DIGITAL PEDAGOGY AND ONLINE TEACHING IN THE FIELD OF HUMANITIES 

COVID-19 has brought on many changes to the classroom, the most concrete of which is the shift from the physical classroom, to the virtual classroom. The scramble to move classes online has led to an increasing need for resources that discuss digital pedagogy. The need for discussion on topics that relate to digital pedagogy has never been as current as it is now. In this blog we will discuss on Digital Pedagogy, online courses, online teaching particularly in the field of Humanities.  

Authors:

Tiina Airaksinen is Senior Lecturer in Asian Studies. She is trying to understand how to create feasible solutions in online teaching and is very interested in research on digital pedagogy particularly within cultural studies. 

 Anna-Leena Korpijärvi is a Doctoral candidate in Cultural Studies with a passion for developing tailored digital learning activities for theArts and digital pedagogical solutions that support these activities.

 What  is digital pedagogy and how does it differ from pedagogy for contact teaching? 

Digital pedagogy is often defined as the study and use of contemporary digital technologies in teaching and learning. This can refer to teaching conducted via Zoom, a MOOC course and anything in between. These types of teaching environments can appear distant and removed from teacher student contact, however online and hybrid teaching environments can and do include interactions between teachers and students as well as between students, it is somewhat different than traditional classroom interactions. 

Digital Pedagogy may be applied to online, hybrid, and face-to-face learning environments. Different types of teaching technologies used in university level teaching that increases every year. COVID-19 and the resulting distanced teaching has only accelerated the amount of online teaching available at university level. 

Digital technologies are relied upon to provide resources and support practices as well as learning platforms for class. Despite this, most teachers using digital teaching platforms and other tools, they are not necessarily knowledgeable on Digital Pedagogy.  

It can be difficult to figure out things like what are the best pedagogical solutions for a course or what types of learning objectives and activities are the most suitable for an individual teacher’s needs. 

One solution is that when planning your online course you begin to think what study objectives (of your course) are feasible or suitable in the online course. Then just choose a digital platform that you are most familiar with (moodle, mooc, courses.helsinki.fi, zoom, teams etc.). According to our research* the most used digital platform at the Faculty of Arts is the moodle.  

*Questionnaire: Digital Pedagogy and Intended Learning Outcomes in online teaching in Cultural Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Helsinki, spring 2020, Airaksinen Tiina ja Anna-Leena Korpijärvi 

The Durga Puja Mystery: An Educational Video Game about Indian Culture

We are excited to announce the release of our educational video game on the Indian festival Durga Puja. It was developed to target mainly (beginner and intermediary level) students in (South) Asian Studies and Religious Studies but can be used in any other context, as well, as it is easy to play also for persons who don’t usually play video games. The Durga Puja Mystery is a collaborative effort of the University of Helsinki, South Asian Studies, Xenia Zeiler, and the Kolkata (India) based award-winning game development studio Flying Robots Studio, Satyajit Chakraborty. It was funded by the Future Development Fund, Faculty of Arts, and the Digileap Initiative of the University of Helsinki. It is open access and we invite everyone to play. Enjoy!
Please find the press release at:
https://www.helsinki.fi/en/news/language-culture/a-new-video-game-introduces-players-to-indian-festival-culture.

Gameplay:
The player is subjected to educational tasks and investigative puzzles gradually informing about Indian festival culture, taking the example of the arguably most popular festival Durga Puja. During the game, the player will collect various items, including reference books, texts, images and objects, that can help with the investigation and play a key part in winning the game. Simultaneously and as characteristic for educational games, these items introduce to various key themes related to Durga Puja, and support the player in their educational and academic quest. They are selected with the aim to transmit information about and inspire further interest in Indian culture at large.

Please find the game and related info and material (a game trailer, many visuals such as HD wallpapers and screenshots, and context info on Durga Puja, such as current negotiations and debates around the festival) at:
https://blogs.helsinki.fi/durgapuja-the-videogame/.

NEWS:
We have been selected as a finalist for Hacking Higher Education Finland 2020!
The final event, with a video pitch from us, is streamed from a studio in Helsinki, Finland on the 16th of September 2020 at 2pm EET (GMT+3).
Social media channels:
Website: http://www.daretolearn.fi/
Blog: http://www.daretolearn.fi/blog
Instagram: @daretolearnfin
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DareToLearnFIN/
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/1208700152799847/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dare-to-learn
Official hashtags: #HHEFinland2020 #HackingHigherEducation

Official slogan: “Changing the way we think about higher education”
Voting for the winner will open one week in advance on the 9th of September. Voting is open for everyone, and the final winner will be chosen entirely by the audience. More information about voting will follow here soon.
If you like the game, this is your chance to vote :)!

A Short update on the DICE MOOC

The MOOC course on Im/migration will be held in the fourth period in the spring term 2021.

The course is available via the University of Helsinki and the Open University for ICE students and also for people working in fields related to Im/migration (MIGRI, Customs, City of Helsinki, schools, day care centres, service sector, private sector etc.).

It is a  part of the University of Helsinki’s Continuing Education –strategy.

Due to the COVID-19 situation, we have chosen to alter the contents of the course somewhat. Despite this, the course will include video material, student discussion and participation, as well as assignments that focus on immigration and emigration issues.

Gamefied Experience

The course will iclude a gamified learning experience on Transcultural Encounters + Diaspora Identity. It supports smart digital learning environments on a macro level. It is a joint collaboration of ICE teachers and award winning game developers. It builds on previous collaboration with the game studio which resulted in an educational video game for the University of Helsinki already – The Durga Puja Mystery.

The planned content is related to transcultural encounters during jointly celebrated festivals (taking the Indian festival Durgapuja in Helsinki as an example), highlighting issues of identity, globalization and diaspora communities. The game presents gamified experiences of theoretical and methodical aspects of migration and transcultural identity via in-game inserted books, texts and other material that need to be used during play. It introduces students to the fast-developing concept and experiences of game-based learning and utilizing game-based environments for teaching.

The game and the course are intended for students in all thematic ICE modules on transcultural processes, globalization and identity.

The course will be available to ICE students online through the MOOC portal.

Everything is open access.