A survey targeting ASPHER members was launched in 2010/11, being a first initiative in improving ethics education in European Schools of Public Health. An 8-items questionnaire collected information on teaching of ethics in public health. A 52% response rate (43/82) revealed that almost all of the schools (95% out of 40 respondents with valid data) included the teaching of ethics in at least one of its programmes. They also expressed the need of support, (e.g.: a model curriculum (n=25), case studies (n=24)), which indicates further work to be met by the ASPHER Working Group on Ethics and Values in Public Health.

Engineering education in Sweden as in the rest of the world is experiencing a decline in student interest. There are concerns about the ways in which students think about engineering education, why they join an academic programme in engineering, and why they persist in their studies. In this context the aims of the Nationellt ämnesdidaktiskt Centrum för Teknikutbildning i Studenternas Sammanhang project (CeTUSS) is to investigate the student experience and to identify and support a continuing network of interested researchers, as well as in building capacity for disciplinary pedagogic investigation. The Stepping Stones project brings together these interests in a multi-researcher, multi-institutional study that investigates how students and academic staff perceive engineering in Sweden and in Swedish education. The first results of that project are reported here. As this study is situated uniquely in Swedish education, it allows for exploration of a Swedish perspective on conceptions of engineering. The Stepping Stones project was based on a model of research capacity-building previously instantiated in the USA and Australia (Fincher & Tenenberg, 2006).

Projekt Klara Livet har initierats av de problem och utvecklingsbehov som finns inom arbetslivet. Särskilt bekymmersamt är de människor som inte kommer in på arbetsmarknaden och att de individer som är eller har varit sjukskrivna kommer att bli/har blivit utförsäkrade från Försäkringskassan och inskrivna på Arbetsförmedlingen. Denna grupp arbetssökande har inte möjlighet att få tillträde till arbetsmarknaden på samma villkor som andra och har andra behov än friska arbetslösa. I Blekinge finns ett stort antal människor som befinner sig i denna situation. Under april 2010 hade 875 personer tidsbegränsad sjukersättning, fördelat på 656 kvinnor och 219 män. Vid årsskiftet 2009/2010 lämnade 212 personer sjukförsäkringen, något som resulterade i 187 arbetssökande. Efter tre månaders karens ansökte cirka hälften om förnyad sjukpenning. I februari 2010 fanns i länet 448 pågående ärenden som påbörjats sedan mer än ett år tillbaka. Således finns i Blekinge en relativt stor grupp människor som är eller riskerar att hamna i långvarigt utanförskap. Många i denna grupp har dessutom synliga eller dolda funktionsnedsättningar.

