The EMMC-ChIR is an Erasmus Mundus master course offered by a consortium of four European universities from four different countries. The course consists of a large (ca. 60) number of short modules, lectured by ca. 40 different lecturers who may come from any country of the world. In order to achieve a coherent study programme, it is necessary to define a set of guidelines for lecturers to develop their modules in ChIR. This procedure describes these guidelines. It is not intended to be restrictive and should not be interpreted as a set of rigid rules, but rather as suggestions to help lecturers build balanced modules.

EMMC-ChIR (or just ChIR)– Erasmus Mundus Master in Chemical Innovation and Regulation

PMT – Programme Management Team

PC – Programme Coordinator

PD – Programme Director

ECTS – European Credit Transfer System

PMT:

- assures lecturers receive and follow this procedure. PDs are responsible for informing teaching staff from their own university.

- Evaluates each new module to check if it is in agreement with the guidelines stated in this procedure.

- Assures the quality assessment report is prepared and sent to the lecturer.

PD:

- Assures there are conditions for the module to take place: classrooms, schedules, laboratory material, etc.

- Assures communication between students and the Lecturer

- Collects grades form lecturers and transmits them to the students, after verifying they are complete and according to the EMMC-ChIR requirements.

Lecturer:

- Develops the module

- Communicates to the PD which are the resources necessary to run the module

- Runs the module

- Evaluates the students and send the information to the PD

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One module is a part of a discipline offered in ChIR, usually of 2 ECTS credits, lectured independently from other modules. In the ECTS, 1 credit refers to 25 hours of student workload. 2 ECTS credits refer to 50 h of student total workload. This corresponds to one week (42 h) and an additional period of 8 h for preparing for and making examinations. A student is expected to take only one module at a time, and will be exclusively dedicated to this module. Exceptionally, students may be allowed to take two modules in one week, but must be aware that this will require an exceptional effort from them in that week (equivalent to working for 12h per day). Students will not be allowed to register for more than two modules taking place in the same week.

Lecturers are asked to complete a Module Descriptor (following the Model M020401) describing in detail the module they propose to lecture. This descriptor is analysed and approved by the PMT. Lecturers are free to make small adjustments to the module descriptor, and are asked to provide the students and the PMT with its most updated version every year, before the first class.

Students are expected to work 50 h for each module. This includes both contact hours (classes) and lone study. Contact hours take place typically four days per week, on monday-thursday. Fridays are usually reserved for the students to complete assignments and make examinations for other modules. There may be exceptions, such as when there is a holiday in the middle of the week. The number of contact hours may vary in each module from 20 to 40% (10 to 20 hours). Contact hours may be theoretical classes, practical classes (exercises and problem solving), laboratory exercises, field work, seminars or tutorials, depending on the nature of the module. Modules that are more theoretical have about 20 % contact time, mostly theoretical and tutorial classes. Modules with a strong practical component typically have about 40 % contact time, mostly laboratory and/or practical classes. Typically, a theoretical module would have 10 h of classes, 2.5 h/day (four days). In this case, students should study by themselves an average of 5-6 h/day . The lecturer should provide study material (chapters to read, notes, exercises, assignments…) to fill this time.

ChIR classes are taught in English. Lecturers are advised to prepare classes in the clearest way possible taking into account the diversity of nationalities and backgrounds of the Erasmus Mundus students. For example, preparing written slides containing the subjects to be taught is a good way of helping students follow the class, even if they have difficulty understanding some words.

The examination criteria should be described fully in the Module Descriptor.

In the first class, when starting the module, the lecturer should explain how the evaluation will be done and which will be the evaluation criteria and which materials and resources the students will be allowed to use.

In the case of written exams details on the grading criteria should be clearly stated in the exam. For example, in case of multiple choice questions it should be clear which is the value for a correct and for an incorrect answer.

Because modules are only 2 ECTS credits, student evaluations should be based on student output rather than examinations or tests. A range of different assessment methods are used based on work assignments such as laboratory reports, developing operating procedures, doing laboratory audits, writing literature reviews, seminars or poster presentations. If possible, sitting examinations should be avoided. Lecturers should take into account that the students will have 8 h for preparing and doing examinations for one module. This time can be used by a student during the week in which the module is taught or in the following weeks. In any case, either the evaluation method can be completed in 8 h, or it should be started during the lecturing week.

