Teaching and exam

Department of Economics and Business Economics (ECON) provides teaching in a number of study programmes 

The students are informed about their study programme via the study portals, which contain important information about teaching, exams, bachelor's theses, master's theses, timetables, etc.:

Below, you will find inspiration and important guidelines/rules for all lecturers at ECON as well as relevant contact information.

Teaching


Course catalogue

The course catalogue includes all course descriptions in which both the teaching form, the exam form, and learning objectives are described in as much detail as possible for each course. The course descriptions are reviewed prior to each semester to ensure that they are up to date. It is not possible to change the course descriptions after publication. All course descriptions (and changes) must be approved by the relevant study board.

Changes in existing course descriptions and new course descriptions are called for by the study administrators prior to each semester.

All lecturers are responsible for knowing their course description(s) in depth and for adhering to the content in both teaching and examining.

Course responsibilities

A course coordinator is assigned to each courseThe course coordinator is the primary responsible for the course, which means that he/she will receive mails regarding the evaluation questionnaire, will be responsible for coordinating activities in the course incl. the distribution of lectures between lecturers, as well as coordinating any input to revisions of the academic content in the course description before each semester.

The course coordinators are always welcome to seek professional sparring with the department’s other lecturers and the teaching coordinator. In most cases, the course responsible is also a lecturer in the course.

Course evaluation

The students will be asked to evaluate all courses or supervision programmes. In order to ensure a high response rate, you need to set aside approx. 10 minutes during a lecture for evaluation. Make sure to inform your students that you are the recipient of the results, and that the feedback needs to be constructive to be helpful when planning the course. 

When the evaluation period is over, the lecturer will be contacted by the responsible director of studies in case a dialogue about the results is considered necessary. 

Brightspace (LMS)

Brightspace is AU's learning platform. This is where lecture plans and teaching material must be uploaded. You must also use this platform to communicate with the students.

Inspiration for teaching

Find inspiration to teaching methods and much more here:

Please feel free to contact the director of studies or the teaching coordinators to chat about what is expected at ECON.

Academic regulations

At AU, a study programme is described in detail in the academic regulation for the specific programme.

It is important that you are familiar with the academic regulations pertaining to the study programmes around the courses you teach.

Find all academic regulations here: Academic regulations (au.dk)

Planning of teaching

Well in advance of each semester, you will be asked to consider any (professional) limitations to timetable planning for your course. 

At ECON, we plan the teaching according to the general guidelines from BSS, and also to the guidelines decided at ECON - see below:

If you have questions to the process, please contact your study administrator.

Timetables

The timetables are published for the students before they register for the following semester, i.e., before 1-5 May/1-5 Nov. After publication, you can only change the schedule for your course if unforeseen professional circumstances occur. A change must be approved by the department management. The motivated request for change must be sent to the study administrators, who will then go forward with it. Remember to state the (professional) resason for your request and to always consider other alternatives before reporting the request.

Teaching periods (15 weeks):
Spring: Week 5-19
Autumn: Week 36-50

Get access to your personal timetable or the timetable of e.g. a particular classroom via this link:

Find the general ECON principles for timetable and exam planning here: General principles - ECON

Cancellation of teaching

Find the guidelines here: Sickness absence

Classrooms and auditoriums

Find information about capacity, equipment, service phone numbers etc. via this link:

Booking must always go through the study administrators.

Note that it is the lecturer’s responsibility to make sure that the number of persons in the room does not exceed the maximum capacity.
If you experience that too many students show up for your lecture, you must inform the students either at the lecture or via Brightspace that they are not allowed to change lecture classes.
If there are no free spaces, the students originally scheduled to be in the lecture class have priority.

Reading lists and literature

The AU Library offers to prepare an electronic curriculum list for your course, ensuring access to electronic resources and that all copyright rules are adhered to:

The AU Library also offers support to lecturers in relation to semester shelves, course literature, plagiarism, copyright etc.:

An overview over the literature used in the course must be added to the course description. If the list is not ready by the time the course descriptions are published, you can always contact your study administrator at a later point to add it after publication. Otherwise, please make sure that the literature and curriculum for the exam are listed in Brightspace well in advance of the beginning of the semester in order to ensure the students have time to aquire the literature for the course and to ensure that the students are well aware of what the full curriculum for the exams is. 

