Module coordination

Like in any design process, it is good to start the design of a module or project with an overall goal or vision.

On an organizational level, the University of Twente created a clear vision for bachelor's education, resulting in a design framework: project-based work in modules of 15 EC, Student-Driven Learning, and students working in three roles (researcher, designer, and organizer). The vision of the University of Twente is that these three aspects will create high-skilled UT professionals who comply with the demands of the labour market. For more information, see the TOM website.

How to translate this vision in the specific module is up to the moduleteam in consultation with the programme director. What do you expect from students when it comes to planning? Which role(s) do they have to take in the different aspects of the module? Do they have to switch between several roles, or should a certain role dominate? Working from a shared vision in the module makes it easier to create cohesion among the different learning activities, which helps students to see underlying relationships in your discipline.

The overall role of the module coordinator is to have an overview of the content and the organisation of the module.

The specific tasks of the module coordinator differ among faculties. Some module coordinators may be spending their time more on creating integration and setting up assessment plans, while others spend most of their time on the administrative tasks. This also depends on the role of the programme coordinator and the programme director in the programme management team.

This freedom in dividing tasks among the various teaching staff is highly appreciated. Therefore, there is no central description of what a module coordinator should or shouldn't do. Though it is important to have clear agreements on who does what to prevent problems and extra work.

The matrix for dividing tasks can be used to clarify the division of tasks within a module. Feel free to complement and supplement this matrix within your programme.

In every faculty, there is a small, accessible budget available for a module team. With this budget module, teams have the opportunity to do ‘fun’ stuff in the module, like team building, pizza sessions with students, or celebrating success. The idea is to strengthen both the feeling of appreciation and autonomy.  

Ask your programme coordinator or programme director about this budget.

The Centre for Educational Support (CES) provides protocols and overviews to support you as a module coordinator in key administrative tasks. In the Process descriptions and deadlines, you’ll find an overview of the planning protocols process. 

At the UT most modules are evaluated at the end of the quartile by a Student Experience Questionnaire (SEQ). The SEQ results are quantitative and show how students appreciate the module. These results can be used as a signal for further investigation. A valuable addition to the SEQ to get a more complete impression is when it is combined with ‘panel meetings’ with students and/or teachers. The latter gives you the opportunity to collect more in-depth information about the module. The organization and structure of these panel meetings differ among the faculties. You can contact the quality assurance staff of your faculty for more information regarding the SEQ and panel meetings.

Besides evaluating the module at the end of the quartile, it is also important to conduct evaluation activities during the module. It can help you to recognize problems students experience, and to make adjustments during the module, if that is necessary. In some modules, panel meetings are organized at the halfway point of the quartile, whilst in other modules, coordinators just informally ask a few students after a lecture or project team meeting if they experience any problems.

An assessment plan is needed to create a clear overview of the relationship between the learning objectives of the module and the final qualifications of the programme. An assessment plan helps you to ensure the validity and reliability, for example, by ordering the final qualifications, course content, course aims, assessment methods, and weighting of results.

The what, why and how of assessment in higher education received the last couple of years a lot of attention (Bailey, Floersheim & Ressler, 2002). Assessment can be used to determine the level of understanding of the students, but assessment can also be a very powerful learning tool.

An assessment plan gives insight into what and how you assess the students (on) and shows the balance between assessment of learning and assessment for learning.

The assessment for learning approach (Schuwirth & Van der Vleuten, 2011) can be summarized by more dispersed test administration, regular feedback, and assessment as an integral aspect of the educational programme. This approach to assessment fits well with the UT vision for our bachelor's education.

If you are interested, you can go to the website of Cambridge, which is also exploring the possibilities of assessment for learning. 

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