Course PhD-student as supervisor for undergraduate students – how and when?

The course A293/08 The PhD student as supervisor for undergraduate students is being offered by the Graduate School of Health, Aarhus University, 2024.

Criteria for participation: University degree in medicine, dentistry, nursing, or Master’s degree in other fields and/or postgraduate research fellows (PhD students and research-year medical students).

Requirements for participation: The course is designed for participants who undertake co-supervision of undergraduate students. It is recommended that the PhD student attending this course co-supervise undergraduate students during the course period.

Aim: As a part of their teaching responsibilities, PhD-students sometimes act as co-supervisors for undergraduate students’ bachelor projects, written assignments, master thesis, or research year assignments. In doing so, the PhD-students play an important role as a near-peer-supervisor guiding the students in their learning. This course aims to prepare PhD-students for their role as co-supervisors on undergraduate students’ assignments and/or learning processes. The course is relevant for all PhD students who wish to improve the quality of their supervision of undergraduate students.

Learning outcomes: By the end of the course, the participants can:

• Discuss and reflect on requirements and responsibilities of the different supervisor and co-supervisor roles,
• Provide feedback to undergraduate students’ written or oral presentation in a way that facilitates the undergraduate students’ learning process, and
• Acquire knowledge about undergraduate students’ expectations and interests to balance supervisor’s control and undergraduate students’ control of their projects.

Workload: The full workload of the course is expected to be 38 hours

Content: Before the first day of the course, participants read 1-2 articles and prepare a few online learning activities about their actual experiences with the supervision of undergraduate students.

The main themes of the two course days are:

• The roles, requirements, and responsibilities of the PhD-student as a co-supervisor.
• The power of feedback – how to provide feedback that promotes learning?
• Alignment of expectations and interests.
• Discussions and peer-feedback on the participants’ assignments.
• Product and process in the supervision – who controls the undergraduates’ project?
• The art of asking questions that promote learning in supervision.

Between the two course days, participants complete a larger assignment. The assignment includes interviewing a student and writing a short paper about supervision. In addition, participants read 2-4 articles.

Instructors: Mette Krogh Christensen (course organizer) and Iris Marie Pedersen, Centre for Educational Development.

Venue: Centre for Educational Development, building 1910, room 228, Aarhus University, Aarhus

Participation in the course is without cost for:

• PhD students, Health Research Year students from Aarhus University
• PhD students enrolled at partner universities of the Nordoc collaboration
• PhD students from other institutions in the open market agreement for PhD courses

Course dates:

• 19 April 2024
• 29 April 2024 09:00 - 15:00
• 15 May 2024 09:00 - 15:00