Ulla Hemminki-Reijonen – Global campus

November 30, 2023November 30, 2023

Aiming to support creative work of students: The ChatGPT application as part of a Master’s level online course

Computer on the table with beautiful scenery seen in the window

This blog post is written by professor Kalle Juuti and university lecturer Vilhelmiina Harju from the Faculty of Educational Sciences.

Currently, in the field of education, the hot topic is the applications of generative AI and how they impact learning and teaching. During the rapid technological changes, it needs to be discussed, how we understand new generative AI applications, their possibilities and potential drawbacks in education. Further, it is important to consider learning and studying with these tools. For example, do we understand new applications as tools for producing essays and other learning assignments, or do we see them as an opportunity to ideate and develop our own thinking? Do we use these tools in a way that actually excludes ourselves from a learning process or can we use them in a way that in which we actively seek to develop our understanding and self-regulate our learning process? In higher education, where students have traditionally written a lot of texts to prove what they’ve learned, the development of generative AI tools means we need to rethink what and how we teach, as well as how we evaluate students’ learning. In particular, it is important to develop pedagogical approaches that exploit new tools in a way that support students’ new creative work and development of understanding.

In this blog post, we describe, how ChatGPT3.5 application “CurreChat”, operated by the University of Helsinki, was used in a Master’s level education online course in spring 2023. One aim was to integrate the use of a generative AI application into course assignments in a pedagogically meaningful way. ChatGPT was considered as a tool to support students’ creative work. Another aim was to practice reporting on the use of the AI application according to university guidelines.

In the course, students were asked to construct a solution concept to a problem they had identified in the field of education. Weekly course assignments were linked to different phases of concept construction process, and finally the whole working was documented and reflected in a portfolio. Students were given an opportunity to use the AI application in doing the assignments (e.g., identifying problems, ideating solutions, getting feedback on ideas, and reflecting on impact). For each assignment, students were given tips on how to use the tool in a way that would support their work. Students were also asked to write a short description each week on how they used the tool. The main principle was that a student were asked first to send text to ChatGPT and then to human to read.

The university’s own interface “CurreChat” connected to OpenAI’s ChatGPT3.5. The use of university’s own interface was seen as important because it was not wanted that students would have to log in to the services with university’s external IDs. In addition, the interface ensured more secure connection to language model. The assumption was that the material students entered into the application would not be reused elsewhere.

Students reported that they used the tools in a variety of ways as part of their course assignments. Some tried the application in a wide range of ways while others were more cautious. Some reported that they benefited from using the generative AI tool at different phases of their work, while others found it rather useless in their work. A key observation we made from the teaching experiment is that joint practicing and instruction in the use of generative AI tool is important for the tool to best support students’ creative work and learning.

Vilhelmiina Harju, University Lecturer, Faculty of Educational Sciences

Kalle Juuti, Professor, Title of Docent (pedagogy of science), Faculty of Educational Sciences

November 8, 2023

Serendip – an Immersive Sustainability Learning Adventure

Launching Serendip project on November 9, 2023!

When we started the Global campus project in 2022, we were given the freedom to experiment the limits of online learning. We were expected to do really bold, even risky EdTech experiments. So, we thought very carefully how we could use our time wisely. We wanted to know what this university wants or needs? What could be something bold that would benefit all the members of the university community regardless of the faculty and beyond?

One of the strategic goals for the University of Helsinki is to advance ecological sustainability and responsibility. The University is dedicated to integrate the themes of sustainability into all education programmes.

Well-designed digital and physical environments for work, teaching and learning will enhance ecological sustainability and promote encounters with others, support creativity, renew forms of collaboration and improve accessibility.

(University of Helsinki Strategy 2021-2023)

Following this mission, sustainability became a topic that would be the glue of our work. In the design process, we asked from teachers and students what they are missing regarding sustainability education. We learned that a virtual space where students would gather together around the world to solve the sustainability challenges would be the secret wish of the sustainability teachers.

Students, on the other hand, wanted to travel in 3D worlds and learn how to influence stakeholders. They wished to improve their skills in finding the intervention points in decision-making processes. Students also desired to see hope and use their all senses. We knew we wanted to do this. And this was the foundation for a bold EdTech experiment, the project called Serendip*.

Based on our pedagogical framework, we believe that learning should be engaging and fun but also at the same time personalized and efficient. By offering students a visually appealing virtual reality learning environment with diverse multi-disciplinary learning content and a chance to actually train the sustainability competencies, we can help students to become the change agents this world needs.

The learning content has been developed together with researchers, teachers and students from different disciplines. The research-based content together with state-of-the-art technologies make an engaging learning experience. In virtual reality we could make impossible possible, travel in time and place and practice empathy.