Inspection copies of books can be ordered by your study administrative contact person. See more here regarding purchasing of books etc.: Purchase (ECON)

Streaming and recording of lectures and GDPR

Aarhus University is a campus university which means that teaching should take place on-site and not online. Students do not have a right to demand online sessions, and if you wish to use online components in your teaching, this will have to be approved by the relevant board of studies well in advance, i.e., before the publication of the course descriptions as the teaching form must be evident here.

Teaching staff may be approached by students, who are part of the AU Dual Career programme (for both elite athletes and for entrepreneurs), and who therefore have special conditions at AU. They are informed that any request to video/audio record or live-stream the lectures must be sent to the lecturer (or course coordinator) at least a week in advance of the lecture. Note that as a lecturer, you can decline this request.

Teaching staff may also be approached by other students with special needs, so please do not hesitate to contact your study administrative contact person to ask for help clarifying any uncertainties about the rules and/or pitfalls.

Guidelines regarding GDPR etc. can be found here: Guidelines for streaming and recording classes at Aarhus University (see explicitly "Standard text for Brightspace").

Guides on how to use Zoom (also from Brightspace) for streaming and recording lectures can be found here: Streaming and recording of lectures

You can also refer students to Data protection (GDPR) for students if needed.

Exam


Exam schedules

The planning of the exams (and teaching) is centralized and performed by Study Planning dept. (Studieplan) in cooperation with lecturers through the study administrators. The exam plans for the ordinary exams are published for the students before they register for the courses in the following semester, i.e. before 1-5 May (fall courses) / 1-5 November (spring courses).

Exam periods:

Winter: Ordinary exams are held during December and January. Any midterm exams are usually held around week 43. Re-exams are held during the last 2 weeks of February, i.e. normally from 15-28 February.

Summer: Ordinary exams are held during May and June. Any midterm exams are usually held around week 12. Re-exams are held during weeks 31-33, always starting on 1 August (or the first weekday hereafter).

Find the general ECON principles for timetable and exam planning here: General principles - ECON

Digital exam in WISEflow

WISEflow is our digital exam platform for both oral and written exams. All marks must be entered into WISEflow. If there are multiple assessors for an exam, all assessors must enter the mark.

For oral exams, it is important that the entry is made on the exact day of the exam.

From 1 March 2024, all exams at Aarhus University will take place in a new version of WISEflow that will replace BSS WISEflow. Read more on the staff portal.

If you are presented with a list of alternative licences, select 'Aarhus Universitet' to access the new AU WISEflow. Remember to actively log out and close your browser window if you switch between the new and the old version. 

If you need to download old exam questions/assignments or transfer multiple choice-questions from BSS WISEflow, please make sure you do this before 31 March, where access to BSS WISEflow will no longer be possible.

Marking

All marks must be entered into WISEflow – from both oral and written exams. If there are multiple assessors at an exam, all assessors must enter the mark.
At an oral exam, it is important that the entry is made on the day of the exam.

Written exams - preparation

When preparing a written exam, please consider the following:

  • Are the exam questions aligned with the content of the course, including learning objectives, literature, assignments, and lectures?
  • Are the exam questions aligned with the type of exam (open/closed book on-site exam, take-home exam, etc.)? E.g., avoid asking students to provide definitions or describe theory in an open book exam.
  • You can under no circumstances reuse questions from one exam to another. Variation of exam questions is allowed to a certain extent if they are integral in testing core elements of the course. See also this document about principles for variation of exam questions. If in doubt whether your intended exam questions fail to comply with this criteria, please contact Deputy Head of Department or your teaching coordinator.
  • Make sure that answers to your exam questions cannot be found online. This is especially relevant if you make use of outside sources (such as data or cases) in the exam.
  • For all written exams with the same re-exam form, both the ordinary and the re-exam assignments must be handed in to the study administrative support at the same time in case something happens with the first exam.
  • A colleague must review the written exam before you send it to the study administrator. See also ‘Reviewing written exams’ on this page.

Written exams - reviewing

For all written exams, it is mandatory to have a colleague review the exam assignment before sending it to the relevant study administrator. It is the examiner’s responsibility to send the exam assignment for review.

As reviewer, your tasks are among other things to assess if the length of the exam is appropriate and if the individual questions are clear and unambiguous. You provide your feedback to the examiner and if relevant, review new versions of the exam assignment. It is not your task to verify that the examiner has addressed all your feedback.