Projekt Klara Livet riktar sig till individer med en svag ställning på arbetsmarknaden. Dessa väljs ut genom ett öppet ansökningsförfarande. Kärnverksamheten inom projektet är en intervention i form av en utbildningsinsats, som övergripande syftar till att stärka individens möjligheter och motivation att närma sig eller återgå till arbetet, fungera i vardagen och därigenom få ett större inflytande på sin upplevda hälsa. Projektets övergripande syfte är att genom otraditionellt samarbete mellan olika samverkansaktörer utarbeta och prova en alternativ modell för aktiv rehabilitering med arbetsförberedande insatser, som i förlängningen ska leda till sysselsättning för människor som riskerar att hamna i utanförskap. Ytterligare en målsättning är att individen ska närma sig arbetslivet och en egen försörjning, antingen genom arbetsplatspraktik eller genom introduktion till socialt eller kooperativt företagande. Generellt för den lärande utvärderingen i projekt Klara Livet är att evaluera projektets struktur, utfall och resultat av praktiskt arbete för att uppnå förändring, implementeringsprocesser och måluppfyllelse. Med denna utgångspunkt har en programlogisk teoribaserad utvärderingsmodell valts, som möjliggör en beskrivning av relationen mellan mål, aktiviteter, processer och effekter. Utvärderingsdesignen fokuserar på den lärande organisationen där gemensamt lärande, reflektion och kunskapsspridning i projekt Klara livet står i centrum och syftar till att skapa en utvecklad förståelse för användning och utveckling av den kunskap som projektet genererat. Ytterligare en ansats är att identifiera projektets programlogik och normativa teori med tonvikt på att tydliggöra kausaliteten mellan mål och aktiviteter, projektets framgångsfaktorer, nytänkande och innovativa idéer. En central fråga blir då om mål, verktyg och utfall hänger samman i logisk struktur. Rapporten bygger på cirka 200 sidor dokumentstudier, minnesanteckningar, processtöd till projektledare, kvalitetsansvarig och kursledare, 9 individuella intervjuer, 2 lärandeseminarier/dialog¬seminarier, 4 intervjuer i fokusgrupper, 1 workshop, 2 SWOT-analyser, 8 projektlednings¬möten, 1 styrgruppsmöte samt deltagande observationer i samband med möten och aktiviteter med kursledare och kursdeltagare. Resultatet visar att projektet följer de uppsatta direktiv från Europeiska Socialfonden och i väsentliga delar uppfyller projekt- och effektmålen. Projektets metodutveckling och de aktiviteter som genomförts inom projektet kan ses som ett mervärde till den arbetsmarknadspolitik som bedrivs av Arbetsförmedlingen och bör kunna medföra att den erfarenhet som finns inom projektet sprids till en strukturell nivå och på sikt bidrar till såväl systempåverkan, förändring och till offentlig debatt. Samtidigt finns en farhåga att Klara Livet inte implementeras, bedrivs för långt ifrån den reguljära verksamheten och därmed endast blir en tillfällig och tidsbegränsad lösning för en liten grupp individer. Fokus ligger på såväl individ som på samhällsnytta, sätter brukarperspektivet i centrum och har i princip nått ut till det antal kursdeltagare som planerats. En av projektets viktigaste framgångsfaktorer är den starka projektidén med utbildning och arbetsplatspraktik/socialt företagande, en kombination som bör stärka individens möjligheter att få ett arbete/närma sig arbetsmarknaden. Kursledarnas kompetens och engagemang, där många olika professioner och kompetenser samverkar, närhet till kursdeltagarna och individanpassning sammantaget med den metodutveckling som ägt rum i utbildningen är ytterligare framgångsfaktorer. Resultat och utfall på individnivå är i nuläget endast begränsade. Förbättringar i kategorierna allmän hälsa, psykisk hälsa, självkänsla, självförtroende, sovvanor, matvanor och hantering av symptom har påvisats med hjälp av Wilcoxon signed rank test. En svaghet är dock att mätningar vid baseline inte gjorts, varför dessa resultat måste betraktas som preliminära. Ytterligare en svaghet är att ingen forskning bedrivits inom projektet. Frågan om utbildningskonceptet leder till att de individer som deltagit i den riktade insatsen har närmat sig arbetslivet och fått större inflytande över sin upplevda hälsa bör därför fördjupas under den förlängda projekttiden september 2013-augusti 2014. En av utvärderingens viktigaste konklusioner är att för många deltagare har projektet varit en väg att komma vidare i en rehabiliteringsprocess med slutmålet att komma in på arbetsmarknaden. Innovativt är även de nya samarbetsformer som utvecklats under projekttiden. En utmaning inför den förlängda projekttiden är att ytterligare stärka och sedimentera den samverkan som byggts upp mellan myndigheter och andra aktörer, men även att pröva och ge alternativ till ordinarie strukturer och regelverk.

