Conference for higher education 2023  in Kristiansand
 

Photo: Daniela Paez/HK-dir

How many IT graduates will we need in the future, where will they be trained and what skills should they have? Excited has participated in the Conference for higher education 2023, which was organized by the Directorate for Higher Education and Skills. The event took place on 20-21 September with the University of Agder as host. The theme of the conference was quality and availability for future needs. We participated in a panel session on dimensioning in higher education. The panel included representatives for education in science, health and IT, all of which are areas with a great need for people with relevant skills in the coming years. From the IT perspective, Excited, as a Center for excellent education, can contribute with insight into how we can help students in the IT education to achieve relevant competence through the teaching we offer.

Many interesting topics at the CDIO conference

Several representatives from Excited contributed in various ways to the CDIO 2023. The international conference was organized by NTNU in Trondheim 26-29 June 2023.

Researcher Gabrielle Hansen gave the lecture Assessment and Feedback across Various Outcomes in Project Courses. This article was based on an interview study with 12 teachers involved in project-based teaching at IDI/NTNU, and investigated how assessment and feedback were handled in these subjects.

Excited's Center Director Birgit Krogstie participated in the panel debate Engineering Education for a Safe, Smart, and Sustainable Future: A Call for Change and Collaboration together with student Cormac Dixon (Liverpool), Prof. Juha Kontio (Turku), Prof. Johanna Lönngren (Umeå), Bjørn K. Haugland (adm. dir. Skift) and Karianne Tung (Trondheim Tech Port).

Excited’s Vice Director Guttorm Sindre, in addition to being a co-author on Gabrielle's article, was also involved in the local organizing committee for the conference. Several other Excited employees also attended the conference, as listeners to presentations and participants in workshops and round table discussions.

There were many interesting sessions on innovative education in engineering and technology, both on course design, study program design and other interesting topics. Several of the sessions were about how to increase the focus on sustainability in education - which is also central to Excited's vision and plans for further work. The conference provided many new impulses and potential contacts for future collaboration.

Excited at Læringsfestivalen 2023

Teaching staff gathering organized by Excited SFU on 22 November 2022 - the day after the IDI 50 Year Anniversary
 

When: 22 November 2022, the day after the IDI 50 Year Anniversary
Where: NTNU, Gløshaugen, Trondheim, Main Building (Hovedbygningen), 2nd floor, Disputasrommet
Registration deadline: Son. 13 November 2022

The event is open for all Computer Science educators at the Department of Computer Science, the Department of ICT and Natural Sciences (NTNU) and Nord University.

For those travelling to Trondheim for the Anniversary event, the Teaching staff gathering is a great reason to stay one more day!
 
The focus of the event will be on Computer Science teaching practice and the exchange of teaching-related knowledge and experience, along the same vein as the previous CoPCSE (Communities of Practice in Computer Science Education) events. 
 
PROGRAM:
 
09:00-11:30    Hands-on workshop on how to link IT education and sustainability

• The main part of the session will focus on the development and use of cases to link course syllabus to real-life challenges. We will work in groups to develop Sustainability Awareness Diagrams (SusAD*) exploring the effects of technology on sustainability in each case. We will make time for a short plenary discussion on the usefulness of this approach to aid teaching, learning and course development. 
• The session will also address the competencies our students need to work with sustainability challenges, with a discussion of what learning activities and outcomes lead to such competencies. 

12:00-13:00    Lunch (included!) at Sit Cafeteria ELEMENT, Realfagbygget

13:00-16:00    Discussions/experience sharing within topic areas / Communities of Practice (CoPs)

• Professional tools in development-focused courses (e.g., git tools, tools for code quality analysis, and code review tools)
• Assessment (e.g., feedback/peer review, auto assessment/explanation, portfolios, assessment practices in project/development courses)
• If time: Generic professional competencies (generic/basic/core/key/ essential/transversal/professional/employability/soft/people/... skills)
   

*SusAD and the related framework can be valuable in an educational context

• for teaching staff as a tool for developing course contents, e.g. to make sure cases/examples/scenarios cover desired aspects/consequences of development and use of the technology in question
• for students in their work (as students and in the future as professionals) to analyze cases, e.g. to identify and understand dependencies, constraints and tradeoffs involved in the development and use of technology in a given context, typically (but not necessarily) as a step towards defining requirements

Hoping to see many of you at this event!

