THE REVIEW AND INTRODUCTION OF ECTS SYSTEM

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THE REVIEW AND INTRODUCTION OF ECTS SYSTEM
THE 2nd TEMPUS JEP WORKSHOP June, 16-17,
2008, Faculty of Organization Sciences,
University of Belgrade
Suzana Loskovska
Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information
Technologies, Skopje, R. Macedonia
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The European Credit Transfer System

• The European Credit Transfer and Accumulation
  System (ECTS) is a student-centered system based
  on the student workload required to achieve the
  objectives of a programme.

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ECTS Credits

• The most commonly used basis for measuring
  student workload in European higher education.
• Describe student workload in terms of time
  employed to complete a course or a course unit.
• The calculation of credits in terms of workload
  is a difficult issue.

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Credits in Terms of Workload

• Credit is a measure of workload of typical
  student based on the time necessary to complete a
  given teaching/learning unit.
• What is the typical student?
• The number of hours of student work required to
  achieve a given set of learning outcomes depends
  on student ability, teaching and learning
  methods, teaching and learning resources,
  curriculum design.

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Calculation of Workload

• Different approaches are used to calculate the
  student workload.
• Common items used to calculate workload are
• the total number of contact hours for the course
  unit
• number of hours per week x number of weeks
• preparation before and finalising of notes after
  the attendance of the lecture / seminar
• the amount of independent work required to finish
  the course successfully.

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Calculation of Workload

• Independent work can contain the following items
  
• the collection and selection of relevant
  material
• reading and study of the material
• preparation of an oral or written examination
• writing of a paper or dissertation
• independent work in a lab
• preparation for contact teaching sessions
  (revising course material, preliminary exercises,
  other intellectual training)
• doing tasks/exercises given during contact
  teaching time
• doing assignments
• other spontaneous work
• The calculation of workload in terms of credits
  is not an automatic process.

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Workload for Blended Courses

• Teaching methods
• Information transmission (lectures,
  demonstrations)
• Activity based teaching (guided exercises, active
  demonstrations, seminars)
• Assignment based teaching (research project, home
  essay...)
• Literature based learning
• Virtual teaching
• Via a computer network in electronic learning
  environments
• Teacher/tutor is present via electronic
  instrument students working with computer,
  searching for material, reading and writing
  (electronic) materials
• No face-to-face contact

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Workload for Blended Courses

• Time required in virtual teaching
• time for completing learning assignments
• time for communication with tutors and other
  course participants
• time for reading course literature of other study
  material
• time for material search
• time required to learn how to operate the
  software, learning environments and other special
  tools,
• time required for possible contact teaching
  modules connected with the course
• examples
• Time provided for electronic communication is
  estimated according to messages produced by a
  student - 100-200 words/hour
• Every new software application at least 8 hours
  is needed for learning how to use it
• Technical errors.. How much time?

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Methods for Credit Allocation in Curricula

• Experts identify three different methods of
  credits allocation within curricula
• The top-down method
• The bottom-up method
• Credit allocation by reference to learning
  outcomes.

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The Top-down Method

• the easiest method to allocate credits
• a programme is divided into course units or
  modules, to which are allocated a
  limited/reasonable number of credits in more or
  less standard multiples
• Advantages
• it might prevent too much fragmentation and
  avoids too many examinations.
• it makes the transfer of credits easier.
• Dissadvantages
• decreases the teaching freedom, when the amount
  of contact hours within the module is limited
• Problems
• How to assess credits for modules which are
  essentially different in character?
• How to cope with particular modules which,
  although involving the same amount of work for
  students, count for a different credit weighting
  when taken within different degree programmes?
• How to deal with programme building unless one
  makes sure that all modules fit together in a
  coherent fashion?

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Credit allocation for MSc in elearning

• The courses included in the curriculum were
  determined so the top-down method is the easiest
  method and most suitable for credit allocation.
• To achieve (arithmetical) coherence of credits
  for different courses the credits for all modules
  are multiples of a given basic size.
• The basic size of a course is chosen to be 5
  credits and all the courses are awarded credits
  that are multiples of 5.

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The Bottom-up Method

• Credits are allocated to individual units or
  modules by calculating student workload by
  counting the hours of work.
• Attention is concentrated on how many actual
  hours it takes an average student to accomplish
  the work for a specific module, in an individual
  module or all the modules for an entire
  semesters or academic years work.
• The highly professional statistical surveys are
  carried out all over Europe.
• The average student estimates that he/she
  requires 1600 /- 200 hours to complete one
  academic years work.
• 1 ECTS credit is equivalent to something between
  25 and 30 hours of work.

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Possible problems
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Possible problems
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Credit Allocation According to Learning Outcomes

• The best way, to calculate the number of student
  hours for successfully completing a new module,
  is to identify and enumerate the learning
  outcomes and competences.
• Advantages
• The use of learning outcomes in describing
  programmes and individual modules helps to
  establish programme equivalence.
• Learning outcomes indicate equivalence in terms
  of both the volume and the level of those
  contents.
• This method enables the curriculum developer to
  look at exactly how much student effort is
  necessary to achieve the specified outcomes.
• In theory, this method of credit allocation is
  excellent and it is consistently used by those
  who design open and distance learning modules.

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Credit Allocation According to Learning Outcomes

• Problems
• The theory and the vocabulary of learning
  outcomes is still imprecise.
• Academics are often to be found in the process of
  developing a basic vocabulary for the whole area
  of learning outcomes.
• Much work is still in progress on reaching
  commonly accepted definitions of levels of
  learning. Levels are not necessarily related
  directly to years of study.
• The learning outcomes in individual cases may be
  very different from that which the teacher may
  primarily have had in mind.

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Which of the Three Methods is the Best?

• Because all three methods have problems and
  limitations, the best way is to use all three
  methods as far as possible, then each one can act
  as a check on the others.
• It is to be recommended that those charged with
  credit allocation within universities attempt
  first to use the simplest approach, and then pass
  on to the others as a check on that method if and
  when it has worked reasonably well.

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• Thank you for your attention!