I denna artikel diskuteras erfarenheter av följeforskning inom ett projekt finansierat av Eu:s strukturfonder. En fråga som särskilt belyses är hur vi i egenskap av följeforskare har hanterat dilemmat närhet och involvering i projektet i relation till distans och ett kritiskt förhållningssätt. Dilemmat är klassiskt inom aktions- och interaktiv forskning och blir särskilt tydligt i en konkret verklighet inom ett projekt. Problemet blir viktigt att belysa särskilt med tanke på att följeforskningsuppdraget är politiskt styrt, det vill säga EU kräver att sedvanlig utvärdering ersätts med följeforskning. Dessutom befinner sig följeforskningen i ett utvecklingsskede där diskussioner förs om hur begreppet ska definieras samt hur rollen som följeforskare ska utformas. Ett tänkbart utfall av detta skulle kunna vara att följeforskningen blir alltför okritisk eller kritisk och därmed inte infriar de förväntningar som ställs. I denna artikel är utgångspunkten att följeforskarens uppdrag är att följa utvecklingen i ett projekt mot uppsatta mål med syfte att skapa praktikrelevant kunskap. Vi resonerar även kring den balansgång som finns mellan att vara utvecklingsstödjande, ge konstruktiv kritik och att inte uppfattas som alltför kritisk. Efter att ha arbetat i ett innovativt utvecklingsprojekt i två år har vi stärkts i uppfattningen att den interaktiva kritiska forskningsansatsen, begreppsanvändning, teorianknytning och metodologiskt kunnande är oavvisliga krav för att kunna hantera växlandet mellan närhet och distans. Nyckelord: Följeforskning, interaktiv forskning, kritiskt förhållningssätt

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to show how a model for sustainable learning has been formed in the meetings between practitioners and researchers. Design/methodology/approach: With the point of departure in an interactive research approach, the authors have worked with learning and common knowledge development. Empirical data were collected from nine learning seminars, which were carried out within the framework of an EU project. Findings: It is shown by means of empirical examples from an ongoing EU project how the pedagogic method of learning seminars came to be a mediating tool for reciprocal learning between researchers, project leaders and project participants. Originality/value: The learning seminars constituted an important part of a reflexive learning process where the learning consists of both practicable and theoretically anchored knowledge. Together with the project participants, the authors developed a model for sustainable learning. This model consists of a reflection model, which rests on four fundamental conditions; pedagogic leadership, the learning group, problem areas/situation and time aspects. This article fills a significant knowledge gap in terms of the development of learning within organizations.

Abstract Syftet med att studera detta är att undersöka anledningen till den könsuppdelade idrottsundervisningen samt vilka effekterna blivit med fokus på flickornas situation. Detta har vi gjort genom att bedriva observationer i två olika skolor i Blekinge, där en av skolorna fortfarande har gemensam idrott och den andra skolan övergått till könsuppdelad idrottsundervisning. För att bredda vårt material har vi även intervjuat inblandade parter, det vill säga elever, rektorer samt idrottslärare. Resultatet av observationerna och intervjuerna visade att flickornas situation förbättrats i den skola där man infört könsseparerad idrott. Flickorna tar för sig, lever ut och tycker det är roligare med idrott där de kan vara för sig själva. Även i den skola där man fortfarande har gemensam idrott var läraren och eleverna av den uppfattningen att det hade varit bra med könsuppdelad idrott vid vissa tillfällen.

Aim: To explore nursing students’ experiences of applying problem-based learning to train the core competence teamwork and collaboration. Design: The study used a qualitative descriptive design. Method: The data were collected using individual interviews with a purposive sample of 11 students and analysed using inductive qualitative content analysis. Results: The students’ experiences of applying problem-based learning to train the core competence teamwork and collaboration were described in two generic categories: prerequisites to train teamwork and collaboration and abilities practised in the base group. The generic category “prerequisites to train teamwork and collaboration” includes three subcategories: previous experience and education, composition of the base group, and common goals and values in the base group. The generic category “abilities practised in the base group” includes four subcategories: taking personal responsibility, practising role distribution and leadership, developing communication skills and creating togetherness in the base group.