As examiner, it is your task to address the feedback from the reviewer where relevant. Also note, it is your responsibility alone to ensure that the exam assignment satisfies the criteria outlined on the item ‘Preparing written exams’.   

Written exams - other obligations

In connection with written onsite exams, you must be reachable by telephone during the first hour of the exam. For take-home exams, the students are allowed to send you emails with questions to problems in the exam assignment during the first 1-4 hours of the exam (depending on the length of the exam), after which, you must send the answer(s) to all students via Brightspace. 

A guiding solution must be uploaded to Brightspace after the exam and also sent to the co-assessor/external co-examiner along with the exam assignment no later than the day after the exam.

The marking of the exam must be finalised no later than four weeks after the exam and preferably before. Note that there may be a shorter deadline at the end of an examination period as well as during the re-examination period. You can see the deadline in WISEflow.

Students can complain about their mark up until two weeks after the mark is published.

Co-examination

In the course descriptions (see course catalogue), it is stated whether an exam is with no, internal, or external co-examination.

If an internal co-examiner is needed (i.e., a person employed by the department), your teaching coordinator will be able to help you find (and/or ask) a relevant colleague. Please notice that it could be useful to have the chosen co-examiner approved by either the teaching coordinator or the director of studies to avoid incapacity issues.

For exams with external co-examination, the study administrators will contact you to arrange this.

Oral exams

At oral exams, the lecturer as well as the internal/external examiner is required to attend the exams onsite. The study administrators will contact you in order to arrange the practical parts of the exam, e.g., in relation to catering, rooms, exam order, etc.

In special cases, oral exams can be held online (e.g., as during Corona), but this has to be approved beforehand by the relevant director of studies. Find guides on how to conduct exams in Zoom via this link:   

Remember that all marks must be entered the same day as the oral exam is held. See more about marking here.

Formalities - written assignments

When a student's assignment is rejected due to failure to comply with formalities (in the course description or on the study portal/in the general guidelines for written assignments), it is considered a 'legal decision'. In these cases, the student must receive a written formal decision from a case officer in BSS Studies with a description of the reasons for the rejection of the assignment and a guide on how to appeal the decision.

In practice, it will be the examiner who discovers that the assignment does not meet the formal requirements, after which it will be the case officer who prepares and sends the decision to the student.

If you, as an examiner, need to reject an assignment due to formalities, you must therefore notify Student Affairs in BSS Studies so that they can send the student a decision. Please notify them by email to dispensationsansogninger.bss@au.dk.

Your email must contain the following information:

  • Title of the relevant exam
  • Flow number or student number
  • Reason for rejecting the assignment

The case officer will send a decision to the student as soon as possible and will inform you, when the decision has been sent. You must wait to enter the grade in WISEflow until the student has received a decision.

Questions can be sent to Ditte Bak, case officer at BSS Studies, at ditte.bak@au.dk.

Find the general information on formal requirements for students at:
- BSc/MSc Economics/Oecon here: Guidelines for written assignments
- BSc/MSc Economics and Business Administration here: Guidelines for written assignments

Otherwise, see your course description for specific requirements.

Reports - external examination

Supervision


Supervisor role

If you are assigned a project as a supervisor, it is recommended that you contact the student during the start-up phase, if he/she has not contacted you within a reasonable time (e.g., 2 weeks).

Read, comment on, and approve the problem statement and the outline. Remember that your approval of the problem statement in WISEflow during January/August (you will receive a link from WISEflow in your mail) is the student’s assurance from you that they are on the right track. If you need further information about what supervision entails at this department, you can contact a teaching coordinator. See more about your obligations here.

Supervisor lists

Every semester, a supervisor list is published for the students before they register for the project, i.e., bachelor's project, master's thesis, project-based internship, etc. It is required of all lecturers at ECON to be on the list to participate in the joint task of supervising the many students in our study programmes. If you want to be removed from the list a certain semester due to other obligations, it must be approved be your section head. Please notice that for MSc in Business Economics and Auditing (AUD), the process is different and will be handled by the Director of Studies, Frank Thinggaard, and the study administrator.

The study administrators will call for input for the topics on the list, normally during August/September and March.

