Ongoing journey towards quality of learning

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Ongoing journey towards quality of learning

• Jaakko Kurhila, Head of Studies
• Heikki Lokki, Lecturer, Head of Development of
  Education

Faculty of Science Department of Computer Science
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University of Helsinki in nutshell

• The largest and oldest university in Finland
• 38 000 students
• 7900 employees
• 300 subjects
• 4500 degrees / year
• 400 PhD / year
• Founded on 1640 in Turku, moved to Helsinki on
  1828

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University of HelsinkiCampuses in Helsinki,
Branches in Finland
Helsinki
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Aerial Photo
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Department of Computer Science key facts

• The leading institution in Computer Science in
  Finland
• 2300 students aiming at Masters degree
• 170 employees, 15 foreign
• Two research units and numerous research groups
• Helsinki Institute for Information Technology
  (HIIT)
• Algorithmic Data Analysis (Algodan)
• Top international quality
• International evaluations in 2005, 2007
• Algodan is a Centre of Excellence in Research
• National unit of excellence in higher education
  2007-9

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Linux

• Linus Torvalds, who developed the Linux OS,
  studied and worked at the department in
  1988-1997
• The university gave Linus an honorary doctorate
  in 2000
• The department has been using Linux as the main
  operating system for nearly 15 years

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Impact on science and society

• High impact on computer science Every year ca.
  150 refereed publications, high citation rates,
  text-book material
• Strong utilization of results industrial
  co-operation, standards, spin-offs, software,
  patents
• Extensive collaboration
• international and domestic
• in computer science and across disciplines
• Impact also on other sciences
• Investments into researcher training

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Key facts of the teaching environment

• Well-planned, well-normed
• Operations documented in an open, collaboratively
  produced quality manual
• Economy of scale
• Rotation and appropriateness, sabbaticals
• Researchers participate
• Repeated short afternoons for all the faculty
• Increasing number in formal univ. pedagogical
  training
• Athmosphere clearly very good (2007 survey)

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Always been like this

• Teaching valued, teachers respected
• Teaching well-standardized
• Lectures mostly 2x2 hours per week
• Lab exercises 2 hours per week
• Some courses with project assignment(s)
• Exam at the end

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Development of Teaching at the Department

• Clear focus from teaching to learning
• Teacher's role from a soloist to a conductor of
  an orchestra
• What would be suitable and applicable to our
  department?
• Workload for the teachers cannot grow
• Faculty well-being is important
• Job markets require more team-work skills
• Based on
• University strategies
• Appropriate, concrete applications of educational
  sciences

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University of Helsinki, strategy

• Everyone researches, everyone teaches
• Student-centered, high-quality learning
• Learning to learn
• Collaboration and expertise sharing

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Constructive alignment in teaching and learning

• Learning outcomes are important, therefore,
  learning objectives are well-articulated
  learning methods, materials, and assessment
  support to meet the objectives
• Learning objectives well-defined, versatile,
  comprehensive
• Methods flexible and versatile (multiple
  exposure)
• Materials of high-quality, accessible
• Assessment that enables expertise accumulation

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Learning objective matrices
Faculty of Science Department of Computer Science
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Short history (1/2)

• Preparation of instructions for teachers in
  Autumn 2005
• Committee for the development of education
• Students input important
• Department-wide discussions
• Approved by the steering committee of the
  department
• In Spring 2006 learning objective matrices were
  produced for all compulsory Bachelors degree
  courses
• Detailed planning by head teachers of each course
  
• Synchronizing within and across specialization
  lines
• Some teachers had difficulties in outlining the
  different depth levels of learning

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Short history (2/2)

• Principal themes of learning objective matrices
  directed the planning of the new curricula in
  2007-8
• In Spring 2008 learning objective matrices were
  produced for all compulsory Bachelors and
  Masters courses
• The Faculty of Science adopted our model for all
  the departments
• Presentations of our learning objective matrix
  model within Univ of Helsinki and beyond

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Learning objectives of courses (1/2)

• What is fundamental in your course?
• Describe in a clear and compact manner what a
  student is able to do after passing the course
• Illustrate the learning objectives according to
  the format
• After the course a student is capable to list,
  compute, estimate, apply, explain, predict, model
  etc. such and such item
• Do not use words like learn" or understand
  because it is difficult to assess the achievement
  of these for both students and teachers

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Learning objectives (2/2)

• In objectives several levels of knowledge are
  separated (adapted from Blooms taxonomy)
• Lowest level is recalling" examples of
  objectives list, select.
• Second level is basic understanding" explain,
  describe.
• Third level is applying" apply, compute, solve.
  
