- The better it goes, the more fun it is!
This is a message to new students from our (very own) professor Fredrik Manne, who was recently appointed outstanding lecturer. Well deserved for a professor with 20 years of experience, who is passionate about his field and is loved by his students. The man who walks into the auditorium with anticipation, loves teaching and puts his students first. This is what we call excellent teaching!
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Manne has extensive experience teaching at the Department of Informatics and has for several years worked systematically to develop new courses, which he enjoys doing:
- I've thought a lot about how education in programming should be developed. Among other things, I have planned the courses INF109: basic course in programming for science students and INF237: algorithm engineering. Programming is a skill that most people can learn, but one must have practice in order to do well. Teaching needs to reflect this. Students have to practice by themselves, because it's only when they try it on their own that they really understand what it's about.
The INF109 program is therefore set up with 1-2 lectures and up to 8 hours of group work during the week, and in the groups the most important learning takes place:
- If you are going to skip something, skip my lectures and not the group lessons, I say to my students, smiles Manne, who says he has always been interested in education, loves teaching, and that it is fun to have active students who participate in class.
But it's even with a little anticipation that I go into the auditorium and talk to so many students. It takes some time to get started, but then it is so much fun. And when it comes to something you master, it is fun, right?
It is clear that the students agree that Manne is a good teacher. For many years, his courses have had very good evaluations and he has received several different awards for lecturing. The best evaluation was perhaps the student who wrote simply: "Manne is my hero!"
Manne himself says that his starting point is to understand the student's situation:
- It's important to try to understand what can be difficult for a new student. Especially if you have taught the same subject several times, some things you take for granted. I try to think where it may be difficult for new students and use good examples explaining the subject. We must remember that there is a big transition from high school to university. To bring the students up to speed, we have several submissions combined with close follow-up.
Over the past year, Manne has also been working on providing practical programming tasks for students in cooperation with Amalie Skram High School.
- The programs that students create will be used by the school in different teaching situations. It is more exciting and inspiring when you have real customers who care about what you are developing. The tasks that the students solve are often not fully specified and one is more likely to influence how the final product will develop. It's also good for later on, to show that you have developed programs that are actually being used.
Manne also boasts about the good student environment at the departmen, which he believe is important for a good learning environment. He encourages new students to use the social offers and join in for activities, and when we ask if he has other good advice for future students, he smiles:
- If you go into it, go into it 100%, do not start cautiously. Get into it from the very first moment and be careful not to lag behind, it's hard to get back in. The whole setting will be more fun when you master it. The better it goes, the more fun it is!
A good advice for all of us perhaps?
The department congratulates Fredrik Manne with the appointment as outstanding lecturer.