VISIR+ is an Erasmus+ project that aims to develop educational modules for electric and electronic circuits theory and practice following an enquiry-based teaching and learning methodology. The project has installed five new VISIR remote labs in Higher Education Institutions located in Argentina and Brazil, to allow students doing more experiments and hence acquire better experimental skills, through a combination of traditional (hands-on), remote and virtual laboratories. A key aspect for the success of this project was to motivate and train teachers in the underpinning educational methodology. As such, VISIR+ adopted a 3-tier training process to effectively support the use of VISIR in the Institutions that received it. This process is based on the "train the trainer" approach, which required the participating partner institutions to identify and engage a number of associated partners, interested in using their newly installed remote lab. To measure the quality of the training process, the same satisfaction questionnaire was used in all training actions. This paper presents a detailed description of the training actions along with the analysis of the satisfaction questionnaire results. Major conclusions are that the quality level of the training process remained practically the same across all training actions and that trainees sometimes considered the practical use of the VISIR remote lab as difficult, irrespectively of where and when the training action took place.

The use of remote labs in undergraduate courses has been reported in literature several times since the mid 90's. Nevertheless, very few articles present results about the learning gains obtained by students using them, especially with a large number of students, thus suggesting a lack of data concerning their pedagogical effectiveness. This paper addresses such a gap by presenting some preliminary results concerning the use of a remote laboratory, known as VISIR, in a large undergraduate course on Applied Physics, with over 500 students enrolled.

Accessibility of higher education has never been more important and using online teaching, or e-learning, is a suitable way of achieving this access. However, online education presents new challenges for teachers, which requires best practices to overcome.

This study assesses whether student exclusions from PISA 2018 in Sweden followed the criteria set by the OECD. We do this using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Our conclusion is that the exclusions made in PISA 2018 in Sweden did not follow OECD criteria and were much too high. Furthermore, interviews with school coordinators indicate that many of them misunderstood the OECD criteria. We also conclude that the National Agency for Education did not sufficiently follow up on exclusions. A review of the Swedish exclusion rate made by the OECD did not present credible results but accepted the results. A recalculation of PISA 2018 scores for Sweden where we assume non-participating students to be low performers show that results are significantly affected.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur en balanserad styrning i praktiken påverkar verksamheters lärande och utveckling, samt hur en balanserad styrning i praktiken påverkar verksamheters förutsättningar att bli en lärande organisation. Balanserad styrning är en svensköversatt modell av balanced scorecard, en amerikansk styrform. Det teoretiska perspektivet i studien är miljöpedagogik och lärande organisation. Studien bygger på en hermeneutisk tolkande ansats, vilket syftar till att här skapa förståelse för hur en balanserad styrning fungerar i praktiken avseende lärande och utveckling samt hur den skapar förutsättningar för att bli en lärande organisation. Intervjuer har använts som datainsamlingsmetod, respondenter från två kommuner har intervjuats, och i varje kommun har en enhetschef och två medarbetare intervjuats. Resultatet visar att dialog och delaktighet i en balanserad styrning påverkar såväl lärande och utveckling samt verksamheters förutsättning att bli en lärande organisation. En balanserad styrning skapar struktur och tydlighet i verksamheten, där chefen har en betydande roll.

The learning of Physics involves building up and using lab experiments. In turn, teachers must be trained in experimenting and using several resources that enable them to design valuable teaching strategies and learning activities. Thanks to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), virtual and remote labs can provide a framework where physical experiments can be developed. Altough remote labs have been in use for over a decade now in several countries and levels of education, its use at secondary schools in Latin America has not been reported yet. The Virtual Instruments System in Reality (VISIR) is one of these remote labs, suitable to practice in the area of electrical circuits. This paper aims at describing how this remote lab was used in a training workshop for secondary school level teachers of Physics in Costa Rica. © 2017 IEEE.

I LP1 varje år börjar mellan 200 och 300 studenter min kurs introduktion till problemlösning och programmering med python. I kursen har vi sju rättningstillfällen, vilket blir många rättningstimmar.   För att underlätta för vårt egna arbete och studenternas har vi genom åren utvecklat många små system för att automatisera eller förenkla olika processer. Förra året tog vi det ett steg längre och startade upp vårt egna automaträttningssytem Umbridge.  Var femte minut hämtar Umbridge alla orättade inlämmningar från Canvas och kör enhetstester på studenterna kod och baserat på resultatet sätts ett betyg i Canvas.   

