Student Handbook

August 20, 2012 · 3 comments

MA Communication for Development – 2 Years Part-Time

Contents of this handbook:

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Welcome!

Dear Communication for Development student! Welcome to the MA in Communication for Development or ComDev (as we call it). ComDev is a 1 Year MA in English, running for two years part-time. The progam has a unique format which aims to facilitate dialogue across boundaries. We endeavor to facilitate meaningful connections between students and teachers in different locations, with different educational and professional backgrounds and a variety of life experiences and academic perspectives. We aim for a truly global practice where diverse perspectives on communication, culture and participation in relation to development and social change processes can be discussed and explored. We hope to be able to share each others networks and make the 2 years a mutual learning experience.

You will study in a flexible distance format, through in-site and online seminars, with teacher facilitation of individual and group course work. The program has existed since 2000. It was initiated as a Swedish language course, but switched to English in 2002. Over the years it has increasingly attracted an international, well-educated and diverse body of students, many with strong practical experience in addition to academic merits, with participation from more than 50 countries and around 150 graduates so far.

Guest lecturers, academics as well as practitioners, and examining staff come from a variety of continents outside Europe, including Africa, Asia, and North America.

New enthusiastic students every year means new queries. With this handbook we try to answer many of the basic questions on program structure, the university and the school, web participation, practical and academic matters (grading etc). The handbook will in several cases give you links to other pages on the web/course sites.

Please read carefully in the early stages of your study. Do also study the ComDev portal and your specific course sites in detail. This will give staff less admin work/questions to deal with and we can concentrate on academic facilitation and support.
We hope you will enjoy the 2 year ride with Communication for Development and in the process also share your experiences and networks with us.
Best wishes

The School of Arts and Communication ComDev Staff,
Oscar Hemer (Head of Program, Senior Lecturer, Journalistic and Literary Creation), Anders Høg Hansen (Senior Lecturer, Media and Communication), Ylva Ekström (Senior Lecturer, Media and Communication), Micke Rundberg(Adjunct, Interaction Design), Hugo Boothby (Adjunct, Radio Producer), Zeenath Hasan (Adjunct and PhD student in Media and Communication), Florencia Enghel (Adjuct and PhD student in Media and Communication), Julia Velkova (Adjunct and PhD student in Media and Communication), Jake Hunter (Adjunct). 

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Program Structure

Year 1
Term 1: Media, Globalization and Development (15 ECTS credits) (Includes Globalization and Communication + Culture and Development, each 7.5 ECTS credits)

Term 2: Communication, Culture and Media Analysis (15 ECTS credits)

Note: The courses on Media, Globalization and Development, and Communication, Culture and Media Analysis can be completed in reverse order, beginning with Communication, Culture and Media Analysis in Spring (Jan-June) and then doing Media, Globalization and Development in the Autumn (Sept-Jan). To begin year 2 (term 3) in the Autumn one of the two courses must be completed. 

Year 2

Term 3: New Media, ICT and Development + Research Methodology (each 7.5 ECTS, total 15 ECTS credits)

Term 4: Project Work/MA thesis (15 ECTS credits)

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Study Format

2-3 seminars each term, lasting 2 full days:

  • Autumn term (starting in September): September and October7November
  • Spring term (starting in January): January/February, April and May/June
  • Online participation in seminars including chat and group exercises
  • Additional online lectures and seminars, at least one for each course
  • 24 hour open online interaction in course forums. Questions are answered within a few days. All discussion is transparent for all teachers and students. Instructions are available on course sites and on the portal.

Questions of a more private nature can be addressed to the course responsible (varies), Program head Oscar Hemer, Hugo Boothby (Program facilitator), or Micke Rundberg (Interaction Designer) by personal email. Do not use personal email where it can be avoided.

Participation Requirements: All students must participate in all seminars either online or on location. Online participation means participation during the full seminar. Since seminars are few, work is not an excuse. Illness is.

Students are strongly encouraged to attend seminars in person if they can. Students in Sweden should try and attend all seminars in person. Students in other European countries should consider attending at least two seminars in person. If you live in either Malmö or Copenhagen there is no excuse for not attending all ComDev seminars in person.

