Descriptive literature review of the added value of virtual realities in vocational education and training

Tarkastelemme tässä katsaus artikkelissa virtuaalitodellisuusteknologian (VR) hyödyntämistä ammattikasvatuksen kentällä viimeisen kymmenen vuoden aikana. Tavoitteenamme on selvittää, minkälaista empiiristä tutkimusta aiheesta on tehty ja minkälaista lisäarvoa VR tuottaa ammattikasvatukselle 13 tutkimusartikkelin perusteella. Tulosten perusteella tutkimus VR:n hyödyntämisestä ammattikasvatuksessa on yhtäältä lisääntynyt, mutta toisaalta empiirisiä tuloksia on vielä suhteellisen vähän. Tutkimus on toistaiseksi keskittynyt käyttökokemuksiin erilaisia VR-sovelluksia hyödynnettäessä. Havaitsemamme lisäarvo liittyy erityisesti reaalimaailman rajoitusten ylittämiseen ja erilaisten oppimisprosessie…

GOING BEYOND TECHNOLOGICAL AFFORDANCES - ASSESSING ORGANIZATIONAL AND SOCIO-INTERACTIONAL AFFORDANCES

Yliopistofysiikkaa laatuaikaoppimalla : teknologiset työkalut yhteisöllisen tutkivan oppimisen tukena

VET workers’ problem-solving skills in technology-rich environments: European approach

International journal for research in vocational education and training 1 (2014) 1, S. 57-80

Teacher trainees' experiences of the components of ICT competencies and key factors in ICT competence development in work-based vocational teacher training in Finland

International journal for research in vocational education and training 9 (2022) 2, S. 146-166

Using a game environment to foster collaborative learning: a design‐based study

Designing collaborative three‐dimensional learning games for vocational learning may be one way to respond to the needs of working life. The theoretical vantage points of collaborative learning for game development and the ‘design‐based research’ methodology are described; these have been used to support collaborative learning in the vocational context. The aim of the empirical study is to determine, firstly, what kinds of design elements were essential from the point of view of the collaboration, and secondly, what kinds of discussions students engage in during the game. In this study, three essential features of design elements stood out. Firstly, the scripted tasks have to require true c…

Primetime learning: collaborative and technology-enhanced studying with genuine teacher presence.

Background Productive learning processes and good learning outcomes can be attained by applying the basic elements of active learning. The basic elements include fostering discussions and disputations, facing alternative conceptions, and focusing on conceptual understanding. However, in the face of poor course retention and high dropout rates, even learning outcomes can become of secondary importance. To address these challenges, we developed a research-based instructional strategy, the primetime learning model. We devised the model by organizing the basic elements of active learning into a theory-based four-step study process. The model is based on collaborative and technology-enhanced lea…

Automatic Content Analysis of Computer-Supported Collaborative Inquiry-Based Learning Using Deep Networks and Attention Mechanisms

Computer-supported collaborative inquiry-based learning (CSCIL) represents a form of active learning in which students jointly pose questions and investigate them in technology-enhanced settings. Scaffolds can enhance CSCIL processes so that students can complete more challenging problems than they could without scaffolds. Scaffolding CSCIL, however, would optimally adapt to the needs of a specific context, group, and stage of the group's learning process. In CSCIL, the stage of the learning process can be characterized by the inquiry-based learning (IBL) phase (orientation, conceptualization, investigation, conclusion, and discussion). In this presentation, we illustrate the potential of a…

The Role of Instructional Activities for Collaboration in Simulation-Based Games

Tiina Lamsa (Ph.D.) has a Ph.D. of education and she is a qualified early childhood education and care (ECEC) teacher. She has been focusing on the questions of arts based research, visual and digital methodologies in childhood studies and cultural research, pedagogy and curriculum development, sustainable learning and educational leadership in the past several years. She is currently working as a university teacher at the Open University of the University of Jyvaskyla. Since the year 2006, she has been involved in several research projects that produced and developed electronic diary methods for use in research focusing on family life and children’s wellbeing. Her ongoing post-doctoral res…

Motivational Challenges of Engineers Participating in an Online Upskilling Program

The present powerful surge of available online learning platforms will provide employees with enhanced opportunities to rapidly develop their skills, regardless of time and place. Despite the potential, there are challenges for participants on online learning platforms to finalise the courses they engage in. The reasons for the high number of students dropping out before completion of the course are motivational, social, and technological. Studies show that large skill gaps exist among industry employees worldwide. It is often caused by the implementation of new technologies, digitalization, as well as increasing requirements on sustainability and resilience. E-learning provides a major opp…

Technological, Organisational and Socio-Interactional Affordances in Simulation-Based Collaborative Learning

Analysis of the applicability of a learning technology requires an evaluation of how the affordances of the learning environment respond to users’ needs. We examine affordances in a simulation-based collaborative learning environment from the learners’ viewpoint. Our analysis focuses on three types of affordances: technological, organisational and socio-interactional. The findings show how teams of learners employ the different types of affordances in their collaborative tasks. In addition, our analysis illustrates the interdependent and interlinked nature of the affordances. We offer an analytical understanding of the dynamics among different kinds of affordances and show how they can be a…

Game Mechanics in the Design of a Collaborative 3D Serious Game

Background. This article investigates the potential of utilizing game mechanics in designing 3-D serious games for Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) and attempt to produce new information about designing collaborative serious games. Aim. This article has two aims: first, to clarify how theoretical knowledge of collaborative learning was related to game design in previous studies; and, second, to design a collaborative serious game based on theoretical knowledge of collaborative learning and game design. Results. The reviewed studies revealed the potential of using collaborative games in education. However, they showed that collaborative learning games were typically designed …

What technical devices/platforms are used most by Citizen Scientists in their projects?