Projektet ”Kompetens i vård och omsorg”, KIVO är ett Europeiskt socialfondsprojekt (ESF) som genomfördes under tiden 2011-10-01 till 2013-09-30. Projektägare är Landstinget Blekinge och chefen för Blekinge kompetenscentrum är projektägarens ombud. Inom projektet finns samarbetsavtal mellan Landstinget Blekinge, Äldre förvaltningen, Karlskrona kommun och Hälsohuset för alla AB. Den totala projektbudgeten var 8749 920 SEK.1 KIVO är ett tvåårigt projekt som har haft en lång startsträcka. Det innebär att aktiviteterna inom projektet startade på allvar först i november 2012 och genomfördes under 11 månader. En förklaring är att flera inom nuvarande projektledningsgruppen började arbeta med projektet i slutet av år 2012 eller i början av år 2013. I föreliggande slutrapport redogörs för den lärande utvärdering som bedrivits inom KIVO under tiden 2013-01-01 och 2013-09-30. Syftet var att följa projektets arbete mot uppsatta mål. Centralt i den lärande utvärderingen har varit dialogen med projektledarna, projektledningsgruppen och projektägarens representant. Min roll har varit stödjande, men också störande under processen det vill säga ifrågasättande och kritisk. Rapporten är indelad i fem delar. Första delen beskriver bakgrunden till projektet, dess syfte och mål. I den andra delen presenteras metodologiska utgångspunkter för den lärande utvärderingen. Den tredje delen fokuserar på arbetet med hållbart lärande och hållbar jämställdhet. Analys och resultat av den lärande utvärderingen redovisas i del fyra. Slutligen i del fem förs ett framåtsyftande resonemang om vilka hållbara effekter som projektet bidragit med. Förhoppningen är att denna slutrapport kan bidra till reflektion och lärande kring förutsättningar för att ett projekt som KIVO ska uppnå långsiktiga effekter, samtidigt som den lyfter fram den faktiska måluppfyllelsen som projektet har uppnått.

ABSTRACT. This article discusses how theoretical and practical knowledge is integrated in higher education. With the point of departure in an interactive research approach we have worked with the formalizing of knowledge exchange and with common knowledge development. The overall purpose of the research project was to describe and analyze a learning process where both practicable and theoretically anchored knowledge is in the forefront. By following the education in a social-science programme, a model for sustainable learning was developed. In the centre of the model is a learning process for the integration of theory and practice where the intended learning outcomes, general skills, course literature and time constitute the established framework. Different forms of interaction and workplace-related studies became mediating tools, that is, they created opportunities for learning departing from dialogue, questioning, reflection and analysis.

Syftet med denna undersökning är att söka förstå chefens och medarbetarens upplevelser av faktorer som påverkar den verbala kommunikationen mellan parterna samt att synliggöra om dessa faktorer kan skapa förutsättningar för lärande. Jag har använt en hermeneutisk tolkande ansats. Intervjuerna gjordes på två avdelningar i samma organisation. Jag har tolkat resultatet med hjälp av Illeris’ teori om lärande samt med hjälp av teorier om dialog och dialogkompetens. Resultatet visar att faktorer såsom tillgänglighet, tydlighet, lyhördhet, ansvar, socialt samspel och öppenhet i kommunikation är några av dessa faktorer som enligt informanterna påverkar kommunikationen på arbetsplatsen. Tolkningen av resultatet visat att faktorer ger förutsättningar för lärande.

Remote laboratories are an emergent technological and pedagogical tool at all education levels, and their widespread use is an important part of their own improvement and evolution. This paper describes several issues encountered on laboratorial classes, on higher education courses, when using remote laboratories based on PXI systems, either using the VISIR system or an alternate in-house solution. Three main issues are presented and explained, all reported by teachers, that gave support to students' use of remote laboratories. The first issue deals with the need to allow students to select the actual place where an ammeter is to be inserted on electric circuits, even incorrectly, therefore emulating real-world difficulties. The second one deals with problems with timing when several measurements are required at short intervals, as in the discharge cycle of a capacitor. In addition, the last issue deals with the use of a multimeter in dc mode when reading ac values, a use that collides with the lab settings. All scenarios are presented and discussed, including the solution found for each case. The conclusion derived from the described work is that the remote laboratories area is an expanding field, where practical use leads to improvement and evolution of the available solutions, requiring a strict cooperation and information-sharing between all actors, i.e., developers, teachers, and students.