We do offer recordings and also have an archive of recordings of seminars. Recordings will however be without the synchronous chat option. Saved chat sessions are also available.

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Malmö City, Malmö University and School of Arts and Communication

The MA in Communication for Development takes place at Malmö University, a new university in an expanding and multicultural city. Malmö is the third largest city in Sweden, with about 300,000 inhabitants. Malmö has a booming information and knowledge economy. A declining industrial town in the 1990′s, Malmö has now regenerated into a vibrant urban melting pot. The new university, and a growing IT and cultural sector, a range of architectural and residential expansions and experiments, cunning re-appropriation of former industrial sites, and more than 50 nationalities, makes it an interesting place to study, live, form partnerships, and do field work. The city is connected to Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, (with its 1.5 million inhabitants), via the new Öresund bridge opened in 2000, just 2 years after Malmö University. Malmö is also a short train ride from the classic university town Lund (Scandinavia’s oldest university).

The School of Arts and Communication, in Swedish Konst, Kultur och Kommunikation or K3 (abbreviation, using the 3 ‘Ks’ in the Swedish name) is an institution concerned with media and culture studies as well as design, literature and the arts, from an academic as well as practical/production perspective. The school’s courses and research emphasize both local and global projects – it also promotes social change and media/design activism approaches to study and research.

The school runs undergraduate BA programs in English Studies, Interaction Design, Media and Communication, and Design and Visual Communication. The 3 year undergraduate Performing Arts Technology is in the process of becoming a recognised BA, as well as the Literary Studies. In addition the School runs two 2-Year full time MAs, one in Interaction Design, in English, and one in Media and Cultural Production, in Swedish, and of course there is the 1 Year (2 year part-time) MA in Communication for Development.

The University which was founded in 1998 has today over 20,000 students. As an alternative and complement to universities in the region the university offers a range of interdisciplinary institutions. Among these are International Migration and Ethnic Relations, Global Political Studies, Arts and Communication (the school in which ComDev runs), Urban Studies, Health and Society, Technology and Society, Odontology and Teacher Education. The ComDev program works in cooperation with teachers/examiners at other schools/programs to take advantage of the overlap between fields that are common to other universities/departments.

Ørecomm network

A close bilateral collaboration has been established between the universities of Malmö and Roskilde (Denmark). Communication for Development (ComDev) is one of the prioritozed areas for this collaboration, which is channeled through the Ørecomm Centre for Communication and Glocal Change, which aims at becoming a centre of excellence for research in this field.
The Ørecomm Festival has been organized since 2011 as a four to five day event of conference, seminars and workshops on both sides of the Öresund strait separating Sweden from Denmark. The 2011 theme was Agency in the Mediatized World. 2012 it is Reclaiming the Public Sphere.

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How to Find Malmö University’s School of Arts and Communication/K3

K3 is situated in the expanding harbour district just 20 minutes walk northwest of the Central Station . The address is Östra Varvsgatan 11 A, Building 7, 205 06 Malmö, Sweden. We are next to the Media High School/Gymnasium, a few hundred yards from the landmark ‘Turning Torso’. Go to http://www.mah.se/ and search for K3/School of Arts and Communication and then click on the map.

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Accommodation in Malmö/Copenhagen

The university offers apartments for external researchers and students at various places in the city. These may be costly and not suitable for short term seminar visit. You may try private lodging; couch surfing, or one of the many hostels, guest houses or hotels in the Malmö and Copenhagen region.

A quick search on Google for one of the following places is recommended:

  • STF Youth Hostel Malmö City, near Trianglen, clean and cheap.
  • World Maritime University, Malmö
  • Dan hostel Copenhagen, 5 minutes from central station, close to Christianshavnmetro station and Christianshavn/Christiania. Se www.danhostel.dk, also clean and cheap.
  • You may also check the other STF Youth Hostel, near mobilia Centre / Vila Hilleröd / Continental Hotel / Hotel Horn /Strand Hotel / Living room Hotel / Bosse’s Guest Apartments/Gästvåninger – all in Malmö

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Swedish Education System: Term structure, Requirements, Costs and Grading

The educational system is divided into two semesters or terms, each 30 credits full time (or 15 credits part time in the case of ComDev). During programs, students take one course at a time. In Sweden and most of Europe Programs have a three step structure, BA 3 years, MA 1 or 2 years, PhD 3 to 4 years. Full time study is ca 40 hours per week, part-time study is ca 20 hours per week.