• Forth level is analyzing" derive, classify.
• Fifth level is synthesize" plan, design.
• Sixth level is "evaluation" conclude and
  justify, select and justify.

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E.g. from the preceding course on the
same topic. From high school. General knowledge
(explain what). No previous knowledge needed.
When one commands all of these (and
nothing else), one passes the course with
lowest grade.
When one commands all of these, one gets the
grade 5/5.
Not required. Points to deeper knowledge. Course
material may not cover this.
New concep- tual wholes. Usually ca. 1 per
credit unit.
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Study circles as a primary learning method

• Starting in 2003, nine courses employed study
  circles
• Detailed manual on-line
• http//www.cs.helsinki.fi/laitos/opintopiiriohjeet
  .pdf
• Outside expert for educating about group dynamics
• Joint (teachers and TA's) course structure
  development in several get-togethers
• Planned methods for receiving feedback
• Feedback was analysed by an outside expert
• http//www.cs.helsinki.fi/laitos/opintopiiriraport
  ti2005.pdf

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Learning assessment

• Learning objectives and learning assessment
  affects greatly to learning activities
• Assessment of learning of principal themes
• Every principal theme must be separately passed
• For example, 3 questions with a and b
  questions, in which a assesses the minimum and
  b the complete requirements of the theme
• Significantly quicker feedback on results
• If one theme is failed, rapid chance to redo the
  theme (with possibly flexible arrangements)
• Approved by the Dept Steering Group and
  communicated to the faculty, but not yet widely
  in use

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Managing teaching development

• Identifying needs
• Thorough preparation of a suitable solution
• Development of teaching group, in which strong
  student representation
• Use of outside experts when needed
• Testing of the principles with trusted people
• Involving decision makers (Head of Dept and the
  Dept Steering Group)
• Preparation is taken to departmental level
• In departmental strategy preparation
• Department-wide discussions, communicated through
  multiple channels
• Principles are included in the strategy
• Implementation
• Clear and concise guidelines for implementation
• Support when needed
• Appreciate the resistance to change
• Follow-up of the success of the change

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ICT to support education

• In-house tools for teaching administration
  course management, Thesis progress database,
  course enrollment, course feedback ...
• Generic tools for synch/asynch communication
  irc, skype, newsgroups, email, wikis, cvs ...
• Specific tools and web-courses SQL-Trainer,
  Introduction to Databases, Computer Operation
  (with synchronized multimedia)
• Video lecture archive several hundred lectures
  (OSCu courses and others)
• Research-level tools Educo, OurWeb, Jeliot, ...
• Always supported by the structure in educational
  arrangements
• Forward thinking courses wholly or partly in
  Second Life
• Dedicated support for teachers
• Moodle server admin

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Two approaches

• Top-down structures that support learning are in
  place
• Constructive alignment of teaching as a primary
  structure
• Bottom-up participation, ownership in the
  learning environment
• Student empowerment and emergence of versatile
  learning activities

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Student empowerment

• Allow and require students to take responsibility
• Students are important
• Students have an effect
• Significant resources allocated to student
  organization TKO-äly for developing their
  learning environment
• ? sense of ownership, participation in the
  department
• Not a project but an attitude!

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Student empowerment instant results

• IRC-server for IRC-tutoring
• Student-organized courses
• Introduction to Lambda Calculus course
• Functional programming course
• Web 2.0 -course
• TKO-älys own textbook library
• Web-based exam archive
• Mini-laptop uses in education
• competition to involve and come up with ideas
• CS workshop for self-challenge - if the school
  does not challenge enough!
• Preparation and coaching for intl programming
  competitions
• Lego Mindstorms robots as creative tools
• Open source projects

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Long-term, well-resourced, carefully planned and
documented development with committed people,
supported by management and leadership? doing
things well
Faculty of Science Department of Computer Science