I am involved as an assistant on several Information Processing Science courses at the University of Oulu, and take part actively developing the teaching methods used together with the other assistants and responsible teachers.
In teaching development my special interest is in testing and implementing new digital tools in teaching. These tools allow more flexibility for the students not only concerning the time and the place they want to study, but concerning the ways they engage with the materials or choose to communicate with teachers and their peers. At the same time when implemented in an efficient, easy to update manner, these digital tools have the potential to enable teachers to do their work more efficiently and save their resources, still maintaining the quality of teaching. After course execution, I also study student and tutor feedback, and discuss with the responsible teachers what kind of changes should be done in order to make the course run smoother next time.
In addition to this kind of regular course development, I am currently also working on three larger projects related to teaching development. You can read more about these in the following chapters.
Digital education for all 2018-2020
The national Digital Education for All -project (DEFA) aims to make the first year university studies on information processing science open to everyone. Providing the education are University of Helsinki, Aalto University, University of Jyväskylä, University of Oulu, and University of Turku.
During the project, I will work collaboratively with other project members transferring the Introduction to Information Processing Science course to our new learning management system and testing and ideating new ways to bring the education to the students in a fun and engaging way. I will also work independently in generating new digital content targeted for first year university students or students at the open university. This content will include materials concerning how to structure and write scientific essays, and how to make citations to different kinds of sources in the text, and how to build a list of references
Streamlining of master level studies 2018-2020
Streamlining is an education development project by University of Oulu, Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering. The aim of the project is to plan and test realistic actions in order to prevent prolonged master’s level studies.
My focus on the project is the master thesis process in Information Processing Science. In the project I will be developing and testing instructions for the final 6 months of the master studies. The instructions will be accompanied with an easy to customize timeline and checklist for both the student and the supervisor which aim to help them keep track of the process, and enable the students to graduate on time.
Revolutionize 2018-202
Revolutionize is an development project by University of Oulu, Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering and degree programme in Information Processing Science with the modest goal to revolutionize teaching and assessment methods used. There is a need for a combined, well-integrated development of both SE, IS and HCI courses to to exploit modern, digitalised learning environments and pedagogical models so that a coherent, meaningful and attractive degree program both at Bachelors and Masters levels can be offered. The project aims to enable fully remote learning, but at the same time exploit physical learning environments, such as FabLab, in new ways. Flipped classroom is one example of suitable pedagogical alternatives. Modern digital learning environments as well as technical and pedagogical support is provided for the teachers. The project will enable new channels to provide education, such as high schools, open university, education export, and externally funded implementations.