Please sign up by Son. 13 November by filling in the registration form.
 

Excited Work Day Autumn 2022

Are you 1st years student and study IT related subjects at NTNU in Trondheim?

Every week from the week 36 to 47, there an Excited Work Day every Monday from 8:15-12:00 in the room A3-138. Excited and IDI teaching assistants are available and help with the excercises. Coffee and breakfast are served. Join the Excited Work Day for a nice start of the week and study help if you need it!

Photo: Kai T. Dragland/NTNU

Excited Seminar Week on Research in IT Education

Photo: Kai T. Dragland/NTNU

Excited SFU welcomes you to a week of seminars for learning more about research in IT education and sharing your experiences!

When: May 30 – June 3 2022
Where: NTNU Gløshaugen, Trondheim

The target group for the seminar is teaching staff and PhD candidates at NTNU and Nord University.

The seminar will cover hot topics in IT education research, combining state-of-the art theory with a practical perspective and the opportunity to exchange experiences with colleagues and experts. All the seminar days will include a combination of expert presentations and hands-on group work. The seminar will also offer opportunities to reflect on and discuss your own pedagogical practice and development work, e.g., in the context of plans for further qualification.

The overall program is as follows, with more details to be offered closer to the event:

On Thursday 2 June at 19:00 there will be a dinner for all seminar participants.

It is possible to participate in one or more seminar days. However, we ask that you participate for whole days, including the practical activities. For those participating the whole week, we will provide an informal letter of confirmation of attendance. 

We will offer the possibility to attend the plenary presentations remotely. We encourage our colleagues from other campuses/institutions to make a trip to Trondheim for on-site participation on one or more of the seminar days!

Registration deadline for the seminar: 10 May 2022

The seminar is a mandatory part of NTNU’s PhD level course IT8007 (7.5 stp). For PhD Candidates at NTNU who consider signing up for the PhD course IT8007, please have a look at the course description and remember the deadline for course registration: 15 February 2022.

We hope many of you are interested and will join the Excited seminar week!

SFU Excited open webinars for teaching staff Autumn 2023

Curious about current issues, new tools and methods in IT education?
 Join the SFU Excited Autumn 2023 webinar series!

Centre for Excellent IT Education, Excited, aims at bringing Norway in the forefront of innovative IT education and making IT an increasingly more attractive study choice for young people. These webinars aim at creating arenas for discussions and reflection among the teaching staff. Each webinar will be held in Zoom and include a presentation and a Q&A session.

The main audience are the academic personnel from NTNU and NORD University involved in teaching, IT education and related research. At the beginning, there is a short introduction, the main slot is for the presentation on the topic below, and after that there is time for questions from the audience.

Excited Kick-off on 5 April at DIGS

Photo: Kai T. Dragland/NTNU

When: 5 April, 14:00-21:00 CET
Where: DIGS, Krambugata 2, Trondheim
Target audience: computing education enthusiasts, teaching and administrative staff at NTNU and Nord university, representatives from the industry and student associations, students
Language: English

The event marks the start of Excited’s second 5-years period with exciting talks and discussions. The particular focus will be on the topics The IT professional of the future and The innovative and exploring educator. The event will offer many opportunities for mingling, discussions and networking. We would like this to be a bit more celebration than conference, but professional content is clearly part of the program: a mix of panel sessions, including discussion where the audience is encouraged to participate. There will be several mingling areas with  stands and posters that present different groups and activities.

We are delighted to have our colleague from KTH, Anne-Kathrin Peters giving a keynote speech on the topic of IT education for sustainability. She is Associate Professor in technology education, with a focus on sustainability, especially equality, diversity and social justice. 

Program:  

All participants are invited to enjoy a light lunch upon arrival, and later an artistic performance and a joint dinner at the venue. 

Read more about presenters and performers

Photos from the event