinator

  • The course coordinator has an important role regarding quality assurance of courses. He/she shall:

    • contribute to the course being described in line with the routines for approval and description of courses
    • arrange for there being conducted an evaluation during the course every time the course is held (and in addition there being conducted an end of semester evaluation, that is common for all courses at NMBU and being sent out from the Department of Academic Affaris)
    • arrange for there being written a course report, where the results from the course evaluations are assessed
    • arrange for there being conducted a periodic evaluation of the course every third to sixth year
    • arrange for there being given feed-back to the students on the results from the course evaluations

To the main page for quality assurance of education (QAE)