Userperspective in examination form at NTNU

This is a summary of an article published in the Norwegian Journal of Mental Health Work04 / 2019 (Volume 16)

The Department of Mental Health at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at NTNU, Higher Education and Master of Mental Health Work, has since 2016 collaborated with the Competence Center for User Experience and Service Development (KBT) on exams. In a dialogue between the course coordinator at the education and the general manager at KBT, the idea developed to develop a practical experience form in the topic “Communication, interaction, and conflict management” where the user perspective could be integrated both in the design and conduct of the exam. The result of this collaboration shows that the students had great learning outcomes. The user perspective became more vibrant for them. They gained greater awareness and a more nuanced picture of the importance of user participation in their professional practice

The examination was based on cases where the students were conducting a roleplay. The examination was based on their interpretation and their reflection of professional practice immediately after the role-play, the pedagogical presentation was the basis dialogue between the student group that performed the role play, fellow students, the exterminator from NTNU  and two peers from KBT.

KBT’s role was to help ask reflective questions to the students. Through this, the students were given the opportunity to show their competence, analytical ability and ability to problem-solve against academic goals and ethical considerations based on the user’s perspective.

Assessment of the exam was done the same day. The censors’ (course responsible and program responsible at the institute) assessment bases were both the role-play/presentation and the discussion with the KBT representatives.

“To contribute to the real-life” –

 KBT’s role in the exam was also an active role in designing the cases for the exam. It was useful to collaborate on planning the cases for the exam. KBT experienced free rein in the design of the cases and the dialogue with the institute was aimed at clarifying the cases to be used. KBT created cases based on our own experiences of being a patient/user, and experiences from User Ask User surveys (BSB Bruker Spør Bruker) as the basis for the exam assignment. The fact that the cases were made based on real user experiences makes it more real, which we think may have contributed to the students treating the thesis more as a real case than if there had only been fictional stories. NTNU experienced that all students were challenged the cases

The original reference is: Wigdis Sæther, Dagfinn Bjørgen, Ingvild M. Kvisle, Anne B. Plathe og Christina Kildal “Det blir mer reelt» – Om brukerperspektivet i studentaktiv eksamensform” https://www.idunn.no/tph/2019/04/det_blir_mer_reelt_om_brukerperspektivet_i_studentaktiv