The examinations/assignments should not be completed in the same week of classes, i.e., the students should be given time to study after the module takes place. Typically, the deadline for submitting assignments/examinations is one month after the last day of classes. This does not mean that some components of the evaluation are not completed during the week of classes, but they should not be the only components of evaluation.

After teaching the module, most lecturers will leave the Host University. The communication between the lecturer and the students should be maintained from then on. This includes distributing documentation, material for examinations, results of examinations (grades), surveys, feedback from lecturer to students (regarding details of the evaluation) and from students to lecturer (surveys, questions and open discussions).

The preferred means of communication will be the ChIR Moodle webpage:

http://emmcchir.org/ChIRM/login/index.php

Lecturers will be provided a username, password and instructions to access and use the Moodle.

Lecturers are encouraged to use the Moodle instead of email, in particular for distributing study materials and information regarding examinations.

Lecturers are strongly encouraged to make available lecture notes and other study materials. These should be directly uploaded to the ChIR Moodle. Alternatively, the lecturer may send the materials to the Host University PD who will upload them to the Moodle. The preferred format is electronic pdf format. Lecturers are also required to deliver to the PD a copy of the final exam, examination questions, examination assignment or other evaluation procedure used to grade the students.

Because the ChIR is taught by a large group of lecturers of different nationalities, and each country follows a different grading scale, the ChIR created its own grading system. The ChIR scale ranges from 0-100. In addition, the ECTS grading scale is used to facilitate credit transfer and transparency. This scale has been adopted by European Universitis within the Bologna process, and ranks students on a statistical basis, according to Table 1.

For new modules, when lecturers do not have enough data to apply a statistical (ECTS) scale, they may use the absolute grade and assign the ECTS scale as they find reasonable. A relation between the ECTS scale, the ChIR scale and the national scales in the ChIR consortium is suggested in Table 2.

Table 2 – Suggested relation between the statistical and absolute scales.

Lecturers are required to fill the Students’ Grade Record (M020501), sign it and deliver it to the PD. The PD will communicate these to the students. Lecturers are also encouraged to give feedback to the students about their evaluations (see 5.13 below). It is important for each student to have some information on what they did well and not so well in the assignment(s) and the reasons for their grades. In ChIR, most lecturers will not be available in person for the students after the week in which classes take place. Therefore, lecturers should have a particular care on sending additional information about each student’s performance, besides the grade.

As a rule, the deadline for students delivering assignments is one month after the module classes have finished. More precisely, it is the midnight (of the Host institution) of the fourth Friday after the last class is completed. A different deadline may be used, provided it is agreed in advance between the lecturer and the students. Assignment should be submitted preferably using the Moodle platform. A copy of all assignments submitted by the students must be kept by the Host institution. In case the assignments are delivered to the lecturers by email, students are required to send a carbon copy to the email address emmcchir@ualg.pt. This address sends an automatic reply confirming reception of the email. Lecturers are asked to provide the results of their evaluation within one month, maximum two months, after they receive the assignments. Feedback to students: after receiving their grades, students are eager for detailed information about their evaluation. This can be particularly difficult after the lecturer has returned to a different country, and cannot spend time writing detailed reports for each student. We suggest that you use the Moodle platform to provide comments to students or, if nothing else, fill a simple form for each student (model M020505 is provided as an example), which helps him/her understand why he/she was given a certain grade.

Resident teaching staff at the host University is available to the students throughout the teaching period devoted to the Masters. In addition, the resident staff put up a weekly timetable for student consultation equal to half of the weekly teaching time. The visiting teaching staff should be available to the students throughout the week(s) that they teach both in teaching sessions and other times as arranged. During the rest of the year the visiting staff will be available via email.

Attendance to all classes is mandatory for all students, except in very special cases and with strong justification. These cases should be presented to and approved by the PMT. The PMT provides the lecturers with an attendance list (M020502), which should be signed by all present students in each class. The lecturers are asked to pass this list, and remind the students to sign it. The signed presence lists should be returned to the PD at the end of the module.

