Didactic Competence Profile (Pædagogiskkompetenceprofil)
Responsibilities (Ansvarsområder)
Organization, execution and evaluation of courses
(Tilrettelæggelse, gennemførsel og evaluering af kurser)
The teaching is related to the following educations at FARMA.
BSc in Pharmacy – 3-year program, MSc in Pharmacy – 2-year program
MSc in Pharmaceutical Sciences – 2-year program
General and Inorganic Chemistry (Chemical Principles)– compulsory course (BSc), 220 students:
Tutorials and laboratory exercises (1986-1988)
Course responsible from 2011-2013
Reorganization of course and renewal of all course material 2011-2012
Lectures 2012-2013
Introductory Pharmaceutical Course (interdisciplinary problem-based course) – compulsory course (BSc):
Participation in course development 1997-1998
Teacher for groups in problem-based leaning, 1998, 1999, 2005
Course co-responsible 1998-1999
Instrumental Analytical Chemistry – compulsory course (BSc) 200 students:
Lectures, laboratory exercises, writing of laboratory exercise manual, writing of instrument manuals, development of examination papers.
Lecturer, and co-examiner since 1995.
Course responsible since 2005.
Pharmaceutical Analytical Chemistry – compulsory course (BSc) 200 students:
(New version of Instrumental Analytical Chemistry, Pharma 2020 curriculum)
Course development 2016
Lectures, laboratory exercises, writing of laboratory exercise manual, writing of instrument manuals, development of examination papers.
Course responsible since 2016.
Project in Implementation and Validation of an Analytical Method– elective course (MSc):
Lectures, project supervision in laboratory, 1998-2003.
Drug Metabolism- elective course (MSc):
Participation in course development 2002-2003
Course responsible in 2004 and 2005.
Co-responsible in 2015
Pharmaceutical Analytical Chemistry
Compulsory course on Master of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Development of new course in 2010
Lectures, laboratory exercises, course material writing, oral examination 2010-2012
Course responsible 2010-2012
The Chemistry of Metal Ions in Biological Systems
Cross-facultary course between LIFE, NAT and FARMA.Participation in the part Metal ions in health, disease and medicines.
Lecture since 2012
Master students
Supervision of more than 50 master students in analytical chemistry, several of these in collaboration with Department of Forensic Medicine, National Research Center for the Working Environment, Novo Nordisk, Lundbeck and Leo Pharma .
Contribution to development of teaching quality of the education
Educational development and quality assurance
Course quality
All courses are evaluated through "semestermeetings" with the participation of studentsrepresentatives Head of Study Board.
As course responsible, I evaluate the course based on questionnaires to the students.
The academiclevel is secured by using external examiners from other study programs with similar or equivalent content as well as external examiners among potential employers of the graduates in the industry.
Steering committee member and anchor person in Centre for Educational Development in University Sciences (1998-2001) (Dansk Center for Naturvidenskabsdidaktik, DCN)
DCN was established on the basis of a single 4-year grant from the Ministry of Research (35 mil.DKK.)for the purpose of raising the pedagogical and didactical standards for the teaching on the study programs in natural sciences at the universities. Seven Danish universities participated in the centre. Grants for a number of PhD students in the didactics of chemistry, physics etc. were a part of the project together with grants for teaching development projects, arrangement of seminars and conferences on didactic subjects.
I was appointed as the representative of the University of Pharmaceutical Sciences in the Steering Committee that administered the grant on the basis of applications from teachers at the respective universities. An “anchor person” was appointed at each university to propagate the possibilities of the project and administrate it locally. In 1999, I was also appointed anchor person.
The outcome of this centre was the launching of several teaching development projects at our university and the setting up of several meetings on teaching developments which had a large number of attendants. A yearly DCN conference on university didactics held in May was a central event in the project, and this “May conference” has been organised every year since. Thus, our participation in DCN succeeded in placing didactics higher up on the agenda in the University. Furthermore, a valuable network of teachers interested in development was established.