The grading system is the A to U system – A, B, C, D, E, U (the U may divide into a Fail with a complete rewriting/reassessment or revision task/preliminary). In addition, Malmö University and School of Arts and Communication use the 3-level Swedish grading system U (Fail) / Pass (G) / Pass with Distinction (VG). VG is A or B / G is C, D or E / U is Fail. Please note that grading scales are used differently in different countries. In general, however, at this university A, B and C are considered as top half good marks, while D and E are considered mediocre grades but still a Pass.

As a general rule grading can be translated like this:

A = VG. Excellent
B = VG. Very Good
C = G. Good
D = G. Satisfactory
E = G. Sufficient
F = U. Fail. Either revision/some more work needed or resubmission of new assignment

The ComDev master degree corresponds to a one-year MA (Master of Arts). The entry requirement for being accepted to the programme is a BA exam or equivalent, and knowledge of English.

The tuition fee for international students (from outside EU/EEA) is currently 80.000 SEK (ca 11.500 USD) for the entire programme, to be paid in two payments of 40.000 SEK per year. Students from the EU/EEA area are exempted from tuition fees.

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Flexible Distance Education: Pedagogy, Web interaction, Technical requirements, Access/Login

Flexible distance learning is a format that is neither fully campus based nor fully screen/distance based. Even in front of the screen you will not learn in isolation but through synchronous and asynchronous interaction, chat and group assignments.

The seminars organised as part of the ComDev program are of crucial importance for ensuring the quality of the educational process, and assuring interaction between the students in the seminar classroom. Thus, the seminars are compulsory for all students enrolled in the programme. They are not flexible in time but attendance can be either online or on location in Malmö. The format enables you to communicate with teachers and facilitators all over the world wherever you may be. It enables you to login and follow the course 24 hours a day and at the same time experience occasional face to face interaction or class room participation.

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Examination

All assignments are graded according to the A to U  scale. Deadlines are given at the specific course sites. All deadlines are 12 PM, meaning midnight, GMT. All Length indications are in characters and without or as ‘no spaces’. You should not include abstract, content, foot or endnotes and references in the count. Do keep your assignment within the given minimum and maximum requirements.

We offer one additional examination possibility every year on August 15th. Meaning you can submit any assignment or revision or re-submission of an assignment each year on August 15th in the appropriate course site.

If you are given an U (revision) or  (resubmission) you should use the next 15 August option. You are given 5 revision options in total.

If you are dissatisfied with an examiner’s mark you can hand in a written protest. We recommend that you discuss your mark with the course responsible before submitting a formal complaint, he/she may be able to clarify or expand on the comments and marking.

We give individual comments on assignments a high priority. It is the comments/recommendations that are important in terms of your learning process, not the mark itself.

If you still disagree strongly after discussing with course responsible or another teacher appointed to help you, we may appoint an additional marker on the work.

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Course Curriculum and Reading List

Communication for Development, general syllabus full program:
www.edu.mah.se/HACFD/syllabus

Courses:
Term 1, Media, Globalization and Development
Term 2, Communication, Culture and Media Analysis
Term 3, New Media, ICT and Development
Term 3, Research Methodology
Term 4, Project Work/Degree Project

For details about the syllabus of each course, please consult the It’s Learning course sites accessible from www.mah.se once you are registered as a student.