Of the 12 different tools and platforms that are used in citizen science activities, the top three were websites, smartphones and databases. Respondents to a survey conducted by the CS Track project indicated that they used technology primarily for gathering scientific data and knowledge as well as for communication and dissemination of information with other enthusiasts and researchers. nonPeerReviewed

Scripting as a pedagogical method to guide collaborative writing : university students' reflections

A collaboration script is a set of instructions used to improve collaborative learning among students in technology-enhanced environments. Previously, university students’ perspective has been under-represented in the study on collaboration scripts. In this article, we focus on understanding students’ experiences in a scripted collaborative writing task, especially from the perspective of following the script. The study was conducted among undergraduate students (N = 91) taking a master-level educational science course at one university each in Finland and Belgium. Divided into 25 groups, each with three to five members, the students worked on collaborative writing tasks. During their share…

The focus and timing of gaze matters : Investigating collaborative knowledge construction in a simulation-based environment by combined video and eye tracking

Although eye tracking has been successfully used in science education research, exploiting its potential in collaborative knowledge construction has remained sporadic. This article presents a novel approach for studying collaborative knowledge construction in a simulation-based environment by combining both the spatial and temporal dimensions of eye-tracking data with video data. For this purpose, we have investigated two undergraduate physics student pairs solving an electrostatics problem in a simulation-based environment via Zoom. The analysis of the video data of the students’ conversations focused on the different collaborative knowledge construction levels (new idea, explication, eval…

Self-Efficacy and Study Burnout Among IT Students : Challenges and Potentials

There is a risk of student dropout in the field of engineering, particularly in the domain of information technology. To find novel pedagogical and technological solutions to prevent student attrition, we must better understand student experiences regarding their learning and studying processes. This study was conducted within the introduction of a new engineering degree program at the University of Jyväskylä and focused on first-year students. The research questions are: How do IT students experience study burnout at the beginning of their studies? What kind of self-efficacy beliefs do IT students have at the beginning of their studies? How are the self-efficacy beliefs of IT students asso…

What do we do when we analyse the temporal aspects of computer-supported collaborative learning? A systematic literature review

To better understand the premises for successful computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), several studies over the last 10 years have analysed the temporal aspects of CSCL. We broadly define the temporal aspects of CSCL as focusing on the characteristics of or interrelations between events over time. The analysis of these aspects, however, has been loosely defined, creating challenges regarding the comparability and commensurability of studies. To address these challenges, we conducted a systematic literature review to define the temporal analysis procedure for CSCL using 78 journal papers published from 2003 to 2019. After identifying the key operations to be included in the proce…

Teachers' instructional planning for computer-supported collaborative learning: Macro-scripts as a pedagogical method to facilitate collaborative learning

Abstract Technological tools challenge teachers' pedagogical activities. The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in education should help teachers integrate new pedagogical methods into their work. This study explores macro-level computer-supported collaborative learning scripts as a pedagogical method to facilitate collaboration. Macro-scripts set up conditions in which favourable collaborative activities such as argumentation should occur. This case-study examines the difference between the “ideal” script and the “actual, realized” script to find out how collaboration differs between different groups. This study demonstrates that macro-scripts support collaboration by …

Students’ self-reported learning outcomes after a business start-up education program

The aim of the present study is to examine the breadth of influence of a business plan-based entrepreneurship education. This task is implemented by examining students’ (n = 227) self-reported learning outcomes concerning entrepreneurial skills, attitudes and abilities after education. In addition to proposing a classification of the self-reported learning outcomes, this study explores how these outcomes are related to the background characteristics of those taking part in an education program, and of the companies involved. Based on this study, four main areas of self-reported learning outcomes were found: (i) working-life key skills, (ii) management skills, (iii) entrepreneurial empowerme…

Designing and evaluating collaboration in a virtual game environment for vocational learning

Especially in vocational education, attention should be paid not only to the use of new technological solutions but also to collaborative learning and cooperative working methods in order to develop students' skills for their future jobs. This study involves a design experiment including the design process of a new game environment, description of the script developed for this game, as well as the empirical study with multiple data collection methods, data analysis, results and conclusions for further work. The aim of the study was twofold. Firstly, we aimed to develop a game environment to simulate the work context of a vocational design process, and secondly, to investigate how effective …

Deep Networks for Collaboration Analytics : Promoting Automatic Analysis of Face-to-Face Interaction in the Context of Inquiry-Based Learning

Scholars have applied automatic content analysis to study computer-mediated communication in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). Since CSCL also takes place in face-to-face interactions, we studied the automatic coding accuracy of manually transcribed face-to-face communication. We conducted our study in an authentic higher-education physics context where computer-supported collaborative inquiry-based learning (CSCIL) is a popular pedagogical approach. Since learners’ needs for support in CSCIL vary in the different inquiry phases (orientation, conceptualization, investigation, conclusion, and discussion), we studied, first, how the coding accuracy of five computational models…