Chairman of the Teaching Committee at the Department Pharmaceutics and Analytical Chemistry 1996-2006–
Organisation of the teaching in “Course teams”
My main achievement as head of the teaching committee at the merged Department of Pharmaceutics and Analytical Chemistry was to organize and implement teaching and teaching development in “Course teams”. A course, in this context, includes lectures, class tutorials, lab exercises, project work etc.
One of the major challenges in teaching organization is to ensure continuity and minimize the risk of losing valuable knowledge and expertise when teachers leave. Furthermore, teaching of 200 students in 8 classes requires coordination of the teaching at class level, as some classes are allocated very experienced teachers while others are allocated newly educated candidates. By organizing the teaching in “course teams”, the courses become less vulnerable to resignations. The course team takes care of the continuous development of the course including updating of teaching material such as laboratory manuals, manuals for correcting lab reports etc. The most important thing, however, is that the course team agree on the directions of the course and the attitude to teaching and students, so they are able to communicate this to new and less experienced teachers. The challenge for the person responsible for the course is to give room for new ideas from less experienced teachers and to let new ideas grow. This encourages young teachers to devote themselves to teaching and take responsibility, as well as creating a good teaching environment. We had already implemented this model successfully for several courses at the Department of Analytical Chemistry, mainly those organized by people with an interest in teaching. The model was suggested for the whole Department of Pharmaceutics and Analytical Chemistry, and this was accepted by the department management. My role in this was describing and communicating the ideas.
In the same year, I organized a spread sheet-based system for distribution and remuneration of teaching for the merged department. This system was integrated with the course team organization, as each course team was allocated remuneration for the current course development in the course team.
Member of the Study Board 1987-1990
Knowledge sharing and discussions with colleagues
(Videndelingogkollegial sparring)
Initiation of the education of assistant professors in teaching and didactics (2001)
In 2000, a new law required assistant professors at universities to document education in teaching and didactics in order to qualify for a position as associate professor. As the University of Pharmaceutical Sciences did not offer a course in these matters, and we had several assistant professors employed, I initiated the development of such a course.I was inspired by the DCN network, as several of the participating universities offered teaching education, but in very different ways.
I decided that we needed a group of mentors representing each of the 5 departments at our university. It was important that they were volunteers and took an interest in the issue. Therefore, these people were contacted directly, rather than having the department management to appoint them. With help from people with a research background in didactics, we organized a 2-day internship course for future mentors in early August 2001. The first course for assistant professors was a 2-day internship in the end of August followed by 2 days at the university throughout the rest of the year.
In the following year, the course was developed together with rules and regulations to more or less the form it has today. In short, the education consists of a theoretical course in university didactics, combined with four rounds of teaching supervision by the mentor and a “didactics expert”. The supervision is concluded by an assessment based on the observations and a written portfolio.
Member of the Didactics Committee of the University of Pharmaceutical Sciences 2001-2005.
One of the main objectives of my participation in the didactics unit of the University was to consolidate the education of assistant professors and co-ordinate this with the activities at the Faculty of Natural Sciences (SCIENCE), which is situated just across the street from our Faculty (We were separate universities at that time). One of our main achievements in this period was the establishment of a new permanent position in researched-based didactics shared between the two universities with the research environment placed in the didactics group at NAT, and the teaching and consultant work placed at our University. Hence, it is now possible to get didactics assistance in course development. Part of the work was devoted to developing and coordinating the course in “Teaching and Learning”, a compulsory course for our PhD students with a similar course at SCIENCE.
Teaching and didactics supervision of assistant professors (Adjunktvejledning):
Ulrik Sidenius 2002,
Flemming Ingerslev 2002,
Jane Krogh Johannessen 2002.
Jørgen Olsen 2003,
Henrik Jensen 2004,
Jesper Østergaard 2004.