Do also keep an eye on the Communication for Development online Journal Glocal Times where much student project works and research in the field, from all over the world, is published: http://www.glocaltimes.k3.mah.se

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Academic Assignments, Writing, Referencing and Grading

Re-entering education after many years working in organizations outside academia can mean a radical shift in terms of working with sources, doing research and writing up. Specific academic writing and referencing formats exit, which differ radically from other forms, such as in NGO report writing or Journalism. These academic formats and study methods must be followed by each student with great care in all assignments. For referencing, different systems exist. However, the basic rule is to keep a consistent referencing technique. Here is information about one referencing system that we recommend Referencing Guidelines

This Degree Project Manual ht2012 is specifically for thesis writing but it also contains information that you might find useful for the structuring of content in longer academic papers, on writing, grading, and referencing. For specific advice on shorter assignments, you may go to the specific course site and read the instructions there. ComDev uses a variety of learning methods and assignments, from traditional individual papers, short or long, to group work, commentaries/reviews of fellow students work, oral presentations and commentaries, draft and final papers, as well as media productions in addition to traditional written academic assignment. You will get information on each course site as to the specific requirements. Most courses demand a combination of theoretical and empirical work, or discussion of empirical data (your own field work/data or other data). In general, assignments on all courses on ComDev should meet the following criteria:

  • Strong engagement with, and understanding of specific course literature/selected texts on the reading lists (this means in-depth engagement with relevant selections, depending on your essay theme)
  • Show an ability to pose and work with, and stick to, specific research questions, sustaining a tight focus and orientation throughout the work
  • Clear and perfect English, with strong readability (considering this is a program with emphasis on ‘Communication’)
  • Academic analytical approach, writing style and referencing
  • All assignments must comply with length/format requirements and should be submitted as word or pdf documents including name, course title, assignment title/course code, a specific title of the essay/assignment, and date of submission, and also indication if the assignment is a revision of earlier work.

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Evaluation

The master programme has recently (2011-12) undergone thorough evaluation by the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education (HSV), along with all other educations in the area of Media and Communication at both bachelor and master levels. The focus on this evaluation was the correspondence between learning goals and learning outcomes in the examinations in general and the final Degree Work in particular. In the report from the evaluators ComDev was the only programme of twenty-six in the area of Media and Communication in Sweden that received the highest mark.
Course evaluations are made after each course in the programme, through an online questionnaire. The evaluations and quality work is administered by the special ComDev Programme Council, with two to three student representatives from different batches.

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Malmö University web

As Communications for Development is a web based distance program, the web environment plays a central role. Even if the websites’ main purpose is to inform and deliver learning material, we like to regard them as living environments populated with all of you students and us in the staff. The sites are not static information places. They are living material that changes due to the activity of all of the people. Therefore is it very important that you visit the sites on a regular basis. We strongly recommend that you check them a couple of times a week. Your ComDev world or, what we like to call it, the learning environment, consists of several websites:

Malmö University main web page
http://www.mah.se
At the top of the structure and maintained by the information department. The public entry and the place for Malmö University common news and central information. The main page contains shortcuts to all faculties, departments and units and important features.

Communication for Development Portal
http://www.mah.se/comdev
The comdev portal is a site for general information about comdev. The portal serves as an information site for recruiting new students and as a service place for present students. The portal contains central and common information for the comdev students. You will be able to find your way to every corner of comdev from the portal. It means that you never will be lost as long as you remember the simple address to the portal: http://www.mah.se/comdev

You will also be able to find the student handbook, a FAQ and links to key features as the central IT support (Help Desk), library and other resources and systems you need for your studies.
The comdev portal is running on a Word Press server (thesis theme) and is basically a blog with some extra features.

Communication for Development online Journal Glocal Times
www.glocaltimes.k3.mah.se

Communication for Development on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/comdevmalmo

Ørecomm network 
http://orecomm.net/

Spider network
www.spidercenter.org

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Communication for Development course sites

Its Learning: It’s Learning
The teaching and learning activities takes place in Malmö University’s learning platform (lms) It’s learning. Every course within the ComDev programme has its own course site in It’s Learning. You will find them under the Course tab once you are logged in to It’s Learning. It’s Learning is not public.
It’s Learning is the name of the LMS (learning management system) that we use for teaching. In it you will find course specific information and features you need for your studies. We are building course sites with a special structure that you soon will recognize during the ComDev program. There will be a new fresh course site in It’s Learning for you every new semester and they will eventually form the ComDev “program” for you after 2 year. This means that you can’t look ahead in the course sites more than one semester/course at time. The overview of the program however is presented on the ComDev portal. There is a strong connection between the ComDev portal and the courses sites in It’s Learning and the basics idea is that the portal contains common shared and public ComDev information while the course sites supply you with course specific learning material and interactive spaces where you are doing your studies. You need both. Here is a description over the general course site model as you will find it when you enter a course in It’s Learning (below the course tab).

