My research interests revolve around enhancing the teaching methods employed in large-scale courses (enrolling more than 300 students). I am particularly interested in exploring strategies to cultivate a strong sense of belonging among students, establishing effective faculty-student connections and engagement through various assessment techniques, and integrating students' prior knowledge seamlessly into the teaching process.

Ongoing projects:

National Prior Knowledge Test in Programming (website)Stage: Test is ready for distribution in august.Collaboration between 11 higher education institutions in Norway, led by Sondre S. Bolland.

Increased Student-Faculty Contact in Large Classes by Monthly Lecturer InteractionStage: Data collected and analysis in progress.Author: Sondre S. Bolland.

Ecological Intervention to Increase STEM-student Sense of BelongingStage: Data collected and analysis in progress.Authors: Sondre S. Bolland, Sehoya Cotner & Mirjam Glessmer.

Identifying STEM-student Challenges and Mitigating their AffectStage: Data collected and analysis in progress.Authors: Sondre S. Bolland, Emili Rønning, Tiril Try, Sehoya Cotner, Kjersti Daae & Mirjam Glessmer.

• Course instructor for Object-oriented Programming, spring 2023
• Teaching assistant for Algorithms, Datastructures and Programming, 2021 & 2022
• Teaching assistant for Object-oriented Programming, spring 2022
• Group leader in the following subjects:
  • Introduction to Programming, 2017 & 2020
  • Object-oriented Programming, 2019 & 2020
  • Introduction to Machine Learning, 2019
  • Basic Algorithms in Artificial Intelligence, 2018
  • Introduction to the Cognitive Sciences, 2018

Academic article

• Bolland, Sondre Sæther; Eide, Tyra Fosheim; Strømme, Torstein Jarl Fagerbakke (2023). Mandatory or Voluntary Course Work in Introductory Programming Courses?. (external link)

Academic lecture

• Bolland, Sondre Sæther (2023). National Prior Knowledge Test in Programming - How proficient are incoming higher education students? . (external link)
• Bolland, Sondre Sæther; Rønning, Emili; Try, Tiril et al. (2023). What challenges do students face in introductory STEM courses, and how can instructors help?. (external link)
• Bolland, Sondre Sæther; Eide, Tyra Fosheim; Strømme, Torstein J. F. (2023). Mandatory or Voluntary Course Work in Introductory Programming Courses?. (external link)
• Cotner, Sehoya Harris; Bolland, Sondre Sæther (2023). Contextualizing a psychosocial intervention in a Norwegian introductory-STEM course. (external link)

See a complete overview of publications in Cristin.