"In my studies I took advantage of all the forms of studying on offer: online lectures and seminars, reading circles, learning tasks, essays and book reviews."
- Hannele Korhonen, student at the Open University of Jyväskylä
In the space of 15 years information and communication technology (ICT) has fundamentally changed teaching methods and learning environments. Teaching in classrooms and lecture halls has now been joined by web-based tasks, social media, learning games, virtual worlds and mobile applications.
What is the importance of bogland to mankind? How are bogs formed and why should they be protected? At the online virtual bog learning environment (www.virtuaalisuo.fi) children and young people have the chance to familiarize themselves with the bog ecosystem, the special characteristics of bogland nature and the purposes to which bogs are put. Visitors to the virtual bog are encouraged to explore the bog ecosystem with the help of games and a virtual bog adventure among other things.
Marja Kankaanranta, Professor in Innovative Learning Environments at the University of Jyväskylä's Agora Center, has been involved in developing the virtual bog learning environment. According to Kankaanranta a good virtual learning environment appeals to its users in the same way as a commercial entertainment game.
"Games are nowadays a part of the everyday existence of children and young people. At their best learning games successfully combine elements linked to entertainment and learning. Games have to have problems, by solving which the player can reach a new game level." Jyväskylä-based researchers are among the leading lights of ICT research connected with learning. The aim is to establish by means of research studies how effective use can be made of new technology in teaching, how mobile solutions can promote learning and what the importance of virtual environments and social media actually is. Taking part in the research projects are municipalities, educational institutions and major companies in the branch, including Microsoft.
"The learning environment of the future will be a combination of ICT applications and traditional contact teaching. A learning environment must be examined from a broad perspective: learning will no longer be tied to the traditional classroom, but will also take place during free time in information networks," Kankaanranta predicts.
Kankaanranta believes that the online applications used in teaching increase collaboration. Via the internet a comprehensive school class can engage in group work with pupils at another school, for instance.
The new technology presents a challenge to educators, however, since making use of information and communication technology is not yet self-evident to all. "Right from the initial grades of comprehensive school there is a need to teach the skills associated with the information society: how to search for information, how to assess its reliability and ways of managing the information flood."
Master's programme implemented virtually becomes new export product Professor Jukka Alava, Director of the University of Jyväskylä's Institute of Educational Leadership established in 1996, sees a challenge in finding the correct balance between contact teaching and web-based instruction. "The basic nature of learning includes interaction between people, and for that reason not all teaching can be put online."
In 2007 the Institute of Educational Leadership introduced a 2-year English-medium Master's Degree programme in Educational Leadership. The programme provides students with the capability to operate in professional life as experts in educational leadership and institutional management, and as developers in their field.
"Students in the master's programme have 25-40 hours of lectures for each course plus tasks that have to be completed online. In addition we make use of a virtual environment that offers information connected to studying as well as a discussion forum," reveals Project Manager Päivi Kananen.
Already five years or so ago the Institute of Educational Leadership gave thought to solutions that could meet increasing international demand. Finnish expertise is highly rated in the market for studies in institutional management. "We came to the conclusion that we should develop an online version of our English-medium master's programme," Alava explains.
At the Institution of Educational Leadership work is at an advanced stage on English-medium study modules intended for virtual delivery by means of which they aim to satisfy the international demand for courses in institutional management. On offer will be study programmes made up of individual courses as well as an MBA in institutional management and a master's programme.
"For the purposes of virtual implementation we now have videoed lectures which we have edited into five hundred 20-minute online lectures. Simply videoing lectures doesn't turn a master's programme into an online product - since then we've done a lot of follow-up work. This has included supplementary tasks and materials and formulating instructions for students," Alava continues.
In Alava's view the new virtual implementation is aimed squarely at the global educational market. In addition to the virtual component the educational product always includes cooperation with officials in the purchasing country and personal contact with students.
In Finland the development of online study at universities of applied sciences has been furthered since the 1990s by the Finnish Online University of Applied Sciences, where students can complete online courses offered by other universities of applied sciences.
At JAMK University of Applied Sciences the aim is for every study period to involve a virtual workspace. Vice-rector Annikki Mikkonen believes that the online capabilities acquired while studying also benefit industry and commerce in the region.
"Students have taken the experiences gained from web-based learning above all into small and medium-sized enterprises where expertise related to information networks is still occasionally below par. This is important because in the future mastery of information networks and social media will be vital in every branch."
