ECTS 1 & 2 completion

1) Brief explanation of ECTS2) Assistance on completing the ECTS 1 & 2

combined document for EUC courses.

By Andreas Grondoudis

What is ECTS?

• The name stands for European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System

• A mechanism to promote and assist higher-education student mobility where students can move from university to university taking courses that are compatible and interesting

• Many countries have agreed to adopt ECTS– 1000’s of universities have applied for the so-called ECTS-label– Less than 100 have been successful

• EUC is hoping to apply this coming January– Meaning that everything has to be done before Christmas

How does it work?

• Universities have programs– Programs have (sets of) courses

• Each course is worth some ECTS based on the student workload required.

• 1 ECTS is awarded for every 25-30 hours– Every semester must have 30 credits– Every year must have 60 credits– A 4-year degree has 240 ECTS credits

ECTS focus

• Learning outcomes: – What will the student have learned after

completing the workload?– How do we (as instructors)

• Deliver the material• Assess the successful ‘learning’ of the outcomes

• We must document and justify the required workload

Document and justify

• Complete the ECTS 1 planning form– Internal document; not to be publicised; will be

required for ECTS-label purposes– Contains: 1)Some demographics; 2)the learning

outcomes; 3)A weekly breakdown of the educational activities to achieve the learning outcomes; 4)A delivery and assessment scheme

• Complete the ECTS 2 summary form– Public document, to go on website– Contains: 1)Some demographics; 2)objectives;

3)Learning outcomes; 4)description; 5)bibliography 6)assessment scheme summary

What is required by us..

• The ECTS counts for programs have been calculated and course counts have been assigned– We don’t need to re-calculate the ECTS

• We need to:– Update the learning outcomes of courses and

match/link/associate them with workload and assessment– Present the ECTS1 information (workload hours) to match the

ECTS credit count– Complete/update any ECTS2 information

• Import all information to a database for future manipulation

The ECTS 1 & 2 spreadsheet

• Includes instructions• Includes a sample• Created to minimize input

– Copies information from 1 to 2 (where applicable)– Auto-calculates workload; assessment and ECTS

• Need to create one for each course you are responsible for– Usually after the first 2 things get a little easier

• Consult: 1)course syllabus; 2)course outline; 3)teaching experience; 4)any previous ECTS1 and ECTS2 documents

What is included?

• Once you open up the file you have a set of sheets at your disposal

• It will help if you read the instructions• You only complete ECTS1 and some remaining

sections in ECTS2

ECTS 1 – Demographics

From the syllabus and an existing ECTS2

The ECTS count• The ECTS credits is an auto-calculated field. Don’t edit it. • What should really happen is you should try and complete the

remainder of the form so that the count of hours justifies the ECTS credits allocated (according to syllabus = 8)

• So how do you know how many hours???

The learning outcomes

From an existing ECTS2 form

Competences to be developed

• Completed in according to and in line with the learning outcomes of the course itself. Wording is important to show what will the student be able to do…

• Didn’t write anything for the NUR101 (to show you) as it would have been nonsense

Workload and assessment

From syllabus (and logic)

Weekly breakdown

• Matching education activities with the learning outcomes and linking workload and assessment with educational activities

Weekly breakdown sample

From ECTS1_sample

ECTS count updated

• Now that some hours exist for some entries

ECTS 2 – Demographics• Some of

the details already copied over (as they were completed in ETS1)

Objectives and Learning outcomes

• Again, some details copied over from ECTS1

From syllabus(with some editing)

Description and teaching methods

From syllabus for description (but keep it short)

Bibliography & assessment• Assessment information copied over from ECTS1

From syllabus

Reminder: Aims and objectives

• We are – matching the given ECTS counts for each course so

that the ECTS1 planning form justifies the credit given

– One form per course (already taught)– If a course has not been taught: program coordinators

to provide forms• Partially complete ECTS 1 (leave out the weekly breakdown)• Complete ECTS2

– updating the learning outcomes for our courses– Doing everything in English

A final word

• Your contribution finishes here.• From there onwards

– Courses need to be collected– Information imported in a database for easier manipulation– Packages to be prepared (one for every program) and submitted

with the ECTS application

• Let’s not forget– Feedback from the students for the proposed workload– Re-examination and correction(s)– Checking of all information by the official body for awarding the

<ECTS label>

More information and help

• http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-policy/doc48_en.htm• http://faculty.euc.ac.cy/agondoudis/ects

• Read the instructions tab

• Points to remember– Only complete white areas

– Do NOT complete gray areas (they are automatically completed if applicable)

– If you cannot write somewhere, it probably means that you are not meant to write there

– One spreadsheet per course• Save as COURSE_CODE-ECTS.xls (EDG123-ECTS.xls, BUS101-

ECTS.xls, ect