Also, we identified that by taking the AI tools to the next level, we could increase the interaction between a student and the learning content. Therefore, we designed virtual AI-powered characters for different pedagogical purposes for the game. Each discussion is different and personalized, based on the student´s own interests.

The first game episode, the Boreal Forest, one of the tipping elements in earth´s climate system, is an adventure through snow and woods. It combines forest economy, forest ecology and well-being with Indigenous studies. It helps the students to practice their systems-thinking, values-thinking and intrapersonal skills.

We see that you have a role to play in sustainability, so we are happy to invite you to participate as a teacher, a student or a subject-matter expert and co-create with us the further episodes. Learn more on serendip.fi and join the adventure by sharing us how you would like to take part by filling in the form. Can a learning environment for the sustainability education look like this?

* Serendip = The word serendipity, originating from an old Persian fairytale “the Three Princes of Serendip”, means unplanned fortunate discoveries. The Serendip Learning Adventure is based on serendipitous learning approach where, through exploration, learners might discover unexpected and interesting connections among phenomena which can lead to meaningful learning. Serendipity, as valuable unexplored sources for learning, can be fostered through engagement and interaction. We see that sustainability challenges need innovations which can be results of serendipitous events.

May 16, 2023May 16, 2023

Better learning design with co-creation

Before even thinking about product development, you need to identify clearly who are your users.

Can you really say you know what your end users need? What would be the coolest thing ever for them? What is important for them in their lives?

Some see themselves as experts in education because “everyone has gone to school”, and people easily reflect their own experiences. But if that was some 20 years ago, it is fair to say that things have changed in our society during that time. Even in the organization, that was founded in 1640 – the student generation is entirely different now than 20 years ago. Their everyday life and learning tools look very different. That’s why we keep meeting with our university students, who will ultimately be the end users of our solutions.

You don´t even know what to ask, before you go and talk to people.

Furthermore, we have students working with us on a regular basis. Having students as an integral part of our team, as a learning designer, I find reassurance in their presence next to me every day. Together, we engage in brainstorming sessions to re-imagine online learning and jointly make design decisions. This collaborative approach has led to numerous design changes based on the valuable student feedback. In fact, we have received ideas from students that surpass our own original concepts. It’s important to recognize that what we might perceive as enjoyable could be super boring for students, and vice versa.

What we have learned from co-creation is that you should never assume anything.

When designing solutions for international students as well, it has been even more valuable to have international student trainees on board in the team. This way, we have been able to see immediately if our ideas would be also working for example for students coming from global south. For example just this week we were able to test how an AI solution works in Arabic, and in another situation, we have changed the text and expressions to be more inclusive to different cultures. We have been also able to take into account the different educational traditions in higher education in our design: not all are used to reflect and present their own critical ideas as much as we do at University of Helsinki. These observations have led us to fruitful discussions and further development.

Students have been sometimes laughing when I have been telling them that they are my highest authority in learning design. We are eager to find out if we have managed to create truly engaging learning experiences for them. Students are always brutally honest and that’s the fuel for our product development.

Image: Pilot testing with environmental committee of the Student Union HYY

February 24, 2023

Why VR for education?

When considering if a new emerging technology, such as virtual reality (VR), would be a right tool to use in a certain educational situation, one should always think about the specific need.

People usually refer to virtual reality (VR) as a 3D environment that is experienced with the VR headset. It can also be understood as a virtual gamified learning environment, a simulation or 360 content that can be used with the laptop or mobile device. According to Helsinki XR Center´s good glossary and definitions:

VR can mimic reality or be something totally different.

Sometimes other type of media like a video is more powerful, sometimes not. To sum up when VR could be used, teachers could think about the following. If something is not possible in the classroom or with traditional EdTech and online learning tools, then maybe that is possible in VR because:

VR can make impossible possible.

Here is a list of some of the identified benefits of virtual reality as a learning technology:

You can travel in time, back and forth. This allows learners to be uniquely immersed in different kinds of future scenarios too.
You can travel in place. A teacher can take the class into space or they can live someone else´s life on the other side of the world.
You can travel in size. A learner can make big things small and vice versa. It is possible to observe the objects that otherwise would be impossible, like travel inside a cell or a volcano.
The complex cause-and-effect relations are easier to understand when seeing the consequences in front of you. What a learner does in VR is affecting to the end result.
You can change the perspective and learn empathy. Probably one of the most important benefits of VR is the possibility to see the world from someone else´s eyes. When you imagine the world from another person´s point of view, the gap between oneself and the other decreases and the other becomes more “self like”. This way, VR helps to avoid stereotypes and false or comforting narratives. The research has found out that VR experiences in perspective-taking are especially powerful for people who in general have a hard time feeling concern for others and be empathetic. (Bailenson, 2018)
You can explore your identity. Immersion is important in identity exploration because virtual identity doesn´t need to worry about the physical attributes such as gender, race, and disabilities. (Slater, 2009 in Dede et al, 2019). In a virtual world, you can be anyone.