Bulletins
At top we have a billboard where the teachers place important info. You must check this billboard regularly as it is your own responsibility to keep yourself informed. You will see it every time you go to the course site in it’s learning. You will also see a RSS news feed from the ComDev portal.

Status and Follow-up
Here is your Grade Book where we place all your results and teacher comment s on the papers you submit in the final version place.

Participants
List all teachers and students. Here you can access personal info about us and your class mates. The page will also show your group belongings.

Links
Contains useful collections of links to resources outside It’s Learning like the Comdev Portal, Malmö University pages, IT support and blogs.

Bulletins (the course name), Status and Follow-up, Participant and Links are general features that never change compare to the tree structure with the folders below that can and will change during the progress. However the tree does have a certain basic structure where the seminar and modules folders have a repeated structure of information pages and subfolders with tools for interaction and communication.

The tree structure with the folder
Seminar folder contains:

Program
The ComDev seminar program is both in local times – Swedish and GMT fixed Greenwich time. Students in other times zones than where the seminar is held have to compensate for the time difference. You can find an online time zone calculator in the Links. Note! That the program in It’s learning can differ from the public program at the ComDev portal as it may contain special events for the course only i.e. introduction to assignments, exercises, workshops or exams.

Preparations
Reading instructions or other important thing you need to do before the seminars

Summary
A written follow up by the responsible teacher. You will also find some of the course specific video recordings here that are separated from the public video documentation at the comdev portal

Module folder (name of the module)

Work space folder
Here you find the different tools to work with the assignments and collaborate with your classmates. The Work space folders are mainly containing discussion forums or other features that you need to interact and communicate. This folder will change a lot during the course, for example when the teacher divides the class in groups according to themes or subjects to form the assignment.

Literature
The literature and reading list. Important! This literature list is the one that counts for you. It overrides all other literature lists i.e. in the syllabus and other sites.

Key questions
Here is the teacher presenting the modules content and assignment as a small written lecture. This page may also contain video recordings from introduction lectures or other learning material.

Examination
The formal instructions of the assignment and the procedure of the examination. The examinations page also has a clear description for grading criteria’s.

Guidance forum (student to teacher interaction):
Here you can seek help and ask the teachers questions related to the module. The guidance forum is also a place that you should visit frequently as you will find a lot of relevant information here.

Final version uploads (exams)
Here is the place to submit the final version of the assignment (document) to the teachers for grading and commenting. Note that these final version places are only present and open when the assignment is to hand in. It will close at the deadline stated at the Examination page

….. this folder structure is repeated if the course contains more than one module…..

Open Forum
Open Forum is the social forum of the course. Here can you socialize with your classmates and sometimes even teachers/staff. A great place that we all share. Please enjoy!

Technical support (student to support staff communication)
A discussion forum where you can get help with technical issues. The idea is to build up a dynamic FAQ during the course. The big issues will then be lifted placed in the general FAQ.

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Online seminars and Live Lecture

Live Lecture is a “one to many” real time streaming video or, more common, live webcast from Malmö University. Live Lecture is used during seminars and other occasions like the intro lectures. We are broadcasting Live according to the seminar program which often means many hours of live streaming video. Normally we start the cameras well in time before the class. Live Lecture webcasts are always announced on the billboard in good time before. The Live Lecture sessions are mostly “mixed” which means that there is an audience present in the lecture room also. Live lecture is neither a non-interactive TV kind of webcast nor a videoconference with duplex video communication. Videoconference only works with a limited number of participants and requires extremely good bandwidth to give full duplex. TV kinds of webcasts aren’t interactive enough for learning. Live Lecture was specially designed for the ComDev context with mixed in place and online participants sharing the same lecture and where the onliners have a big variation of computers and bandwidth (speed of internet) at hand. Live Lecture is a streamed video combined with a text chat which has proven to work well in the non-homogenies computer environment of ComDev users all over the world.

