Information for Employees Teaching for the First Time

The study advisors, together with the subject coordinators, are the first people to contact with questions related to teaching, timetabling and examinations. The study advisors help with and organise things for both students and subject areas in general. The subject coordinators connects the subject staff, students and the department management. 

Here you'll find the contact information to all administrative and technical staff.

Here you'll find the contact information to the department management.

Mitt UiB

Mitt UiB is UiB’s digitial learning platform. It is on here that you, as a lecturer, publish information for the students, upload files (for example lecture schedules), and create folders for the submission of work (not examinations).

User support for Mitt UiB can be found here.

Leganto

All reading lists must be entered into a reading list management system called Leganto.

User support for Mitt UiB can be found here.

Inspera

Inspera Assessment is UiB’s digital examination platform.

User support and information can be found here.

Fagpersonweb

Fagpersonweb makes it possible for lecturers to register attendance, completion of obligatory activities by students in your classes, etc., digitally.

User support and information can be found here.

The Spring semester:

• Week 2: Beginning of the semester and orientation meetings
• Week 3: Teaching begins for most subjects
• 1^st February: Deadline for semester registration for the students
• 1^st February: Deadline for submission of MA theses 
• 2^nd May: Deadline for submitting reading lists via Leganto
• 15^th May: Deadline for submission of MA theses 
• 1^st June: Timetables, examination dates and reading lists are published

The Autumn semester:

• Week 33: Beginning of the semester and orientation meetings
• Week 34: Teaching begins for most subjects
• 1^st September: Deadline for semester registration for the students
• 1^st September: Deadline for submission of MA theses 
• 1^st November: Deadline for submitting reading lists via Leganto
• 20^th November: Deadline for submission of MA theses 
• 1^st December: Timetables, examination dates and reading lists are published

The course descriptions should be seen as a form of contract between UiB and the students who are enrolled in the course.

Lecturers must adhere to what is stated in the course description concerning the academic content of the course, types of teaching, obligatory coursework requirements, examination support material (i.e. material that students are allowed to take with them into the examination or have accessible during open-book examinations), and the types of examinations.

Updated information about the courses is on the UiB website. To find information about a particular course, you can simply search for the course code (e.g. NOSP105) on uib.no and then click through to the course webpage. See, for example, the course description for NOSP105 Nordic Languages: Language History and Dialects. NOSP105 Nordisk: Språkhistorie og talemål.

On the course webpage there is also information about the timetable, when the examination will be and whether it will a digital examination. Note that the time and date for some examination types, such as oral examinations, may be planned and announced rather late in the semester.

If you have questions concerning something in the course description, you can contact either the study advisor or the subject coordinator.

Students can always be directed to the study advisors or the student information centre for the Faculty of Humanities if they have questions that you cannot answer.

Compulsory Assignments and Attendance

If a course has compulsory assignments and/or attendance it is the person responsible for the course (and possibly any other lecturers on the course) who must oversee whether and which students have fulfilled these activities. Log on to Fagpersonweb or contact the study advisor to get a list of students enrolled, and the corresponding obligatory activities.

Students can get modified assignments is they have a documented special need. Contact the study advisors if questions about this arise.

Course Evaluations

As a general rule, a course evaluation consists of two parts: a student evaluation and a shorter self-evaluation.

There is no set way in which a student evaluation is to be conducted, but the study advisors can help you design the questionnaire and show you examples of earlier evaluations. You can either give out a questionnaire in a lecture or send it out electronically.

There is a form for self-evaluations. Contact the study advisor to get the form.

Types of Teaching

The types of teaching used must be adjusted to suit the subject, the course/material to be covered in the session, group size, infrastructure and must take in account any other relevant factors. It is normal that those who have taught in previous semesters share their experiences with other colleagues. The subject coordinator and/or the teaching mentor have a special responsibility to make sure this happens when it comes to new members of staff.