The potential of temporal analysis: Combining log data and lag sequential analysis to investigate temporal differences between scaffolded and non-scaffolded group inquiry-based learning processes

This paper contributes to the ongoing discussion about analysing the temporal aspects of learning processes in the educational technology research field. Our main aim was to advance methods for analysing temporal aspects of technology-enhanced learning (TEL) processes by introducing the temporal lag sequential analysis (TLSA) technique and by combining TLSA with temporal log data analysis (TLDA). Our secondary aim was to illustrate the potential of these two analysis techniques to reveal the differences between the face-to-face technology-enhanced collaborative inquiry-based learning (CIBL) processes of three different conditions (non-scaffolded, writing scaffolded and script scaffolded gro…

Collaborative business planning in initial vocational education and training

There is a growing demand to enhance entrepreneurship. This study aims at producing knowledge that can assist teachers in designing and supporting collaborative learning of entrepreneurship in vocational education. A qualitative case study approach was adopted. The outcome of this study provides a better understanding of the factors that hinder and enable collaboration, as related to entrepreneurship education in initial vocational education and training. In practice, nine dimensions of descriptive factors that hindered the exercise and nine distinct descriptive factors that acted as enablers were identified. This study suggests that, although the script of the learning task creates the set…

Skills Matching for a Greener Industry 4.0 : A Literature Review

Manufacturing industry has historically had a very high leverage on environmental impact. Therefore, it is urgent to identify how the industry and its employees can contribute to change towards a sustainable society. Industry leaders need to enable their employees to create sustainable solutions, using technologies rising in industry 4.0. However, nowadays there are also critical discussions about whether this trend has reached our workplace settings in a satisfactory way. Namely, there is a growing skill gap among employees in manufacturing industries causing a lack of capability to match skill needs for fast technological development and requirements on sustainability. The resulting misma…

Understanding teaching professionals' digital competence : What do PIAAC and TALIS reveal about technology-related skills, attitudes, and knowledge?

In an ever-evolving technological landscape that challenges teaching professionals' digital competence, this study complements previous studies by providing an overall picture of teaching professionals' digital competence. We employed regression models on two large-scale assessment data sets on teachers from 11 countries—namely, the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS; n = 50,800) and the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC; n = 2590)—to investigate through the theoretical lens of digital competence how teaching professionals' skills, attitudes and knowledge distribute and relate, and how they are associated with personal and contextual fact…

Designing and investigating pedagogical scripts to facilitate computer-supported collaborative learning

Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) appears to provide a promising social approach to foster learning. On the other hand, recent studies have indicated that when learners are left on their own, it is often difficult for teams to engage in productive interactions. Therefore, the use of collaboration scripts as instructional support has been presented as a possibility to trigger productive collaborative activities. This study provides knowledge of collaboration scripts as a pedagogical method to facilitate group processes in virtual environments in authentic educational contexts. The findings indicate that scripts as external support can help students proceed in solving learning …

Editorial: Mission and scope of the journal Educational Research Review

Teknostressi lisääntyy iän ja kokemuksen myötä

Challenge of supporting vocational learning: Empowering collaboration in a scripted 3D game – How does teachers’ real-time orchestration make a difference?

Along with the development of new technologies, orchestrating computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) has become a topic of discussion because new learning spaces challenge teacher to support collaborative learning in new ways. However, despite the optimistic notions of teachers’ orchestration in CSCL situations, there are still no systematic research findings on real-time orchestration. This study is one attempt to fill in the knowledge gap on understanding the differences in knowledge construction processes between settings with and without teachers’ real time orchestration in 3D learning games from a socio-cultural perspective. The aims of the study are twofold. The first aim is…

Methodological reflections: designing and understanding computer-supported collaborative learning

Learning involves more than just a small group of participants, which makes designing and managing collaborative learning processes in higher education a challenging task. As a result, emerging concerns in current research have pointed increasingly to teacher orchestrated learning processes in naturalistic learning settings. In line with this trend, collaboration scripts for instructional support have been presented as a potential trigger for collaboration. This article presents a qualitative methodology designed to understand collaboration in macro-scripted conditions. The study aimed to highlight the differences and similarities in how the ‘ideal’ script (the particular learning activitie…

A wiki task for first-year university students : the effect of scripting students' collaboration

Abstract This study investigates the effect of a collaboration script - i.e. a set of instructions to improve collaboration between learning partners - for a wiki task. Participants were first-year university students in Educational Sciences ( N  = 186) collaborating in groups of five during a three-week period to create a wiki on peer assessment in education. Two conditions were contrasted: a scripted and a non-scripted condition. The effect of scripting was measured in four ways (questionnaires, log-file analyses, group product scores, and individual pre–post-test scores). Results show significant positive effects of scripting with respect to the collaborative group processes and students…