Communications during Live Lecture sessions
The online people communicate with each other, the online teachers/lecturers and the broadcaster who controls the camera by the simple text chat. As the communication is a silent text based chat it doesn’t disturb the ongoing lectures in the room but it is present on a big screen projection in the lecture room. The audience and speakers can see the online comments and discussion. The speaker my pick up questions directly at the chat or if one of the facilitating teachers in the room reads up question. 1 or 2 teachers are facilitating by being online in Live Lecture during the session.

Technical requirements of Live Lecture

  • Internet connected Computer, Mac or PC, with sound output. Try to get connected by a broadband (high speed) connection as streaming video needs a stable and fast internet connection. You can choose between 3 different video streams, 1. “LOW” (60kbs) 2. ”GOOD” (200kbs) 3. “FAST” (400kbs). If you experience dropouts or cuts please try another stream. Note that you will lose quality when you go to a smaller stream because it is more compressed.If you can’t get connected at home look for an internet café or stay at your office. Be creative and find the best suitable solution for you
  • Working computer sound. You need speakers or headphones. Headphones is strongly recommended especially if you are in a noisy environment.
  • Flash player plugin! You will get a notice if you don’t have it installed when you enter the Live Lecture application. If you need to install it download the plugin at http://www.adobe.com/go/EN_US-H-GET-FLASH
    Note that this means that you can’t use an IPAD since it doesn’t support flash.
  • A user account at webzone server where live lecture is hosted. See below
  • Turn off popup blockers.

Note! You don’t need a webcam and microphone since Live Lecture is a “one way” webcast and the communication from you is done by the text chat.

How to use Live Lecture
You can find Live Lecture in left menu in It’s Learning. If you can’t access It’s Learning you can also find an entry here on the ComDev portal or use this link http://webzone.k3.mah.se/projects/comdev/livelecture05/livelecture10_login.asp


Click on “START LIVE LECTURE”
A new browser window open. It will look like this.

If the sound and video is breaking please try a smaller stream. See “Your internet connection: low(60) | GOOD (200) | fast (400)” just below the video image. If you are on GOOD – click on slow.

Live indicator

When we aren’t online the latest recording is shown (click on the arrow). Once we are broadcasting a red tab appears in the upper right corner. Click on it to see the live stream.

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Live Lecture account

Live lecture is a separate webcast system based on the video service Bambuser and a streaming server at K3 that host the chat. Live Lecture is not connected to the computerID, the username/password you use to It’s Learning. This means that you need to create your Live Lecture user to be able to login and will get yet another username to keep in your mind. The process in short.

  1. You enter your name, password of your own choice and email (use your private like gmail) and send the form (see the link below)
  2. You will see your becoming username when you have sent the request but you will not be able to use it yet.
  3. You will get an email back telling you to wait until we have granted you access
  4. You will get yet another email (sender Mikael Rundberg) with your login information within a day or two. All requests are personally checked by us and we are trying to handle them as soon as we can but it can take longer during weekends. Note! Keep this email as a reminder of your username and password.
  5. Feel free to try the Live Lecture login and have a look at the interface. Live Lecture is accessible even if we are offline. The latest live sessiom is shown as a video clip. Click here to test your login

Click here to apply for your Live Lecture login information

Problems? If you don’t get back a conformation email to your inbox please look in your spam filter. If you can´t find the email contact me by email mikael.rundberg@mah.se

You can change your password by this link

The good thing about having the Live Lecture account separated from the Malmö University computerID is that you always is able to join Comdev Live Lecture sessions even if you are not a Malmö university student anylonger. The computerID expirers 6 month after you finished the studies but this will not happen to the Live lecture account.

