About this course

Aim:

The course will contain teaching activities in practical and scientific methods to help the students start the writing of their bachelor thesis, and facilitate acquirement of the skills needed to carry out a bachelor-project in animal nursing at the NMBU Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.

Contents

  • Scientific authorship: principles and practical assignments.
  • Scientific method: study design and planning of scientific studies, with special emphazisis on systematic litterature reviews. Critical appraisal of scientific articles.
  • Scientific literature: literature search and use of reference tools. Introduction to evidence based veterinary medicine
  • Epidemiology: Main sources of bias. Measures of association and disease frequency.
  • Statistics: Principles for descriptive statistics and basic statistical analysis

Learning outcome

After completing the course, the student should:

Have sufficient knowledge of scientific methods in order to be able to complete a bachelor in animal nursing at NMBU Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. Acquire a basic understanding of scientific research, and be able to:

  • Make an outline (Word-file) of the bachelor thesis based on a standard template
  • Be able to explain the main types of study design, with knowledge of litterature reviews in particular
  • Knowledge on how to use descriptive statistics and be able to interpret results form simple statistical analysis
  • Be able to use reference tools for creating citations and bibliography
  • Understand the importance of critical reading of scientific articles
  • Know the most common sources of bias
  • Know common measures of disease frequency and measures of association used in epidemiology

DYR210 will help the students acquire the skills and knowledge described in the following ACOVENE Competences from ACOVENEs Dossier of European Competences for the Veterinary Nurse :

  • EC 2 Developing personal performance and maintaining working relationships

  • Learning activities

    Lectures, quiz, discussions and excercises.

    Start drafting the Bachelor thesis.

  • Syllabus

    • Plenary presentations (available on Canvas)
    • Group assignements (available on Canvas)
    • Scientific papers and other teaching material are available on Canvas
    • Template file for Bachelor thesis (available on Canvas)
    • Suggested reference book in statistics: Statistikk for helse- og sosialfagene, Arild Bjørndal og Dag Hofoss

  • Prerequisites

    None

  • Recommended prerequisites

    • MATH100 or corresponding background
    • The students should formulate a specific aim for their thesis before the course.

  • Assessment method

    The course has no exam. Approval of all compulsory activities results in a pass.

  • About use of AI

    For the bachelor thesis draft, which is mandatory to submit ("exam") during the course, the same rules apply as for the final bachelor thesis (DYR209):

    All use of AI must comply with the university's current guidelines.

    If students use generative AI or AI-assisted technology in the writing process, it should only be used to improve the readability and language of already written text. AI can thus be used as writing support but should not replace important authoring tasks such as producing scientific or animal nursing insights, discussing, evaluating, or drawing conclusions. AI should also not be used to conduct literature searches, but it can be used to find good English search terms and synonyms. It is the students' responsibility to maintain ongoing oversight and control, and all work must be reviewed to avoid AI introducing errors, biases, or incompleteness in the text. The students are responsible for the content of the work.

    Authors should disclose in their thesis the use of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies.

    Descriptions of AI-category codes.

  • Examiner scheme

    A sensor is part of the quality assurance system for the mandatory assignement

  • Mandatory activity

    There are no attendance requirements for lectures or study group activities.A compulsory course test is held on the final day of the course.Assignment submission consists of an outline for the bachelor’s thesis. If the submission is assessed as not approved, feedback will be provided and the student will be given the opportunity to submit a revised version. Information about assessment criteria is available on Canvas.

  • Notes

    Required equipment:

    • Students are asked to bring their own laptop

  • Teaching hours

    Details are found on Canvas

  • Preferential right

    B-DYR