Presentation on study results of curriculum change in engineering education at Finland.

1. Student Collaboration and Independence
from Day One in Higher Education
Hjort P, Holvikivi J, Vesikivi P & Lukkarinen S
43rd Annual SEFI Conference, June 29 – July 2, 2015, Orléans, France

2. Hjort, Holvikivi, Vesikivi & Lukkarinen, (2015), Student Collaboration and Independence from Day One in Higher Education.
43rd Annual SEFI Conference, June 29 - July 2, 2015, Orleans, France
3
How does a novel
course structure
influence the way
students approach
challenges during
their studies?

3. Socio-cultural paradigm
Hjort, Holvikivi, Vesikivi & Lukkarinen, (2015), Student Collaboration and Independence from Day One in Higher Education.
43rd Annual SEFI Conference, June 29 - July 2, 2015, Orleans, France
7
Learning takes place in human
interaction and in interaction
with mediating objects.
CC BY 2.0 Earle Neil Kinder/Flickr CC BY 2.0 UC Davis Steel Bridge Team/Flickr
Monologue
Dialogue Trialogue
Walken in stage play, Hurlyburly (Wikipedia)

4. Collaborative teamwork in practice
Hjort, Holvikivi, Vesikivi & Lukkarinen, (2015), Student Collaboration and Independence from Day One in Higher Education. 43rd
Annual SEFI Conference, June 29 - July 2, 2015, Orleans, France
21
© Petri Vesikivi, 2015
Before
Now

5. Hjort, Holvikivi, Vesikivi & Lukkarinen, (2015), Student Collaboration and Independence from Day One in Higher Education.
43rd Annual SEFI Conference, June 29 - July 2, 2015, Orleans, France
22
“Most positive was how efficient,
instructive and meaningful working in
a group was especially compared to
just attending lectures.”

6. Game Course Structure
Hjort, Holvikivi, Vesikivi & Lukkarinen, (2015), Student Collaboration and Independence from Day One in Higher Education.
43rd Annual SEFI Conference, June 29 - July 2, 2015, Orleans, France
24
Week
1. Team building
2. Game idea
3. Development start
4. Game skeleton
5. Prototype
6. Getting ready
7. Final presentations
Every Friday….

7. Game Course Structure
Week
1. Team building
2. Game idea
3. Development start
4. Game skeleton
5. Prototype
6. Getting ready
7. Final presentations
Every Friday….
Hjort, Holvikivi, Vesikivi & Lukkarinen, (2015), Student Collaboration and Independence from Day One in Higher Education.
43rd Annual SEFI Conference, June 29 - July 2, 2015, Orleans, France
25
“THE MOST AMUSING THING ON
UNIVERSE, THE SCRUM MEETING !!!”
CC BY-SA 3.0, PierreSelim/Wikipedia

8. Blogs
Hjort, Holvikivi, Vesikivi & Lukkarinen, (2015), Student Collaboration and Independence from Day One in Higher Education. 43rd
Annual SEFI Conference, June 29 - July 2, 2015, Orleans, France
29
Student blogs

9. Hjort, Holvikivi, Vesikivi & Lukkarinen, (2015), Student Collaboration and Independence from Day One in Higher Education.
43rd Annual SEFI Conference, June 29 - July 2, 2015, Orleans, France
31

10. Hjort, Holvikivi, Vesikivi & Lukkarinen, (2015), Student Collaboration and Independence from Day One in Higher Education.
43rd Annual SEFI Conference, June 29 - July 2, 2015, Orleans, France
35
… However, I have been feeling differently
lately. I started to appreciate this, and
consider this little space a place to store my
thoughts during the class hours.”

11. Course Feedback
Hjort, Holvikivi, Vesikivi & Lukkarinen, (2015), Student Collaboration and Independence from Day One in Higher Education.
43rd Annual SEFI Conference, June 29 - July 2, 2015, Orleans, France
38
Student feedback on collaboration and
independence aspects in the courses was
mainly positive.
There were, of course, some individual students who said
working alone on the project would have been their
preferred method. This is in line with expectations: based on
earlier experience, collaborative work was assumed to be
hard for some engineering students.
All student teams managed to complete
their project within the given schedule.
The games created by the students did, with a few
exceptions, exceed the teacher expectations. The same was
true about student expectations: in general students noted
that at the beginning of the course they never thought they
would be able to create games with such high levels of
functionality and complexity.
“Working in a
group created
pressure to get
your own part
done because
you are
responsible for
the success of
the whole group
and not only on
your personal
success.”

12. SUMMARY
Hjort, Holvikivi, Vesikivi & Lukkarinen, (2015), Student Collaboration and Independence from Day One in Higher Education.
43rd Annual SEFI Conference, June 29 - July 2, 2015, Orleans, France
44
1. Collaborative work towards a shared goal has proven to be an
efficient and inspiring mode of study.
2. The students quickly adopted a self-directed mode of operation,
helping each other instead of asking teachers.
3. The instructors recognized that students had previous
knowledge and skills that they were able to use creatively when
assignments were structured in an open way.

13. Acknowledgments
Hjort, Holvikivi, Vesikivi & Lukkarinen, (2015), Student Collaboration and Independence from Day One in Higher Education.
43rd Annual SEFI Conference, June 29 - July 2, 2015, Orleans, France
46
The study was partially
supported by the Lifelong
Learning Programme of
the European Union
under Grant KA3MP-
2013-4764/001-001
Promoting nowledge
Work Practices in
Education; the KNORK
project; http://knork.info.

14. Hjort, Holvikivi, Vesikivi & Lukkarinen, (2015), Student Collaboration and Independence from Day One in Higher Education.
43rd Annual SEFI Conference, June 29 - July 2, 2015, Orleans, France
48
Photo: Sakari Lukkarinen@Crete 2013