In the end of each module, both the students and the lecturer are asked to fill a questionnaire evaluating the global quality of the module, including classes, facilities and study material. Both questionnaires (M020503 and M020504) were adapted from the SEEQ reference questionnaire - Student Evaluation of Educational Quality developed by H. W. Marsh (British Journal of Educational Psychology, 1982, 72, pp.77-95). The lecturer's questionnaire mirrors the students’ questionnaire. It is intended to assess the perception of the module by the lecturer. Comparison of the perceptions of the lecturer and students gives a measure of how well “tuned” classes were in each module. In addition to the SEEQ questionnaire, open questions allow both students and lecturers to write comments and suggestions on the taught modules.

A Quality Assessment Report will be elaborated and sent to the lecturer, who may use it to improve the module in future editions of ChIR.

The module questionnaires are analysed by the ChIR Examiners Board and used for the annual quality assessment report of the ChIR.

Below are a few examples of comments by Erasmus Mundus students (transcribed from another Erasmus Mundus Master course), which allowed the improvement of modules:

“Some lectures are not so pedagogic, or the English is hard to understand.”

“Some of the professors didn't have a good english level being difficult sometimes to keep up with the lectures.”

“There was no feedback from professor about grades.”

“There is not enough database from library,sometimes papers are not available”

“Overlapping of programes (some professors do not give the assignments on time, this should not overlap with other next modules)”

“It would have been a whole lot better if the examples were solved by everybody in the class or given as assignments then the solutions were discussed thoroughly in the class.”

“The lecturer just read the slides. The explanation is not clear/The relevant examples were mostly Spanish. It was better to understand if they were in English”

“Everyday homework (few exercises) can help the students to grasp the concepts better./ Recommended bibliography, and solutions for the exercises would have helped to study.”

Lecturers may consult the Calendar for Classes online in the form of a google calendar in the following address:

https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=e8l7govbncv538g5p1sn3l1ksg%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=Europe/Barcelona

Before the beginning of each module , lecturers are sent by the PD a package of information, including:

- the study plan for each student, where it is possible to see which students are taking which modules and which modules they already have taken;

- a pdf file with information about the background of each student.

Lecturers will also receive the following documents, which should be filed and returned to the PD after the end of the module and the evaluations:

- M020501 – the format in which student’s grades should be recorded;

- A questionnaire (M020504) for Quality Assessment;

- a pdf file – model M020505 - which the lecturer can use to give feedback about each student’s evaluation.

- practical information explaining how to reach the residence, the campus and the location of the classroom(s).

Lecturers are required to officialise their evaluation of the students by filling the M020501 – Student’s grades record and signing it. It is mandatory to fill two grades – one in an absolute scale (0-100%) and the other in the ECTS scale (A-E). In case a student fails, an F should be recorded in the ECTS scale. The completed record should be signed and sent to the PD. An electronic copy may be sent by email, but eventually the signed hard copy must be delivered to the PD. Lecturers are suggested to send, together with M020501, feedback about their evaluations in the form of model M020505. This document can be filled electronically and does not need to be printed. Nevertheless, in some operative systems it is not possible to save the changes made to the file. In this case, the model can be printed, filled by hand and returned to the PD. The PD will then distribute each document to the respective student.

Input

Module descriptor

Study Plan

Output

Quality Assessment Report

List of student Grades

Related documents:

Models:

M020401 – Module descriptor

M020501 – Students’ grades record

M020502 – Attendance List

M020503 - Student Questionnaire

M020504 - Lecturer Questionnaire

M020505 – Student Evaluation Feedback

M020506 – Convertion of ChIR grades into national scales

Version 0.1 140214 - added more detailed text to 5.5. regarding grading of multiple choice examinations.

Version 0.2 141006 - formatted table 2 and updated link to Google calendar for Barcelona. Updated 5.13 with practical information for lecturers.

Version 0.3 150918 - corrected table 2 and updated it according to M020506 approved in August 2015.

Version 0.4 170217 - corrected email address and added Moodle in 5.9. APPROVED IN PMT9.