Supervisor obligations

It is the students’ responsibility to contact you as supervisor, but we encourage you to reach out to the students via email, if you have not heard from them within 2 weeks from the start of the thesis writing period. (Remember that you must communicate with the students via their AU mail). If the students do not respond to your email, you are not obliged to do further until they contact you.

The extent of the supervision (and the procedures regarding the problem statement) can be discussed with either your section head or your teaching coordinator.

There are different consequences depending on the thesis/project, if the student(s) does not submit or pass the thesis/project. Please contact a study administrator for further instructions.

Please note that you should advise the students about pitfalls concerning use of GAI in projects as it per spring 2024 is allowed to use it in final projects.
On Studypedia, you can find information that is relevant for the students: Studypedia

Supervisor task regarding problem statement

For Master's theses (only MSc Economics and Business Admin/merc, CM AUD, and MSc Economics/Oecon), you will be asked to approve a problem statement in WISEflow before the student begins writing his/her thesis (both for 1st, 2nd and 3rd attempts). This initial problem statement does not have to be particularly extensive, and it can be modified throughout the entire thesis writing period. The primary aim is ensure, that the student knows that his/her supervision and writing period has begun.

If the student does not upload the problem statement, no further action is required on your part. The studies administration will inform the student that he/she has failed to submit a thesis statement, and that his/her examination attempt has started nevertheless. The student must then send a problem statement directly to you at a later point instead.

If you do not approve the thesis statement because it lacks sufficient "content", the only direct consequence is that the student will receive a notification in e-Boks letting him/her know that the supervision and writing period has begun despite the insufficient problem statement, and that he/she must contact you to agree on a revised problem statement.

When a student transitions from the 1st examination attempt to the 2nd/3rd attempt (due to either not handing in or failing the previous attempt), the student must upload a revised problem statement to WISEflow.

For MSc in Economics (Oecon), the process for you will be the same as for the 1st attempt.

For MSc in Economics and Business Administration (merc) it is slightly different. Here, the rule is that if a revised problem statement has not been handed in and approved in WISEflow, the student must attach a brief account when handing in the Master's Thesis, explaining how the revised problem statement differs from the original problem statement used for the first examination attempt. This brief account of the changes must be approved and signed by the supervisor. If the brief account is not included, the thesis must be rejected, and the student will have used an examination attempt. Please make sure to notify your study administrative contact person, if you must reject a thesis.

Remember to read the specific course description thoroughly, as differences can occur - both between MSc programmes and between semesters.

Supervisor inspiration

At AU Educate, you can find inspiration for your supervisor role.

Confidentiality in theses/projects

Find the guidelines regarding your role in the process as supervisor and the students’ obligations here: Confidentiality agreements at ECON

If you have any questions about the guidelines, you can contact the relevant director of studies or send an email to nda@econ.au.dk

Please also use nda@econ.au.dk if you need a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) to be signed by the head of department (see guidelines).

General information about confidentiality: Confidential theses and projects at AU (please refer students to Data protection (GDPR) for students). 


Contact


Study administrators

The study administrator helps with the practical and administrative aspects of teaching. This applies to, among other things, book orders, scheduling and exam planning, support in connection with Brightspace and WISEflow, contact with students on general questions, proofreading of exam assignments and much more.

Programme coordinators

Study programme coordinators:

Directors of studies:

Teaching coordinators

The teaching coordinators acts as your sparring partner, when it comes to the academic content of your course and teaching. Each course is associated with a teaching coordinator within the academic areas: Accounting, Econometrics and Business Statistics, Economics, Finance, and Logistics. 

Educational Development and AU Educate

Centre for Educational Development (CED) offers all kinds of sparring regarding teaching and learning to AU staff, and you can always contact them, if you wish to, e.g., add more blended learning, or if you want to participate in one of the many inspirational courses for lecturers.

Visit CED

At AU Educate, you can also find inspiration for planning and carrying out your teaching, and different teaching methods.

Visit AU Educate

Other useful links:

IT Support and Systems

IT Support:

IT Systems:

In order to log in to the systems, you need a user ID, i.e., an AU ID, which you will be given at the beginning of your employment. You can find your AU ID and create a password by going to https://mit.au.dk/ and logging in with WAYF (choose nemID as "institution" for the first time, so you can access the page). 

Once you are an AU employee, you can log on to the EDUROAM wireless network using your AU ID as well as the password you created. However, please note that as a username you must write:
(your AU ID)@uni.au.dk.