 

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Library and Literature

The learning materials consist mainly of academic books and articles, either online or hard copies (this in addition to the online written guidance, oral lectures/discussion, online or in-situ). The anthology Media and Global Change by Hemer/Tufte as well as the journal Glocal Times are valuable free online entry points. These two readings forms a backbone to the program. However, visit the literature lists as well as the library page on each course site in It’s learning once you are a registered student. You will find compulsory as well as additional/thematic readings for each course.

As you also will see, the Malmö University library offers a variety of databases of relevance, such as e.g. JSTORE. Go to www.mah.se/bit/comdev

For buying books or reading books online try also www.amazon.com / www.amazon.co.uk / or Google Books http://books.google.com/ Although you will find many limited preview copies, you may be able to read some parts one day, and other parts during another login. This may help you in cases where you only browse for sections of books – or where it is impossible to gain a hardcopy of the book.

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Student Services

To the right on the Student Services page do you find a handy menu with links to useful stundets resources. Go to http://www.mah.se/english/Student/Student-services/.

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Credits and Grading reporting (LADOK)

After the exam of an assignment is the grade and comment from the teacher placed in your grade book at It’s Learning course page. It is normally announced on the main billboard when the grades have been distributed. You will also get an email message to your Malmö university address when the teacher has graded you. At the end of the course is the main teacher responsible to report all grades to the course secretary who is updating the LADOK database. All your results are locally collected in It’s Learning (grade and comments) while the official grade is (without teacher comments) are collected in the LADOK database. Note that the LADOK database is only updated after the course has ended which means that it can take some time before your results is visual in LADOK.

LADOK database
All courses you are admitted to and the credits of courses you finished are collected in the national database system LADOK. You can check your LADOK records on the webreg page or at the Student Portal. Use the LADOK service to download and print certificate. Login to access the LADOk database with you username (computerID) and password.

If you need assistance with the Ladok system or need other certificates than the LADOK printouts please contact the webmaster Micke Rundberg and/or the course administrator (see the contact page at the mah web)

Click here to go to the LADOK page


‘URKUND’ Plagiarism Control of Final Version of Degree Project

All ComDev degree project works are subject to a check for plagiarism. When you are ready to submit the final version of your degree project/thesis you will be given a submission address on the course dashboard so we can do a final plagiarism control of your final version. Details about this are given to you through It’s learning.

URKUND shows how many percent is your own writing and by this checks that you have not forgotten referencing of quotes and summaries. We do of course not expect any cheating.

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MA Communication for Development Certificate

Once you completed your studies, you need to apply to get your degree certificate. Degree certificates are issued by the Degree Office at the Department of Student Affairs.

Click here to read more about the Degree Certificate

Click here to download the application form for the Degree Certificate

Note that you must have finished all courses/modules before you can get the Degree Certificate. Check your LADOK records before you order the certificate. If you lack credits in the LADOK record please go back to the course site and compare it with your grade book. Check so you completed the missing courses or modules and got a passing grade on all assessments. The missing grade perhaps is given but not yet reported to the LADOK system. Please contact the responsible teacher, the webmaster and the course secretary (see the contact page at the mah web) to sort it out.

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Malmö University Electronic Publishing (MUEP) of Project Work

When you have finished your final project work you have the opportunity to publish the final version of your essay in MUEP – Malmö University Electronic Publishing. This will make it available in Malmö University open access repository MUEP and indexed according to international open access standards. i.e. make it visible in Google, Google scholar, www.uppsatser.se.

See more about how to publish in MUEP at: http://www.mah.se/english/Library/Electronic-Publishing/Publish-student-essay/

You need a pdf-version of your essay, the abstract and key words of your choice.

IMPORTANT – this applies to the final versions only (await examiner’s comments and minor revisions). Do not MUEP publish before.

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Additional Web Sites of Interest

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Abdulrahman Abdu July 5, 2011 at 12:40 pm

I believed such course will add value to my development work professional career and allow me to communicate to our marginalised communities in order for them to promote their lives by having a commom voice to their stakeholders and their policy drivers.

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