The traditional lecture format is still much used, but can combined with other types of teaching. These breaks from teacher-led learning could take the form of study groups, groupwork and/or other types of student active learning. You ought to organise your teaching to take into account the teaching that has been done previously, but there will always be room to give your teaching your own twist within the confines of the framework that is otherwise defined by the course description. There are often handouts or slides in PowerPoint format from previous semesters, and in most cases, the teacher will have access to these kinds of files. These are often saved in the digital teaching platform (Mitt UiB) from previous semesters. The teaching coordinator or mentor will help you get access to the relevant documents, files and so forth from previous semesters.

Seminar-style teaching with smaller groups is even better suited to student active learning methods than traditional lectures. There are often obligatory coursework requirements that can be linked to student active methods of teaching, for example presentations and discussion of material from the syllabus, writing activities with feedback from other students, group-based learning activities etc.

Generally we can see a shift from traditional lectures to the use of more student active methods of teaching. We are also seeing teaching via digital aids in combination with seminar-based teaching.  This is based on the idea of the flipped classroom, in which you, for example, take the traditional lecture out of the auditorium and replace them with videos. By doing this, you then free up time for more contact with the students, tasks to be done in seminars, etc, in order to support student learning. In such cases, obligatory attendance should be in place. If there is obligatory attendance for a course, this will be on the course description.

While the organisation of the teaching varies from subject to subject and from course to course, it is always the case that learning activities must be appropriate and based on the relevant course description.

University Pedagogy Course

The university has its own course in university pedagogy. These courses can be accessed by both permanent and temporary staff by applying for them. There is also a course in university pedagogy specially for PhD students. You will find more information on the courses on university pedagogy on the homepage of the Program for University Pedagogy: https://www.uib.no/uniped

Infrastructure

In normal teaching rooms there are digital facilities available, such as PCs connected to the internet and projectors. If the IT equipment does not work, you can contact the IT department at UiB. The telephone number you should ring in case of difficulties is usually given in the teaching room. It is often wise to check out the room and the IT equipment before the first class. The rooms are usually equipped with the normal facilities like a chalkboard, whiteboards or flipcharts. It is always a good idea to take your own whiteboard marker with you!

The person responsible for the course has responsibility for putting together the examination questions/tasks and planning how the examinations will be held together with the study and examination advisors.

Some subject areas have their own meetings in which the examinations are planned. Check with the subject coordinator to find out how things are usually done in your subject. People who have taught the course before you can likely give you tips concerning the examination questions/tasks.

The study and examination advisors will inform you about relevant deadlines for sending in examination questions and tasks and for entering the questions etc in the digital examination platform, Inspera. Contact the examination advisor in plenty of time if you have questions about how the examinations will be held.

Together with the examination advisor, the person responsible for the course is responsible for setting the time and date of oral exams (‘muntlig eksamen’), take-home examinations (‘hjemmeeksamen’), and the submission of portfolio examinations (‘mappeoppgave’). These types of examinations are usually held or due in the middle or towards the end of the semester.

Oral Examinations (‘Muntlig’)

There must be a schedule for oral examinations for a course. You should agree with the examination advisor how you will work together to sort this out.

At an oral examination there are at least two examiners, one of which must be an external examiner. If the external examiner is based outside of Bergen, the examination will normally take place on Skype. The examination advisor can help you with this.

Written Examinations (‘Skoleeksamen’)

The person responsible for the course is, as a general rule, responsible for going into the examination hall and checking on the students, answering brief questions etc (called a ‘trøsterunde’ in Norwegian). Check with the examination advisor whether there are students with special conditions sat at a different location to the majority of the students.

Examiners

The person responsible for the course is responsible for finding and contacting potential examiners. The examination advisors give the examiners access to the examination papers.

Deadline for Submitting Marks/Grades

The general deadline for submitting marks is three weeks after the examination, understood to be 21 days. When the deadline coincides with a public holiday, the deadline is extended by the corresponding length of time.

UiB’s regulations on admission, studies, evaluation and grading (in Norwegian only)

Supplementary Rules for Degrees at the Faculty of Humanities (in Norwegian only) 

Webpage of the Department of Linguistic, Literary and Aesthetic Studies

Support Services and Resources for Education

Room Booking