What are Glossaries?

Lecturers use the course sheet(s) to indicate which combination of teaching and assessment methods they use in their course unit(s).  Our course sheets, and therefore also our students, benefit from clarity and uniformity. Therefore it is important that we all use “the same language”.  For that purpose, we developed a university-wide glossary of teaching methods and a glossary of assessment methods. These glossaries help lecturers to provide their students with simple, clear and unambiguous information on the teaching and assessment methods they use by means of the course sheet.  

What are the Benefits of These Glossaries?

The glossaries are useful for both students and lecturers, at the study programme and university-wide level: 

• Thanks to the uniform usage of terms and concepts in the course sheets, students get a more transparent idea of the expectations of study programmes and course units. 
• Lecturers can complete the course sheets more easily and confer with colleagues more easily because they interpret the terms and concepts in the same way. The glossary definitions of teaching and evaluation methods are phrased in a sufficiently generic way. Hence, each lecturer can always fit their specific teaching and evaluation methods within the broader context. 
• The study programme committee can more easily check whether all teaching and evaluation methods of the course units are properly aligned with one another and fit the study programme’s objectives. 
• Ghent University paints a clear picture of how its education is organized university-wide for external parties. 

Updated Glossaries

Because education is an ever-changing domain, it was time to update the glossaries.  The newly updated glossaries take into account the principles of “Enlightened University” (in Dutch: UGent Verlicht): they are comprehensive yet concise, because the overlapping entries have been eliminated. The updated glossaries are the result of consultation rounds with students, lecturers and education support staff from various faculties. These took place before and after the pandemic. 

What does this mean for lecturers? 

The new glossaries and other revisions will be implemented into the course sheets from the 2023-2024 academic year onwards.  This means that lecturers will be asked to use the new glossaries during the annual revision of their course sheets (February-May 2023).  Teaching and assessment methods featuring in the old as well as in the new glossary, or with a one-on-one equivalent, have been integrated into the new glossaries automatically.  For other teaching and assessment methods lecturers will have to insert a new term manually.  Take a look at the correlation table below to find out which teaching and assessment methods you will have to adjust on your course sheets.  

Updating the glossaries has also been an excellent opportunity to reflect on the teaching and assessment methods an sich.  When filling in your course sheets always keep in mind the principle of constructive alignment: think about your objectives (course competencies), how you want to achieve these competencies (teaching methods), and how you will assess them (assessment methods).   

As a lecturer, you should indicate which teaching and assessment methods you will apply in your course unit on the course sheet. In turn, the study programme committee should ensure that the whole of these teaching and assessment methods are balanced within the study programme. Therefore, it is most convenient if all employees define teaching and evaluation methods in the same way. To that end, Ghent University has developed a glossary of teaching methods and a glossary of assessment methods. 

Other Changes? 

The number of contact hours and their distribution over the teaching methods will disappear from the course sheet.  (Online) classes and the corresponding hours that need to be scheduled is information you provide through the survey on schedule-relevant data.   

A new section has been added to the course sheet, where lecturers can indicate whether or not a course unit is taught online entirely.  Please note that this section is only applicable to course units that are organized online entirely (classes as well as assessment).  If you tick this box you are contractually bound to offer everything online for all students taking this course. This is binding and you can not deviate from it. If you are still in doubt when completing the study sheet, do not tick this box but clarify via the extra information on the teaching and assessment methods what will and will not be online. 

The New Glossaries 

Updated Glossary of Teaching Methods

(click on + to see the definition)

 

Updated Glossary of Assessment Methods

(click on + to see the definition)

 

Both glossaries are included in the Education and Examination Code.   

Correlation Table 

The correlation tables above help you to familiarize yourself with the new glossaries.  Teaching or assessment methods featuring in the old as well as in the new glossary, or have a one-on-one equivalent, are adjusted in OASIS automatically.  If you notice that these automatic adjustments are incorrect, or if you want to change your teaching or assessment methods, you can always undo and correct them.   

Glossary of Teaching Methods

Old	New
Bachelor’s dissertation	Independent work
Guided self-study	Independent work
Demonstration	Lecture, seminar, practical
Excursion	Excursion
Group work	Group work
Lecture	Lecture
Lecture: Plenary exercises	Lecture
Lecture: Response lecture	Lecture
Integration seminar	Seminar, practical
Clinic	Clinic
Clinical lecture	Lecture
Clinical seminar	Seminar
Master’s dissertation	Master’s dissertation
Microteaching	Peer teaching
Research project	(Composition of e.g.) independent work, group work, lecture, seminar, Master’s dissertation
Online demonstration	Lecture, seminar, practical
Online discussion group	Independent work, group work
Online group work	Group work
Online lecture	Lecture
Online lecture: Plenary exercises	Lecture
Online lecture: Response lecture	Lecture
Online integration seminar	Seminar, practical
Online clinical lecture	Lecture
Online clinical seminar	Seminar
Online project	(Composition of e.g.) independent work, group work, lecture, seminar
Online seminar	Seminar
Online seminar: Supervised exercises	Seminar
Online seminar: Computer class exercises	Seminar
Problem-based tutorial	(Composition of e.g.) peer teaching, independent work, group work, lecture, seminar
Practical	Practical
Project	(Composition of e.g.) independent work, group work, lecture, seminar
Work placement	Work placement
Fieldwork	Excursion, practical
Seminar	Seminar
Seminar: Coached exercises	Seminar
Seminar: Computer class exercises	Seminar
Independent work	Independent work

 

Glossary of Assessment Methods 

Old	New
Assignment	Assignment
Behavioural assessment on the work floor	Professional practice
Open-book exam	Written open-book assessment, Oral open-book assessment
Oral exam	Oral assessment
Participation	Participation
Peer assessment	Peer and/or self-assessment
Portfolio	Assignment
Report	Assignment
Simulation	Professional practice, skills test
Skills test	Skills test
Written examination with multiple-choice questions	Written assessment with multiple-choice questions
Written examination with open-ended questions	Written assessment with open-ended questions
Written examination	Written assessment
	Presentation

 

Where to Find The Glossaries? 

The glossaries are part of the Education and Examination Code (section IX).