Understanding adults’ strong problem-solving skills based on PIAAC

Purpose Research has shown that the problem-solving skills of adults with a vocational education and training (VET) background in technology-rich environments (TREs) are often inadequate. However, some adults with a VET background do have sound problem-solving skills. The present study aims to provide insight into the socio-demographic, work-related and everyday life factors that are associated with a strong problem-solving performance. Design/methodology/approach The study builds on large-scale data of the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) and gives insight into VET adults (N = 12,929) with strong problem-solving skills in 11 European countries. Find…

New TEL Environments for Vocational Education – Teacher’s Instructional Perspective

Modern vocational education is increasingly taking place in new technology-enhanced learning (TEL) settings. On the one hand, vocational education can benefit from the opportunities of technological development. On the other hand, such technologies may create new challenges for teachers. Therefore, there is a particular need to pay more attention to the dialogic pedagogical approaches in which teaching should be seen as a dialogical practice involving teacher-student interactions that create contextual opportunities for teachers to trigger students’ learning in new TEL settings. This article reports on an exploratory study about the different ways in which teachers’ instructional activities…

Tensions of student voice in higher education : Involving students in degree programme curricula design

This paper considers the direct involvement of students in degree programme curricula design, specifically four computer science teacher students designing new curricula for the Faculty of Information Technology of the University of Jyväskylä. They participated in a project to make recommendations for the 2017–2020 master’s and bachelor’s programme curricula. We examined how these recommendations were implemented in the new curricula and what hindered student voice. The project led to major changes: making basic studies in mathematics optional, adding three new courses, and defining new learning goal descriptions for two master’s programmes. Several factors hindered student voice: insuffici…

Knowledge building and roles in Citizen Science : findings from the CS Track survey 2021

The Fourth Industrial Revolution and Changes to Working Life : What Supports Adult Employees in Adapting to New Technology at Work?

AbstractThis chapter aims to increase current understanding of adults’ individual learning pathways and needs when adapting to new technology. We review adults’ overall technology skills and depict, through chosen examples, how adults have adapted to technological change in their working lives. We present prior research on the challenges that the Fourth Industrial Revolution poses to adults’ further education, and based on the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), we review adults’ problem-solving skills in technology-rich environments. Overall, the findings emphasize the importance of design-based education and the need for companies to flexibly address …

Scripted Collaboration and Group‐Based Variations in a Higher Education CSCL Context

Scripting student activities is one way to make Computer‐Supported Collaborative Learning more efficient. This case study examines how scripting guided student group activities and also how different groups interpreted the script; what kinds of roles students adopted and what kinds of differences there were between the groups in terms of their activities. Seven small groups of higher education students participated in the study. According to the findings, scripting enhanced collaboration and ensured that all groups were able to complete the task, but despite the script the groups' activities varied during the task and the script could not guarantee any “high‐level” participation by all stud…

Oppimisen ja opetuksen tutkimuskeskus tukee opettajan työtä

Visualising the temporal aspects of collaborative inquiry-based learning processes in technology-enhanced physics learning

This study presents new ways of visualising technology-enhanced collaborative inquiry-based learning (CIBL) processes in an undergraduate physics course. The data included screen-capture videos from a technology-enhanced learning environment and audio recordings of discussions between students. We performed a thematic analysis based on the phases of inquiry-based learning (IBL). The thematic analysis was complemented by a content analysis, in which we analysed whether the utilisation of technological tools was on a deep-level, surface-level, or nonexistent basis. Student participation was measured in terms of frequency of contributions as well as in terms of impact. We visualised the sequen…

Education and working life: VET adults' problem-solving skills in technology-rich environments

The rapidly-advancing technological landscape in the European workplace is challenging adults' problem-solving skills. Workers with vocational education and training need flexible abilities to solve problems in technology-rich work settings. This study builds on Finnish PIAAC data to understand adults' (N?=?4503) skills for solving problems in technology-rich environments. The results indicate the critical issue that more than two thirds of adults with vocational education and training have weak skills or lack the skills in solving problems in technology-rich environments and that more than one fifth of these adults are at risk. Furthermore, this study indicates that the likelihood of havin…

Shared and personal learning spaces: Challenges for pedagogical design

Abstract The development of new tools for collaboration, such as social software, plays a crucial role in leisure time and work activities. The aim of this article is to summarize the research in the field of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). This is done particularly from the perspective of the blurred line between individual (personal) and group-level (shared) learning that the use of the new tools has forced us to re-think. First, individual and group-level perspectives to learning are discussed to make sense of the major notions of how learning is understood in CSCL research. Second, based on this theoretical grounding, it will be further elaborated what this means to th…

Scripting Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning

In this chapter, we will present a review of theoretical and empirical analyses of Web-based collaboration processes used during a scripted university course. The results refer to a design-based study that involved first-year teacher-education students (N = 30) studying pedagogy over a period of three months. The intervention involved structuring the subjects’ collaborative actions with three different pedagogical scripts. According to the findings, the scripts guided students’ activities by helping them find resources for knowledge construction and work together through a series of steps. However, there were variations among groups in terms of quality of collaboration, and the students mos…

TEL@work: Toward integration of theory and practice

This paper examines technology-enhanced learning at work in the context of the integrative pedagogy model. The basic idea behind this model is to create learning environments whereby the four basic elements of professional expertise (ie, theoretical, practical, self-regulative and sociocultural knowledge) can be integrated. The paper illustrates two basic ways of applying the model in technology-enhanced learning at work. First, examples of how to make use of existing technologies, especially social media, to empower learning at work is presented, and second, an instance of the way the model is used in the design of specific technologies for enhancing collaborative learning in the work cont…

University Teachers as Developers of Technology-Enhanced Teaching—Do Beliefs Matter?