A learning theory that is often referred in relation to VR is situated learning or transferability. Transferability is also one of the key learning design principles defined by OECD (2018). Higher priority should be given to knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values that can be learned in one context and transferred to others. A major criticism of instruction today is the low rate of transfer. Even high performing students often are unable to apply what they have learned in the class to similar real-world contexts (Dede et al, 2019). With virtual reality it is easier to create authentic learning experiences and simulations that feel like real.

When thinking about the virtual reality and other immersive tools as an educational technology, a teacher can think about the use cases through the following questions:

What is the most difficult thing to teach?
What is expensive?
What needs to be scaled?
What is the most important thing to teach?

VR applications are perfect tools for immersive experiences. Immersion is described as the mental state of being completely engaged with something. When learners have a safe space where they can explore things and try if their strategies are efficient, they can take more risks too. When being fully immersed in the virtual world, learners can be so motivated to learn more and are interacting with the content even deeper so that they can even reach the “flow”. That means that they can lose everything else around, even their sense of time (Csikszenthmihalyi, 2014). The educators can also think about the level of immersion they are aiming at – we also have great semi-immersive environments to use like 360 pictures or videos.

We encourage teachers to test and try the possibilities of virtual reality in education. We are excited to hear the use cases you have found and are happy help the teachers at the University of Helsinki to experiment different kind of virtual technologies.

References:

Bailenson, J. (2008). Experience on Demand. What Virtual Reality Is, How It Works, and What It Can Do.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2014). Flow and the foundations of positive psychology.
Dede, C. G. (2019). Designing immersive authentic simulations that enhance motivation and learning: EcoLearn. In R. Feldman (Ed.), Learning science: Theory, research, practice. (pp. 229-259). New York: McGraw Hill.
OECD. (2018). The Future of Education and Skills. Education 2030.
Slater, M. (2009). Place Illusion and Plausibility can lead to realistic behaviour in immersive virtual environments. Philos Trans R Soc Lond, 364, 3549‐3557.

January 19, 2023January 20, 2023

Exploring the Potential of VR in Group Work

Virtual avatars sitting in a virtual meeting room

The multi-disciplinary sustainability course at the University of Helsinki tested an alternative way of completing the project work using virtual reality (VR) technology. Students were given the opportunity to use Oculus2 virtual glasses in Meta’s Horizon Workroom application for group meetings where they planned their own course presentation. The goal of the experiment was to evaluate the usability and ease of use of the devices and the efficiency of working in virtual space.

The experiment was part of the University of Helsinki’s Global Campus project, led by EdTech Expert Jussi Wright. The teacher responsible for the course was the university lecturer Rami Ratvio from HELSUS. From the tested alternatives, Meta’s Horizon Workroom application was chosen for the actual use test. The program was chosen in part because of the features and its more limited ability to move, which helped to focus on meeting work instead of moving around in free space.

The students who participated in the experiment generally enjoyed the experience and found working in VR mode to be beneficial. The feeling of presence in the virtual meeting was considered to be better than in traditional video meetings, and the meeting atmosphere was felt to be more intense. However, the use of the VR glasses and the program were considered challenging at first, and it was suggested that there should be more time allocated for practice before the course begins.

The Horizon Workroom application also allows for recording meetings, sharing text and image files, and even has the option for one student to act as the organizer and update the agenda on the virtual meeting room’s wall. It’s the perfect blend of technology and organization to enhance the learning experience.

Overall, this experiment demonstrated the potential of VR technology in group work and highlighted the importance of preparing students before using such technology in class. With the right tools and training, VR technology can be a powerful tool to enhance the learning experience, collaboration and improve group work outcomes.

January 16, 2023

Welcome to the Global Campus blog!

In this blog we will share what´s going on in the EdTech development at the University of Helsinki. We´ll tell what we have done – what we tested and what we learned.

The Global campus project was launched by the rector of the University of Helsinki in 2022 to work for two goals: expanding international online learning opportunities and creating a platform for innovative EdTech experiments. The project is said to be a startup inside the university, and it is being given the freedom to do “risky” EdTech pilots. This is an opportunity to think big and boldly about how the online learning can look like in the future. For this work, the team is taking the best out of the newest technologies like extended reality (XR) and artificial intelligence (AI) and combining them with the latest research on digital learning.

The rector Sari Lindblom encouraged the team by saying:

“We realize that not all experiments succeed, but if we never dare to try bold things and take risks, we will never learn as an organization.”

This inspires us every day to think big, and to challenge the way we think about learning. We welcome all teachers and students to join us in redefining online learning at the University of Helsinki!