Department of Computer Science and Engineering Helsinki University of Technology TKK

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Department of Computer Science and
EngineeringHelsinki University of Technology TKK

• Lauri Malmi, Marko Nieminen

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Computing Education at TKK

• Degree program of Computer Science and
  Engineering, provided by
• Department of Computer Science and Engineering
  (CSE)
• Department of Media Technology
• Department of Information and Computer Science
• Includes also most of general ICT and programming
  education for all other degree programs at TKK.

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CSE Department in Brief

• CSE department was formed 1.1.2008 by combining
  three laboratories
• Lab. of Software Technology
• Lab. of Telecommunication Software and MultiMedia
  (telecom software part)
• Lab. of Software Business and Engineering
• Currently we have 12 professorships and over 100
  faculty members in total (teachers, researchers,
  support staff). We are one of the largest
  departments at TKK.
• Almost 100 MSc graduates yearly
• 5-6 dissertations yearly

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Education Achievements

• Basic Computing Unit at Lab. of Software
  Technology was selected twice a CEE by FINHEEC
  for periods 2001-2003, 2004-2006
• Strong tradition in developing special tools for
  programming education, including automatic
  assessment and visualization tools
• Strong tradition in Computing Education Research
• SoberIT (Lab. of Software Business and
  Engineering) is currently an internal CEE at TKK
• especially for its collaborative attempts to
  improve education
• Lab. of Telecom. Software and Multimedia has much
  experience in ICT uses in education, teaching
  soft skills and international students.

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Our Mission is

• to educate professionals and researchers in
  software engineering, software technology, and
  data communication software,
• who can actively tackle challenging computing
  related problems in all fields of society
• in collaboration with other people.

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Wide Role in Computing Education

• Education at all levels B.Sc., M.Sc., and PhD
• Wide versatility in teaching arrangements mass
  courses, group work, individual assignments,
  on-site and distant learning
• Computing is nowadays also a multi-disciplinary
  domain themes in teaching ranging from social
  sciences to programming
• Basic computing and programming education for the
  whole university
• very large basic courses (200-1200 students).
• Three of the six major MSc level specializations
  of the CSE degree program
• about 60 of graduates in the whole degree
  program
• Two international Masters programs organized in
  collaboration with several European universities
• Doctoral education in all mentioned subjects, and
  also in Computing Education Research

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Teachers

• Professors
• Define general goals, lead and support the
  everyday practices and improvement process
• Give mostly specialization and doctoral courses,
  but appear also in introductory courses
• Supervise masters and doctoral theses
• Faculty teachers
• Give the most important core courses
• Key players in the improvement of teaching
• Strong teacher community addressing the
  development of teaching
• External experts
• Give special courses, give visiting lectures,
  often linked to industrial applications provide
  a real-life viewpoint
• Teaching assistants
• Support faculty teachers in large courses, assess
  student work, instruct labs, give personal
  advice...
• Usually students themselves keep the students
  perspective in the loop

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Pedagogical Emphasis

• Strong pedagogical background among the faculty
  teachers
• Majority has voluntarily taken the TKK
  pedagogical program (20 ECTS), some even more
• Many others have taken shorter courses in
  pedagogy
• Strong internal motivation to improve personal
  education
• Pedagogical courses often attended in groups for
  increased effect in teaching improvements
• As a follow-up
• There is general awareness of learning theories
  among the key teachers
• It is natural to discuss education with peer
  teachers and make joint attempts to solve problems

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Technological Competence Applied to Teaching

• Teachers have generally high competence in
  adopting new technologies and tools to support
  their education
• Faculty teachers have considerable freedom in
  choosing the teaching / learning methods.
  Innovations in education are rather encouraged
  instead of trying to define and apply some
  standard model of education.
• Teachers are competent in designing and
  implementing tailored software to support
  education
• Teaching a topic can be considered a challenge
  What is the best design of a course given the
  allowed resources?
• Coordination actions are taken to discover
  possible overlaps and omissions of learning goals
  between separate courses.
• Computing is much about problem solving and
  designing and implementing solutions to problems
• Students can be used as resources to build
  educational software and content.

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Teaching practices

• Very versatile, although most courses have
  lectures
• Practical exercises and projects have a highly
  important role in activating students
• very few courses with lectures and an exam only
• real-life connections motivate students more
• Team work required in many courses
• Capstone project is mandatory
• Standard ICT tools heavily used
• Many connections to industry and research

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Assessment

• Most courses have several components of
  assessment, such as
• examination, incl. oral exams
• written exercises
• personal project works
• team project works
• portfolios
• learning diaries, blogs, participation activity
  in web-based discussions
• Thus authentic assessment has an important role

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Constant Improvement of Teaching

• Constantly ongoing development and improvement of
  teaching projects, practices, and tools
• Often alongside teachers pedagogical studies
• E.g. XU eXtreme Usability project whole minor
  in a spring
• Web-based education utilisation and
  experimentation of several web-based learning
  environments, online lectures, online excercise
  support, online literature discussions, online
  office hours, also student-originated approach
  e.g. novel reporting possibilities via Youtube
• Also constant improvement of on-site teaching
  interactive posters, in-lecture assignments,
  problem-based learning
• Lively integration to research
• themes and resources in both directions students
  as research collaborators as well as source of
  information in experiments
• Industry relations
• real course excercises, special assignments,
  theses, consultative industry board for feedback
  and steering

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Computing Education Research 1

• Originates from the intensive development of
  programming education in 1990
• COMPSER research group founded in 2000
• Currently one professor, one postdoc, 8 doctoral
  students and several MSc students.
• Funding from Academy of Finland, Ministry of
  Education, doctoral school positions, TKK
  projects

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Computing Education Research 2

• Research topics
• Advanced software to support programming
  education (automatic feedback and assessment,
  visualisation, graphical interaction on an
  abstract level)
• Large scale evaluation studies with randomized
  groups to evalute the effect on tools on learning
  results
• Building qualitative knowledge about students
  understanding on programming concepts and
  processes (interviews, phenomenography)

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Computing Education Research 3

• Doctoral specialization in CER
• Research training courses in CER
• National network on programming education to
  disseminate the results of technical research,
  jointly with University of Turku and Tampere
  University of Technology
• Strong international connections
• Building European level community in Engineering
  Education Research

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Outputs

• MSc graduates well received in industry / other
  fields of society
• about 90 of MSc theses carried out in companies
  / external organizations
• employment rate of graduates close to 100
• Doctors also well received

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Challenges

• Merging the cultures of 3 former laboratories
• Defining a future strategy of developing
  education
• how to aim at evidence based education?
• Reducing dropout rates of programming courses
• Integrating freshmen into the department from the
  beginning
• Increasing output in doctoral education

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Thank you!