Category Archives: Director of First and Second Cycle Education

GA blog post

This entry was posted on by Annika Lilja.

Finally we have reached the end of the spring semester after a very intense period. The last couple of weeks my time has been filled with both examination, research conferences and the graduation ceremony for masters, masters of engineering and architects in the City Hall. The graduation ceremony was a new experience for me, and during this ceremony the presentation of the diplomas to each graduate was mixed with musical entertainment by the KTH academic orchestra conducted by director musices Gunnar Julin and the student choir. It was a very impressive and an incredible nice arrangement, I really appreciated the opportunity to present and congratulate all of ITMs graduates 🙂

But I have also, as probably most of you, put a lot of time the last couple of weeks on grading, for example master thesis projects. I really think supervising master thesis projects is a rewarding teaching effort, since these students are almost finished with their education and therefore are ready to apply all parts of it. It’s thrilling to be able to see the students execute this in a satisfactory way.

Finally, some educational issues being discussed at KTH tight now. For instance; there is a lot of discussions on how to enhance the quality assurance process (course evaluations and analyses), what the content of the program analysis should be, and off course the shift from Bilda till Canvas. Hope you all have attended a workshop and feel prepared for teaching with the help of Canvas as of this fall semester.

But before we all start to think about the fall I want to wish you all a Glad Midsommar and hope you have a nice vacation.

/ Anna Jerbrant, GA

Time to summarize

This entry was posted on by Annika Lilja.

A very intense week is about to be completed, since the term is about to end. Time to summarize all P4 courses and complete the work of writing and correcting all the examination. But this week has also offered other exciting and interesting education-focused events. For instance, yesterday (on Wednesday) all the schools GA & PA had a rally discussing both the program analysis, that all schools recently have developed, as well as different prioritized development inquiries, performed during the spring. It was interesting to note that there are several common progress areas where we can benefit from networking and collaboration. For instance, lots of the presentations discussed the need for increased sustainability, gender equality and quality assurance in several of the educations.

Next week we can look forward to having a dialogue focused on educational quality with e.g. the President Sigbritt Karlsson and also the vice dean of faculty Per Berglund (who is responsible for the education at Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD levels). It will give us the possibility to describe and discuss the strengths and opportunities, as well as threats, for all of our education on 1st, 2nd and 3rd cycle level at the school. Hopefully it will be rewarding.

But for now, let’s enjoy the coming summer weather and bring e.g. the master thesis reading with us outdoors.

/ Anna Jerbrant, GA

”Ny vecka och ny vardag. Men Ă€ndĂ„ inte.”

This entry was posted on by Anna Eklund.

SÄ inledde rektor Sigbritt Karlsson sin blogg i mÄndags, och jag kan bara hÄlla med. Det har den hÀr veckan har Campus kÀnts annorlunda, stillsamt; kanske eftersom mÄnga av lÀrarna haft pÄsklov och kanske för att mÄnga av studenterna förberett sig inför omtentorna, men troligtvis eftersom ni, liksom jag, pÄ olika sÀtt funderat och reflekterat kring den tragedi som intrÀffade pÄ Drottninggatan i fredags.

Men samtidigt hĂ€nder det ocksĂ„ mycket medryckande saker kring utbildningsfrĂ„gorna pĂ„ KTH & ITM just nu. I skolledningen har vi arbetat med det skriftliga underlag som ska lĂ€mnas in i slutet av april inför dialogen med rektor kring vĂ„ra utbildningars kvalitet. Som nybliven GA har det varit vĂ€ldigt roligt att fĂ„ en snabb och ansenlig insikt i bĂ„de styrkor och förbĂ€ttringspotential hos vĂ„ra utbildningar. I mitten pĂ„ mars arrangerade ocksĂ„ rektor en work-shop dĂ„ fakulteten fick möjlighet att diskutera digitalisering och internationalisering, det var mycket intressant och givande. Dessutom pĂ„gĂ„r just nu ett förberedelsearbete med KTHs nya utvecklingsplan, bĂ„de centralt och i ITMs skolledning. Utvecklingsplanen som ska gĂ€lla frĂ„n 2018 kommer fokuseras pĂ„ tre viktiga omrĂ„den; jĂ€mstĂ€lldhet, hĂ„llbarhet och internationalisering. PĂ„ ITM faculty club mötet i juni kommer vi alla dĂ€rför fĂ„ möjlighet att diskutera den kommande utvecklingsplanen sĂ„ dĂ„ hoppas jag pĂ„ stor anslutning av utbildningsengagerade lĂ€rare 🙂

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That’s how headmaster Sigbritt Karlsson began her blog this Monday, and I can only agree. This week campus has felt different, more silent; maybe because many of us teachers has had spring break and maybe because many of the students has focused on their re-exams, but most likely because many of us, in different ways, have been thinking and reflecting due to the tragedy that occurred at Drottninggatan last Friday. My thoughts are also with those people who are still trying to heal their injuries.