Previous research has identified a well-established link between teachers' beliefs and the practical implications of technology-enhanced learning (TEL). Until recently, there have been few studies ...

The state-of-the-art of collaborative technologies for initial vocational education : a systematic literature review


 
 
 Future workplaces require collaboration skills in which members of different work communities use technologies to solve complex problems. Vocational education and training (VET) programs need to meet the challenge to prepare students to be part of a competent workforce. Particularly initial vocational education is under pressure to develop learners’ collaboration skills and abilities. To date, however, no attempt has been made to perform a comprehensive review of the use of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) technologies across different vocational education settings to account for contextual factors of VET. In this systematic review, 26 published studies …

Orchestrating 21st century learning in higher education : A perspective on student voice

For universities to meet the 21st-century learning needs of today's students, it is important they allow students to take an active role in developing pedagogy and sharing their perspective. This paper introduces design-based research aiming to develop a pedagogic approach to support technology-enhanced learning practices at the university level with the focus on teacher orchestration of learning activities and student voice. Drawing from the perspectives of teachers and students who participated in a course focused on learning and 21st-century competencies, four main elements indicating student voice and technology-enhanced pedagogy are presented: increased interaction among university com…

Virtual Enterprise Simulation Game as an Environment for Collaborative Creativity and Learning

AbstractWhen employees become accustomed to everyday working habits it can prevent them from generating creative ideas. This familiarity takes the forms of mainly collaborating with familiar colleagues, playing roles that develop over years, and solving encountered problems with proven strategies. This chapter considers how a virtual enterprise simulation game (RealGame) can potentially foster digital creativity and collaborative learning. The game simulates a situation where team members take responsibility for managing a virtual manufacturing company and its supply chain. Theoretically, we consider RealGame a facilitating environment for people to collaborate by offering a safe environmen…

Työelämä digimurroksessa : jatkuvaa oppimista vai teknostressiä?

Tässä luvussa tarkastelemme teknostressin ilmiötä suomalaisessa työelämässä. Tutkimusaineisto (N=1032), johon tämä luku pohjautuu, kerättiin strukturoidulla verkkokyselyllä vuoden 2020 alussa. Määrällinen aineisto analysoitiin hyödyntämällä yksi- ja kaksisuuntaista varianssianalyysiä sekä lineaarista regressiota. Avointen vastausten analysointiin sovelsimme teoriaohjaavaa sisällönanalyysiä. Tulokset osoittavat, että työpaikoilla koetaan teknostressiä. Teknostressin kokemukseen olivat työntekijän omien asenteiden ja osaamisen lisäksi yhteydessä organisaation toimintaympäristö oppimisen ja kehittymisen mahdollisuuksineen. Tulevaisuudessa on syytä kiinnittää huomiota erityisesti työelämän digi…

Collaborative Systems and Environments for Future Working Life: Towards the Integration of Workers, Systems and Manufacturing Environments

While the industrial sector in Europe was previously strongly based on mass production technology, it is now moving towards highly customised products and thus to lot-size-one production. The change in production paradigm is strengthened by the emerging technologies. In small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), this means, for example, the increased use of modern digital manufacturing tools, new additive manufacturing processes and novel engineering intelligence solutions. As a direct result, workers need to develop new skills and competences to effective work. From an educational perspective, it is especially critical that people with few prior successful experiences with fully applying …

Liikunta-alan tutkintokoulutuksen merkitykset valmistuneiden elämänkertomuksissa : fenomenografinen analyysi

Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli kuvailla, millaisia laadullisesti erilaisia merkityksiä liikunta-alan tutkinnon suorittaneet antoivat alan tutkintokoulutukselle urateemaisissa elämänkertomuksissaan. Kertomusten avulla oli mahdollista tavoittaa koulutukselle annetut merkitykset suhteessa uran muotoutumisen monitahoisuuteen. Tutkimukseen osallistui 60 liikuntaneuvoja-, liikunnanohjaaja- (AMK tai YAMK) tai liikuntatieteiden maisteri -tutkinnon vuosina 2004–2015 suorittanutta henkilöä, jotka vastasivat avoimeen kirjoituskutsuun. Kutsussa osallistujia pyydettiin kirjoittamaan tutkimusta varten oma urateemainen elämäntarinansa. Kertomusaineisto analysoitiin fenomenografisesti etsimällä tekste…

Game bridge : kohti ammatillisia avaintaitoja

Tulevaisuuden työelämässä korostuvat eri alojen välinen moniammatillinen verkottunut yhteistyö sekä jae­tun ymmärryksen muodostuminen. Tämän myötä myös vuorovaikutus-, ongelmanratkaisu- ja yhteistyötaitojen kehittäminen ovat keskeisessä roolissa työelämässä pärjäämisen kannalta. Näiden asioiden opettaminen ja havainnollistaminen perinteisin menetelmin on haastavaa ja jää helposti oppiainesisältöjen varjoon. Game Bridge -hankkeessa toteutettu 3D-oppimisympäristö havainnollistaa työyhteisön, sosiaalisten suhteiden, kiireen ja tiedon kulun merkitystä työstä suoriutumiselle. Ympäristö mahdollistaa abstraktin asian harjoittelun työelämävalmiuksien parantamiseksi. Ympäristön päätarkoituksena on k…

Staying at the front line of literature: How can topic modelling help researchers follow recent studies?

