Based on the degree programme’s tradition and field of study, this course provides a general overview of the characteristics, practices and quality standards of the academic genre, as well as a number of specific and directly applicable tools in order to strengthen the students’ academic skills and competences. Among other things, the course focuses on academic work processes, feedback models and academic presentation, oral and in writing.
The course is based on a wish to establish the students’ ability to communicate both orally and in writing at an early stage in their education. It is also desirable that the students have a positive first impression of the different methods in the course. Moreover, the course includes a dimension of articulating and discussing student life and the students’ academic identity and helping them to build a good student life.
It is a purpose of the course that the students gain knowledge of academic genre comprehension, communication and production, skills within the academic work and methods of the subject field, and the ability to structure their own work processes. Moreover, students should develop competences to participate in an appreciative feedback culture, present academic knowledge, be critical of sources and handle academic texts appropriately.
The course is designed as a mix of lectures and classroom instruction and includes topics such as an introduction to life as an academic in the humanities, the academic process, including reading, note-taking, collaboration and feedback, oral and written communication, life as a students, rhetoric and argumentation, and a focus on being ethical, critical and credible.
In the teaching sessions, the amount of input from the teacher is kept at a minimum; instead, great emphasis is on exercises focusing on the academic aspect of beginning a university education as well as on the more personal aspects of the transition to life as a university student. At the same time, it is essential that the students in their own time read relevant information included in the course and not only rely on input from the teacher.
Non-hierarchical and dialogic pedagogics are central in the course, which offers the students a ‘safe space’ in which they are invited to express the frustrations and challenges encountered in their new degree programme.
See course handbook. (in Danish).
One of the strengths of the course is to ensure a high basic academic level, which is evident already from the first semester of the degree programme, where the students achieve more confidence regarding formalities and the methods of the course. Moreover, the course has a positive effect on the students’ sense of mastering their life as a student.
The dialogical pedagogical approach and low degree of redundancy between syllabus and lectures may cause the students to experience the course as chaotic. It is therefore important to focus explicitly on creating overview and transparency for the students.
This example of practice is developed in connection to "Projekt 1. studieår", where initiatives for retention at the faculty of arts at Aarhus University was mapped.