Christian Skonberg 2006
Nickolaj Petersen 2006
Kristine Andersen Krogh 2007
Christian Janfeldt 2009
Charlotte Gabel Jensen 2012
Josianne Lafleur 2014
Tam Nguyen 2014
Continuous course development
Instrumental Analytical Chemistry - compulsory course at BSc
I have been a lecturer, laboratory teacher and co-examiner on this course since 1995, and since 2005 I have been responsible for the both the theoretical and the practical sections of the course. The course is an 8 ECTS points compulsory BSc course for 200-225 students. The course comprises lectures (3 ETCS) and lab exercises (5 ECTS). In the exercises, practical work is done with a number of fixed set-ups of separation and detection methods. In addition, the students work on a small project, where they plan and carry out the quantitative determination on a tablet formulation according to current pharmacopoeia monographs. The analytical techniques comprise liquid chromatography (HPLC), gas chromatography (GC), capillary electrophoresis (CE), UV-VIS spectrophotometry, fluorometry, mass spectrometry (LC-MS and GC-MS), atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) and potentiometric methods. The students carry out experiments in groups of 2 and submit 1 report together. Reports are assessed by the teacher and feed-back is given by discussion of results and answers to study questions on return. Assessment of the theoretical part is in the form of a written exam.
The main teaching material is a compendium describing each exercise with a short theoretical introduction, an experimental section and a report form. This compendium is brought up to date every year. To help less experienced teachers, a guide for correcting the reports is updated every year.
The course was reorganised and modernised in 2005, due to an increase in the number of students from 200 to 225 a year. New instruments for CE, GC and HPLC were introduced together with LC-MS. A single quadrupole mass spectrometer was purchased and a (used) ion trap instrument was donated by the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk.
As the teacher responsible for this course, my ambition is for FARMA to offer the best and most modernly equipped course in Instrumental Analytical Chemistry. The idea behind the teaching is that the lectures and lab exercises should be closely related and that the final written exam should reflect the skills acquired primarily by writing reports and answering study questions. This motivates the students to write good reports. To help the students, the course description is very specific on the learning objectives of the course. I give about half of the lectures. In these I emphasize that the students should put their main effort in the laboratory part of the course.
Presentations from the lectures can be found on the course website. Examination papers and solutions to these are also posted on the website. In the study period between the termination of the lab course and the exam, I open an Exam Questions Discussion Forum on the webpage, where students can ask questions related to previous exams or anything else. Their fellow students can then answer the questions if they know the answers, otherwise I answer them. In any case, I check and verify the answers. This is quite popular with the students.In the final lecture, the course is evaluated using a questionnaire. These evaluations show that the students are satisfied with the course.
Updating and discussion of the exercises takes place in the course team comprising five teachers with a permanent affiliation to the course. It is important that the teachers work as a team and students all receive the same quality of teaching.
Quite a large battery of organization is required to keep this course running. When the course is running, 6-8 teachers, 3 laboratory technicians and a number of workshop staff are involved. Thus, several meetings are necessary to achieve a common spirit and attitude towards teaching and the students. It is my ambition that all actors in the course take pride in participating in a well-functioning course.
Educational Training
Universitetspædagogisk uddannelse
Course in educational theory and practice, Copenhagen Business School, 1991.
English for Teaching Seminar, University of Maryland, USA, 2-week course September, 2007
“Supervising assistant professors in teaching and didactics”, course for mentors held by teachers from Department of Philosophy and Rhetoric at University of Copenhagen, Jyllinge, Denmark, 9th - 10th August 2001 (co-organizer and participant).
Courses in coaching, Attractor, Copenhagen:
Coaching I Basic Skills for Creating Effective and Developing Interviews, 4-day course, 2008
Coaching II: Team – How to Create Effective and Dedicated Work Communities, 4-day course, 2008
Coaching III: Advanced Individual Coaching, 4-day course, 2008
Guidance of PhD students, University of Copenhagen,3-days course 2008
Participation in meetings with didactic content:
Danish centre for natural science didactics (Dansk Center for Naturvidenskabsdidaktik): “Naturvidenskab og didaktik” (Natural science and didactics). Conference, Middelfart, Denmark, 24th - 25th May 2000.
Danish centre for natural science didactics: ”Naturvidenskab, dannelse og kompetence” (Natural science, culture and competence). Conference, The H.C. Ørsted Institute, Copenhagen, 29th September 2000.
Danish centre for natural science didactics: ”Aktiverendeundervisningsformer. Undervisningsformer og undervisningskulturer. Hvordan organiseres en universitetsundervisning der i højere grad aktiverer de studerende” (Activating forms of teaching.Teaching forms and teaching cultures. How can university teaching be organized to activate students to a higher degree). DPU (The Danish School of Education) 9th - 10th March 2001.