Staying at the front line in learning research is challenging because many fields are rapidly developing. One such field is research on the temporal aspects of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). To obtain an overview of these fields, systematic literature reviews can capture patterns of existing research. However, conducting systematic literature reviews is time-consuming and do not reveal future developments in the field. This study proposes a machine learning method based on topic modelling that takes articles from a systematic literature review on the temporal aspects of CSCL (49 original articles published before 2019) as a starting point to describe the most recent devel…

It’s Not Only What You Say, But How You Say It : Investigating the Potential of Prosodic Analysis as a Method to Study Teacher’s Talk

In this study, we introduce new insights into prosodic analyses as an emerging method to study what happens in classrooms interactions. We claim that the prosodic aspects (features of speech such as intonation, volume and pace) of talk are important, but under-represented in the learning sciences. These prosodic aspects may be used to complement, intensify or even reverse the linguistic content of speech. Thus far, most research on classrooms has focused on the content (what is said) rather than on understanding the meaning of the prosodic features (how it is said) of talk. In this study, we introduce prosodic analyses as a method to study classroom discussions. Our exploratory experiment f…

Collaborative 3D learning games for future learning: teachers’ instructional practices to enhance shared knowledge construction among students

Collaborative games will enable new kinds of possibilities for learning. In the future, the goal of game-based learning should be to introduce new ideas and deepen in-depth understanding of learners. However, studies have shown that shared high-level knowledge construction is a challenging process. Moreover, thus far, few empirical studies have examined what constitutes the teacher’s role in games. The focus of this paper is to investigate teachers’ real-time instructional activities in a scripted 3D game setting. Our hypothesis is that groups with real-time teacher instruction will come up with more shared knowledge construction that can be considered productive than groups studying withou…

How Citizen Scientists Learn: Exploring Learning Perceptions Through an International Survey

Citizen science (CS) is a growing field of participatory science, bringing together the public, researchers, organizations, and communities to participate in various scientific projects that unfold in different sociomaterial settings known as territories. While research on perceived learning in CS has recently grown, the discussion regarding the different learning approaches, territories, and the overall process as well as their associations with learning factors remains meager. In our study, we unpack three types of learning (formal, informal, and nonformal) and their respective territories in CS, and within this context, review a model of learning to synthesize the project-related and ind…

Automatic content analysis in collaborative inquiry-based learning

In the field of science education, content analysis is a popular way to analyse collaborative inquiry-based learning (CIBL) processes. However, content analysis is time-consuming when conducted by humans. In this paper, we introduce an automatic content analysis method to identify the different inquiry-based learning (IBL) phases from authentic student face-to-face discussions. We illustrate the potential of automatic content analysis by comparing the results of manual content analysis (conducted by humans) and automatic content analysis (conducted by computers). Both the manual and automatic content analyses were based on manual transcriptions of 11 groups’ CIBL processes. Two researchers …

Learning from Social Collaboration

This chapter focuses on the challenge of evaluating game-based learning. It argues that linking game-based learning with the characteristics of a specific game or game-produced engagement is challenging. It further proposes a framework in which the game-based learning process is approached by considering (business) simulation games as Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) environments and presents an approach on how learning can be approached and evaluated from this perspective. In addition, it highlights how simulation game mechanics appears to be a potential way to promote learners' socio-emotional processes and give rise to social interaction and to structure collaboration amo…

What makes the difference : PIAAC as a resource for understanding the problem-solving skills of Europe's higher-education adults

The ever-evolving technological landscape is challenging adults' problem-solving skills. The central goal of higher education (HE) is to guarantee a high level of know-how, which is in line with the changing demands of technology at work and in everyday life. This study builds on European data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) to understand adults' (N = 53,407) skills for solving problems in technology-rich environments. The study provides insight into the socio-demographic, work-related, and everyday factors that are associated with a strong and a weak problem-solving performance. The results indicate that HE adults stand out from adults with…

How to Raise Different Game Collaboration Activities : The Association Between Game Mechanics, Players' Roles and Collaboration Processes

Background. Designing collaborative three-dimensional (3D) learning games is one way to enhance the quality of learning and respond to the needs of working life. However, there is little research on how to apply different game mechanics to support different educational aims.Aim. This study determines how game mechanics implemented within computer-supported collaboration roles (scripted vs. emergent) are associated with the emergence of collaboration.Method. The research at hand applies both qualitative and quantitative content analysis. The target group consisted of 15 vocational school students. The data were gathered by recording the groups’ discussions and saving the game logs. A total o…

TEL@work: Toward integration of theory and practice

This paper examines technology-enhanced learning at work in the context of the integrative pedagogy model. The basic idea behind this model is to create learning environments whereby the four basic elements of professional expertise (ie, theoretical, practical, self-regulative and sociocultural knowledge) can be integrated. The paper illustrates two basic ways of applying the model in technology-enhanced learning at work. First, examples of how to make use of existing technologies, especially social media, to empower learning at work is presented, and second, an instance of the way the model is used in the design of specific technologies for enhancing collaborative learning in the work cont…