But at the same time a lot of very compelling things focused on educational issues are happening at KTH and ITM right now. The school administration has worked with the report for the dialogue with the principal about the quality in our programs and educations that is to be submitted in late April. As newly appointed dean of education it has been very nice to get a quick and significant insight into both the strengths and improvement needs of our educations. In mid-March the headmaster also initiated a workshop where the faculty had the opportunity to discuss digitization and internationalization, it was very interesting and rewarding. In addition, ongoing right now is the preparatory work with KTH’s new development, both centrally and at the ITM school. The development plan will apply from 2018 and will focus on three key areas; equality, sustainability and internationalization. At ITM Faculty Club meeting in June, we will all have the opportunity to discuss the coming development plan, so I hope that many of us education dedicated teachers will participate then!

 

GA Lundqvist signing off!

This entry was posted on by Annika Lilja.

With the first half of the blog I would like to take the opportunity to thank all my colleagues at the ITM School for many years of collaborative efforts. The role of GA at the school is both rewarding and challenging for sure. It has been thrilling, frustrating, fun but always very meaningful. There is a unique tradition at the ITM School to strive for world class education in our program and I really have to thank all teachers and our educational administration for your efforts and everlasting ambition even when we struggled with external reviews, new programs, tight deadlines, loads of papers to sign and thousands of ambitious but impatient students.  This year campus VallahallvÀgen becomes 100 years old. In 2019 IVA becomes 100 years old. One new project is therefore to highlight the role of engineers in our society over 100 years but also how the engineering profession and education has changed.  Since I have been GA at ITM for a substantial part of the 100 y period I have now volunteered for this project. All input is therefore welcome!

Since Anna Jerbrant is now taking over as GA I leave it to her to finish this blog post off. Take it away, Anna!

Thanks Pelle, but since you’re staying as vice GA we will be able to benefit from your extensive experience and knowledge a while longer. So who am I? I’m an associate professor at Indek and I’ve spent my days at campus KTH ever since the 90ties, when I became a student within the mechanical engineering program. For the major during the final one and a half year I choose Industrial economics and management, and by the time I graduated I realized that this was a subject area that I wanted to learn even more about. So I stayed at KTH as a Ph.D student and after that I’ve earned both a licentiate degree and a Ph.D degree within Industrial economics and management.

I have been teaching and developing courses here at KTH for a long time. This has resulted in the fact that I have taught on many different levels (basic, individual, advanced and executive level), as well as in various contexts (national and international, in academia and in industry), and in many different ways (giving supervision, coaching, guest lectures, seminars and being the course responsible teacher). Besides being a researcher and a teacher I have also been the program director (PA) for the I-programme (2010-2016) an exciting and sometimes grueling task. In 2014, KTH launched the pedagogical developers initiative, appointing part-time pedagogical developers among teachers from all schools of KTH. During the first year I had the pleasure of being one of five PDs at the ITM-school. Being part of the work to set up a community of practice with all involved teachers that was form during this period was enthralling.

So from march 1st I will have the opportunity to engage in all educational issues that are ongoing at the ITM-school, for the moment with some particular interest in the areas of quality assurance through course and program evaluations, changes in education due to digitalization (f.i. flipped classroom pedagogics), design of program integrated courses and pedagogical faculty development.

/ Per Lundqvist & Anna Jerbrant, GA

Our new GRU-organization is launched!

This entry was posted on by Annika Lilja.

The new organisational model chosen for the educational leadership at the ITM School is finally live.  The structure was developed during 2016 after through discussions. The educational board (UN) of ITM is now replaced with the”ITM Utbildingsutskott”. The idea behind the new model is a more efficient organization able to capitalize also on competences and experience from our director of studies and master program chairs. The “old” board only consisted of the five and three years program chairs and the student representatives from each program.

Now when the new structure is up and running several other constellations will be formed as forums for exchange of experience and information between directors of studies and program chairs. One group will be devoted to the student representatives. All groups will get administrative support from ITM administration. The first version of the educational board consists of two 5yr program chairs: (Hans Havtun EGI and Anders Söderberg MMK), two master program chairs (Gunilla Ölundh Sandström, MMK and Lars Uppvall, Indek) and two directors of studies (Viktoria Martin EGI and Lasse WingĂ„rd, IIP) and finally program students for M (Louise Rosenblad) and I (Daniel Berlin) + Andreas Alm Arvidsson (Secretary) and Henrik Sahlström from out student office.

The idea is that the positions will “roll” with a yearly change but with a 6 moth overlap to combine continuity with renewal. We are however still working on the details for this and the final form will be set during the spring. We are for instance aware of the poor representation of our SödertĂ€lje Campus.

The council had its first meeting January 24th. Upcoming meetings are planned for Feb 21, Mars 21, April 18 and May 16. All of them between 9.00 and 11.00.

/Per Lunqvist, GA