The Bachelor in Special Education programme has been designed in such a way that the courses and work on these courses will help students progress towards the intended learning outcomes described in Chapter 2 of this programme description.

Each course has been created to showcase the breadth of knowledge, skills and general expertise, reflecting the field. Some of the courses focus more on learning outcomes, while others focus on developing specific skills and others include several skills at the intersection between theory and practice. This is reflected in teaching. The working, teaching and assessment methods for each course have been selected to provide an appropriate and meaningful correlation between the desired learning outcomes, the teaching methods used and the final examination at the end of the course. The methodological choices will also reflect the contribution of the course to the programme as a whole. Students will therefore encounter varied learning activities during their period of study, a variation that, overall, will reflect the field for which students are training.

An important aspect of the Bachelor in Special Education is developing broad expertise within the field and training students for independent work. The teaching and learning materials available in the learning platform aim to illustrate, elaborate on and supplement the syllabus.

As with all higher education, Kristiania University College sets out requirements concerning students’ independent learning work. The University College assumes responsibility for facilitating students’ work through properly designed learning. The actual learning takes place on the part of the individual student and will be the result of their own work.

Once an online student has been admitted to one or more courses, the student will have access to relevant courses via the learning platform, information about how different subjects in the courses relate to one another and the sequence in which they should be completed. Each course contains a series of practice assignments/self-assessments that will help students evaluate their progression and whether their learning objectives are being reached.

The courses are divided into modules. Each module will consist of instructional texts, video lectures and/or other teaching videos. Each course has coursework requirements that must be approved before students can sit for an examination. Examples of coursework requirements may include written assignments, tests, reflective writing or digital presentations. The academic supervisor will provide feedback on the student’s coursework requirements for the purpose of strengthening the learning process and students’ academic work.

The learning platform provides access to the digital tools needed in order to communicate with supervisors and fellow students, plan your own course progression, find relevant collaborators and easily connect with administrative support staff who work specifically with online studies.

Students who require supervision outside of scheduled teaching may access the University College’s academic resources, including administrative staff, librarians, digital learning resources (e.g. online films) and student supervisors. These may be contacted by individual students as needed.

In addition to literature and assistance with literature searches, the library also offers various training courses in academic writing.

An assessment refers to a situation in which a submitted or presented piece of work is assessed against a set of criteria. The criteria are set by the learning outcomes defined for each course. Assessments may be performed by fellow students, teachers or examiners. These generally lead to feedback, either for the purpose of guidance or as a grade (examinations).

At Kristiania University College, we distinguish between assessment as learning, assessment for learning and assessment of learning. The format of the assessed work (format of assessment) may be the same in all three of these assessment scenarios but the purpose varies.

The purpose of assessment as learning (peer assessment) and for learning (feedback from the academic supervisor) is to create a learning process in order to help students achieve the best possible learning outcomes. We consider these types of assessment to be part of our teaching methods, which can be found in Chapter 4.1.

The assessment of learning is a final assessment in which the actual learning outcomes achieved are assessed through an examination. At Kristiania University College, examinations are defined as follows: “An examination is a final assignment within a course or a limited sub-course”. The submitted or presented work will be assessed by an examiner and the outcomes of the assessment will be included in the grade transcript.

All examinations in the Bachelor in Special Education are conducted as digital home exams. Students will encounter some of the following examination methods:

Oral examination
Multiple choice
Written individual exam
Portfolio examination
Bachelor’s thesis

Oral examination
An oral examination provides students with the opportunity to present their own knowledge on a given topic in oral form, often accompanied by a presentation. The presentation will be based on one or more assignments that are either submitted during the examination or in advance.

Multiple choice
Multiple choice is an examination method that can be used to check how familiar students are with a subject area or topic. This involves asking questions with multiple choice options that can often be difficult to distinguish between. Multiple choice can be included as part of a written individual examination.

Written individual examination
A written individual examination is used to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate their own expertise at the end of a course. A written individual examination normally spans some time, anything from a few hours to several weeks, and students will have the opportunity to use permitted aids. This method is often used when you want to provide students with the opportunity to not only demonstrate their knowledge, but also their skills in applying such knowledge independently in given situations/to solve defined problems.

Portfolio examination
A portfolio examination extends over time, preferably for the duration of the course, and is often used when students are given the opportunity to demonstrate breadth in both knowledge and the use of varied interfaces and communication methods and/or when it is desirable for students to be able to present and be assessed on their own learning and work process.

Bachelor’s thesis
The programme will conclude with a bachelor thesis. The bachelor’s thesis will provide students with training in the use of key elements of the syllabus and the final bachelor’s work will provide a good overview of the candidate’s overall learning outcomes upon completion of the programme. The work on the bachelor thesis will be accompanied by individual or group supervision.

Compulsory activities are defined for all courses. Compulsory activities are graded as Approved/Not Approved and the right to take an examination in a course with compulsory activities requires any such activities to have been graded as Approved. Students will otherwise lose their right to take the examination for the course until the activities have been assessed as Approved.

For supplementary information about examinations and compulsory activities, please refer to the Kristiania University College website.

Study program BLK

Bachelor in Special Needs Education