Mikkonen believes that learning environments like social media will change people's way of learning. "Social media offer solutions for continuous new learning since the individual is a participant in shared knowhow through his or her contacts. Many professions demand learning new things all the time because knowledge quickly becomes outdated. In social media knowledge and new ideas spread rapidly."
Web-based teaching has traditionally made use of closed learning environments, but the trend is now towards open learning environments in which students can produce and comment on content the whole time, like in Wikipedia.
"In open social learning environments people discuss, comment, form a collective understanding and distribute it freely to all comers," emphasises Mari Varonen, the designer responsible for web-based teaching at JAMK University of Applied Sciences. New innovations may also boost the internal flow of information at institutions of higher education.
"We're introducing the WordPress blog platform for the specialist blogs of our own personnel. These blogs are linked to the development of JAMK and in normal blog fashion can be commented on by readers. Blogs are adding a new dimension to JAMK's internal communication, too," Varonen states.
At the various units of Jyväskylä Educational Consortium, a major provider of vocational education, information and communication technology is seen as an opportunity to offer new tools for the acquisition of professional skills.
"During the learning process students can make use of networks they already have, such as Facebook communities. Vital key words in learning include multichannelism and cooperation," stresses Programme Manager Satu-Maaria Aksovaara.
For the learning of professional skills it is possible to turn to various games and simulations for assistance. From 2003 onwards Jyväskylä Educational Consortium has developed learning games in partnership with the Finnish Institute for Educational Research at the University of Jyväskylä as well as companies specialized in game design.
"We have developed games in which the learning of certain areas of professional skill can be reinforced in a 3D-environment through interaction with other players", reveals Project Manager Birgitta Mannila.
Using games it is possible to learn and teach safe work practices on a building site, installing the electrics in a small house, or planning a surface renovation, for instance. "The games are designed in such a way that the players have to work together, communicate actively with each other and solve tasks forming part of the game which have been designed to be pedagogically effective. These may be accompanied by different conflict situations, solving which develops cooperative skills. Communication between the students takes place via VoIP or internet chat."
Games are used to support learning a vocation particularly with 16-20 year olds, for whom the gaming world is familiar from free-time entertainment games. In the spring of 2010 Jyväskylä Educational Consortium will publish the pilot of a virtual operating environment which takes the utilization of games and the virtual world in teaching even further than previously. The theme of the new application is human sustainability. "In the virtual world under development teachers, students and companies' workplace supervisors can act together in different situations employing the means of interactiveness made possible by technology. The new application combines learning games, a virtual world of the Second Life type and social media."
According to Mannila the new, collaborative virtual environment will develop students' collaborative and interactive skills as well as teach them to take responsibility.
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Hannele Korhonen (33), who works as a lawyer at Evli Bank in Helsinki, completed her subject studies in adult education at the Open University of the University of Jyväskylä while living in Frankfurt.
"The online lectures and seminars were organised using Adobe's Connect Pro software. It was possible to follow the lectures afterwards as recordings if I didn't manage to catch them live. Studying was interactive, since everyone was able to participate either by speaking via his or her microphone or using chat," Korhonen explains.
Korhonen presented her pro-seminar paper via Skype from Frankfurt, while the rest of the group were face-to-face in Helsinki. The reading circle sessions were also conducted using Skype since the four participants were in different countries. In Korhonen's opinion social interaction and group formation worked surprisingly well during her studies, since there were frequent group sessions online.
The Optima web-based learning platform used by JAMK University of Applied Sciences' Open Studies has allowed Mänttä-based Nina Ruuhinen (37) to complete her studies in web-based marketing alongside her normal job.
Ruuhinen, who works in sales, wishes to improve her professional skill in marketing, but in such a way that she can herself influence the length of her studies.
"Tasks, contact with teachers and questions associated with studying, for instance, can all be handled via the net, which lets me study in addition to doing a busy job. Communication with other students can be handled in a variety of ways; for example, we make use of a message box that other students can see as well as a chat function," Ruuhinen continues.
Mänttä is some 85 kilometres southwest of Jyväskylä, so in Ruuhinen's view participating in contact teaching would be difficult. She believes that web-based studies encourage those in work to build on their professional skills. When there is no strict timetable for studying the student can shift tasks to a personally convenient time.
Words by Timo Sillanpää Photos by Mauri Ratilainen, Heikki Ollila