Classroom Orchestration: Balancing between Personal and Collaborative Learning Processes

The nature of vocational education needs has changed. In authentic vocational classroom contexts, there is a rising need to develop new ways to integrate ongoing and overlapping processes of students' personal learning environments and collaborative knowledge construction. However, there is currently very little knowledge about how teachers integrate these two approaches in arranging learning. This creates new challenges for teachers when creating instructional activities, especially regarding teacher-student interactions. This case study illuminates teachers' instructional activities in empowering the students' knowledge construction in a technology-enhanced learning setting. The results s…

Orchestrating 21st century learning in higher education: A perspective on student voice

For universities to meet the 21st-century learning needs of today's students, it is important they allow students to take an active role in developing pedagogy and sharing their perspective. This paper introduces design-based research aiming to develop a pedagogic approach to support technology-enhanced learning practices at the university level with the focus on teacher orchestration of learning activities and student voice. Drawing from the perspectives of teachers and students who participated in a course focused on learning and 21st-century competencies, four main elements indicating student voice and technology-enhanced pedagogy are presented: increased interaction among university com…

To stay or to leave? Career story models of Finnish sports graduates

Previous research has revealed the challenges of sports graduates. Of particular concern is the question of how sports graduates navigate these difficulties in the job market. This study sought to understand the modern careers of sports graduates by describing different career story models among sports degree graduates. Life story data collection was employed to capture the various influences affecting career paths. The data consisted of 59 career life stories collected from Finnish sports degree graduates who were recruited through an open writing invitation. Data were analysed with the narrative method. Five typical career story models were identified among Finnish sports degree graduates…

Learning to collaborate: Designing collaboration in a 3-D game environment

To respond to learning needs, Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) must provide instructional support. The particular focus of this paper is on designing collaboration in a 3-D virtual game environment intended to make learning more effective by promoting student opportunities for interaction. The empirical experiment eScape, which encourages learners to solve problems collaboratively, is also presented. eScape is a design experiment, comprising both the process of designing a collaborative game environment and an empirical study where data is collected using a variety of methods and analysed, after which the findings and conclusions serve as a basis for further design work. By …

Games for enhancing basic reading and maths skills : A systematic review of educational game design in supporting learning by people with learning disabilities

Perceived Sociability and Social Presence in a Collaborative Serious Game

Collaborative serious games have proven to have the potential to support joint knowledge construction, and there is a growing interest in applying such games to promote high-level learning. However, most of the existing studies have focused on the effects of functional, task-specific support while ignoring the social aspects of collaborative learning. This study is one aim to fill in the knowledge gap in order to understand how learners experience educational games as a means of social interaction and collaboration. The findings indicated that the game environment facilitated and supported players’ socio-emotional processes by eliciting students’ social presence and sociability. This has be…

Promoting Surgical Residents’ Basic Skills via the Design and Implementation of a Simulation Training Tool

Background. Surgical training in authentic work environments needs guidance practices, including simulation training within a competence-based framework. The use of simulators may actually have negative effects on professional learning if there is a lack of competence-based goals, tools, and guidance, integrated with work practices, and applied by trainers. Intervention. We designed simulation training tools to promote the surgical residents’ abilities to perform competently in basic surgical skills. Our educational and surgical team worked together and (i) specified the goals for the tasks, (ii) specified the skills to be achieved, (iii) and analyzed the learning outcomes. The assumption …

Dialogicality in making sense of online collaborative interaction : a conceptual perspective

In higher education, learning activities increasingly take place in online collaborative groups. In this conceptual paper, we explore online collaborative interaction from the perspective of dialogicality. We aim to reconceptualize the notion of “productive interaction” and the typical focus of its research by turning attention to the dialogic features of collaborative interaction, especially the notions of alterity, dialogic attitude, and dialogic orientation. In relation to this, we offer a contextual perspective on collaborative interaction. Relying on data from an online university course, we conceptually analyze specified components of dialogicality. This article illustrates and explor…

Organizing for collaboration in simulation-based environments: An affordance perspective

Challenges for the Teacher's Role in Promoting Productive Knowledge Construction in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Contexts

This chapter discusses challenges related to teachers’ pedagogical activities in facilitating productive discussions among students in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) contexts. In the light of two different cases from secondary-level and higher education contexts, the authors examine how teachers’ pedagogical choices influenced the quality of students’ activity, namely Web-based discussion. The results of our studies indicated that rich moments of collaboration were rare and distributed unequally among the students. The obvious weakness from the perspective of teachers’ pedagogical activities was that in neither of the studies was the students’ interaction in the discussion…

Vocational education approach: New TEL settings—new prospects for teachers' instructional activities?