Danish centre for natural science didactics: ”Fremtidensnaturvidenskabskompetence - hvilkekompetencerhar de unge og hvilkekompetencerskaludviklesiløbetafstudiet?” (Natural science competences of the future – what competences do our young people have and which need to be learned in the course of their studies?), Middelfart, Denmark, 17th -18th May 2001.
Danish centre for natural science didactics: Workshop on evaluation by John Cowan, Open University. DCN, The H.C. Ørsted Institute, 29th August 2001.
Danish centre for natural science didactics: Seminar on the assistant professor training in the universities’ natural science subjects, DPU (The Danish School of Education), 23th January 2002.
Danish centre for natural science didactics: ”Nye vejeinaturvidenskabsundervisningenpåuniversitetsniveau” (New directions for teaching in the natural sciences at university level). Helsingør, Denmark, 23th -24th May 2002
Danish centre for natural science didactics: “If reform of the university science education is the answer - what were the questions?”.Korsør, Denmark, 22nd - 23rd May 2003.
The Danish Evaluation Institute: Conference on University Quality Systems, Copenhagen, 28th November 2003.
Danish centre for natural science didactics: “De nye naturvidenskaber – etiske fordringer – didaktiske udfordringer”, Rebild, 12th - 13th May 2004.
Institut for kompetenceudvikling (Institute for competence development): Evaluation and quality development in the teaching sector, Copenhagen, 31st August 2004.
Danish centre for natural science didactics: ”Om eksamens- og evalueringsformer, der understøtterudviklingenaf de studerendeslæringsstrategier og fagligekompetencer” (On exam and evaluation formats that support the development of students’ learning strategies and professional competences), Roskilde, 19th -20th May 2005.
Danish centre for natural science didactics: ”Sammenhænge i naturvidenskabelige og tekniske uddannelser”, Odense, 10th -11th May 2006.
Danish centre for natural science didactics: Seminar omevalueringafadjunkt-pædagogikum. Gentofte 28.-29. September 2010.
Participation in the annual didactics day at the Faculty.Participation almost every year.Presentations on various subjects on several occasions.
Educational Development Projects (Pædagogiske udviklingsprojekter)
Development of new courses:
Introductory pharmaceutical course – compulsory course (BSc)
In 1996, the Study Board decided to develop and implement an introductory course as the very first course the students encountered on the pharmaceutical study program. The course was developed by a team of 5 teachers, each representing one of the 5 subject areas of the education, and I was appointed representative for general, physical and analytical chemistry. The development of this course was a very long process. It lasted more than a year and in the end most of the decisions were made by a colleague and me.
The aim of the course, as we designed it, was to give an introduction to the pharmaceutical education, show the relevance of and the connection between subjects and place the education in an occupational and societal perspective. The students were expected to develop professional self-dependence, take responsibility for their own learning and develop an ethical, critical and analytical attitude to the pharmaceutical profession and its subjects.
The starting point was that the course should be based on Problem-Based Learning, PBL, and the course was organized into three themes: 1) Health, disease and drug application, 2) Drug formulations, the travel of a drug through the body, and structure-effect relationships, 3) Development, production and quality assurance of drugs. The course was a compulsory 8-week course for 200 students, starting on day 1 of the student’s education. I gave the introductory lecture where the aims, content and evaluation were explained to the new students, and my colleague explained the concept of problem-based learning. The PBL was based on 3 case stories, one in each theme, on prevalent diseases (diabetes, asthma/allergy, infections, muscle and joints diseases and cardiovascular disease). These cases were also created by the development team. Furthermore, introduction to the library and a study visit to a local pharmacy were included in the program.
The project was rather ambitious, as the students were put through general lectures and laboratory exercises, alternating with PBL in groups. After each theme, the groups handed in a report, which was assessed by their fellow students and the teacher, and presented their work in the class, where their performance was evaluated. To develop self-assessment of individuals and improve group work, the students were required to write a group process evaluation. The course was concluded by a student evaluation using a questionnaire.