This study focuses on vocational education teachers’ instructional activities in a new technology-enhanced learning (TEL) setting. A content analysis is applied to investigate teachers’ and students’ interactions in a 3D game context. The findings illustrate that when teachers’ and students’ interactions are mediated by a game, teachers seem to apply different discussion activities to empower vocational learning than they do in traditional classroom settings. Additionally, the present study shows that teachers spontaneously develop new ways of supporting vocational learning processes. In more detail, two main types of instructional activities were identified: a “knowledge-providing” approac…

Theoretical and pedagogical perspectives on orchestrating creativity and collaborative learning

The role of teacher is increasingly related to designing and arranging collaborative learning situations in which fruitful and creative group work may occur. This thematic review presents recent studies on creativity and collaborative learning from the perspective of the teacher as conductor of learning processes. The precondition for the design and orchestration of these kinds of learning situations is analysing and understanding of creative and collaborative processes and their contextual adaption. Thus, the first section of this review focuses on the theoretical vantage points of creativity and collaborative learning mainly from socio-cultural perspective. Based on this theoretical groun…

Designing and analyzing collaboration in a scripted game for vocational education

This study attempts to combine the technological possibilities of 3D-game environments and collaborative learning scripts. The study is a design experiment (N=64) with multiple data collection and analysis (quantitative and qualitative) methods. The aims were twofold: The aim was to develop a game environment to simulate issues of work safety in a vocational context and to answer the following questions on the basis of an empirical study: (1) What kind of activities did the scripted game environment generate among the players? (2) How did the least and the most successful groups differ in this respect despite the same scripted game environment? Findings indicated that scripted game environm…

Organizing for collaboration in simulation-based environments : an affordance perspective

Extant research has identified the significance of technological affordances in computer-supported learning environments. However, until recently, there is scarcely empirical research on affordances for organizing collaboration in these learning environments. To address this gap, this study empirically examines affordances for organizing collaboration in a simulation-based learning environment. We focus, in particular on understanding how the organizing affordances of the learning environment are perceived and employed by the learners during a simulation-based learning task. The study was executed among 177 undergraduate higher education (HE) business students from 10 universities in Belgiu…

Pelaa ja opi : räätälöityjä verkkopelejä ammatilliseen oppimiseen

Yhä useammalle ammatillisen koulutuksen oppijalle erilaiset virtuaaliset toiminta- ja peliympäristöt ovat keskeinen osa arkipäivää. Työelämässä puolestaan on asioita, joiden etukäteisharjoittelu on vaikeaa, kallista ja jopa vaarallista. Virtuaaliset peliympäristöt voivat tarjota ratkaisun tähän ongelmaan. Tutkimukset osoittavat, että parhaimmillaan pelit voivat parantaa oppimisen laatua ja tehostaa toimintaa, luoda kiinnostavia oppimistilanteita, auttaa sitoutumaan tehtävien suorittamiseen, ohjata käyttäytymistä ja ongelmanratkaisua sekä edistää yhdessä toimimisen taitoja. Lisäksi virtuaalimaailmassa pelaamisen avulla voidaan havainnollistaa vaarallisia tai pitkäkestoisia tilanteita sekä au…

Group-level analysis on multiplayer game collaboration: how do the individuals shape the group interaction?

In this study, the aim was to examine how small-group collaboration is shaped by individuals interacting in a virtual multiplayer game. The data were collected from a design experiment in which six randomly divided groups of four university students played a voice-enhanced game lasting about 1 h. The ‘eScape’ game was a social action adventure developed as a part of the study. In the analysis of the video data, students' discourse functions during the game were analysed with content analytic methods for studying the nature of their interaction. An effort was made to analyse the data on both group and individual levels, and therefore the participants' prior social ties and experience in gami…

Professional identity in relation to vocational teachers’ work : an identity-centred approach to professional development

This paper reports a study on teachers’ professional identity and work in vocational education. The findings showed that vocational teachers’ work included vocational teaching within the school, developmental work, technology-enhanced work, professional duties outside the school, and educational duties within the school. Furthermore, the study revealed the harmonious and tensioned relationships between these elements of the work and teachers’ identities. Recognition of the nuanced nature of these relationships provides a perspective for promoting teachers’ professional development. From a practical perspective, there is a need to support vocational teachers’ identity work and the adoption o…

Lifelong learning : Formal, non-formal and informal learning in the context of the use of problem-solving skills in technology rich environments

The evolving technological landscape in the digital era has a crucial influence on lifelong learning and the demand for problem‐solving skills. In this paper, we identify associations between formal, non‐formal and informal learning with sufficient problem‐solving skills in technology‐rich environments (TRE). We focus on adults' problem‐solving skills in TRE as a novel approach to investigate formal, non‐formal and informal learning based on data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies. This programme measured 16–64‐year‐old adults' proficiency in problem‐solving skills in TRE. The total sample size was 61 654 individuals from 13 European countries. Our res…

Onko teknostressi asennekysymys? : Teknologinen osaaminen jatkuvan oppimisen mahdollistajana

Capturing cognitive load management during authentic virtual reality flight training with behavioural and physiological indicators

Background Cognitive load (CL) management is essential in safety-critical fields so that professionals can monitor and control their cognitive resources efficiently to perform and solve scenarios in a timely and safe manner, even in complex and unexpected circumstances. Thus, cognitive load theory (CLT) can be used to design virtual reality (VR) training programmes for professional learning in these fields. Objectives We studied CL management performance through behavioural indicators in authentic VR flight training and explored if and to what extent physiological data was associated with CL management performance. Methods The expert (n = 8) and novice pilots (n = 6) performed three approac…