Humanity is facing and driving numerous, multifaceted and interconnected crises that are fundamentally endangering the socio-ecological systems’ qualities that are essential for the meeting of human needs in the long term. This thesis considered the role of Education for Sustainable Development as a leverage point to address causes of these crises and support a global transition towards sustainability. The research centered on examining how development of sustainability-focused leadership education within higher education institutes can contribute to the cultivation of durable and effective sustainability leaders. A qualitative action research approach was used to study two educational programs; the Master’s in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability program at Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden and the Humanitarian Design Summit program operated by Engineers Without Borders Australia. The action research on these cases was supported and complemented by questionnaires, surveys, interviews, content analysis and thematic analysis, as well as literature reviews and mirroring with other similar studies internationally. The research investigated the experiences of participants within these programs, the pedagogies that influenced those experiences and the outcomes of the programs. 

Findings suggest that education can play a significant role in the development of sustainability leadership and the thesis offers guidance and strategies to support that as an outcome from conscious design and operation of sustainability leadership programs. The research highlights the difficult context facing sustainability leadership and the importance of development of ‘inner qualities’ (termed intrapersonal capacities) in response. These capacities may serve as a basis for leaders to endure enacting sustainability leadership by helping them cope with the challenging nature of the work and by providing a clearer language for leadership development. The research also suggests several pedagogical considerations and scaffolds that can be used by educators in their design and cultivation of learning environments for sustainability leadership development. This includes reflections on learning design for transformational learning, the outcomes of transformational learning in students, the use of reflective pedagogies and the development of sustainability-contextualized learning environments. 

The thesis contributes to the fields of sustainability leadership, education for sustainable development and complexity by providing an overview of the state-of the-art of the intersection of these fields and concrete advice and tools to enhance educators’ possibilities to design and implement higher education learning environments that can promote development of leaders capable to cope with and lead effectively in the burdensome and complex reality that sustainability transitions entail.

This study aims to examine the use of reflective pedagogies in sustainability leadership education by investigating two specific pedagogical tools-the Portfolio and Pod-employed by the Master's in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability (MSLS) program at Blekinge Institute of Technology in Karlskrona, Sweden. The study analyzed data gathered from student surveys, teacher interviews, and staff reflections to determine the benefits and challenges faced by students and staff in implementing and engaging with these pedagogical tools. Benefits include the provision of distinct structures to guide student reflection towards individual skill development and the use of collective reflection to encourage generative dialogue between students and staff. This holds benefits for collaboration, self-awareness, understanding of multiple perspectives, and creating self-directed graduates. Staff and students also, however, suggest a number of challenges. These include the 'constrictive' nature of guided reflection and the emotional and mental load faced by staff in hosting and holding students through often challenging personal reflective processes. For the potential of reflective pedagogies to be truly realized for Education for Sustainable Development in higher education institutions need to develop an understanding of the impacts that reflective pedagogies have on students and teachers and create institutional structures to support them. © 2020 by the authors.

Problem: Changes in the mode of education (remote/on-campus) due to the pandemic has emphasized existing challenges such as low attendance rate. In addition, active student participation is often challenging regardless of the education mode. 

Potential intervention: Using student-generated questions for student-centered assessment. The type of assessment can influence students’ attitudes toward learning . Questions generated by students allow students to reflect on their learning. It also allows students to demonstrate an understanding of the learning outcomes. 

Using student-generated questions in assessments has several benefits, such as improving active learning and a deeper understanding of the subject content learned. Due to the recent shift in education modes (online education), tackling student participation and attendance has become more challenging. In this study, I report on the application of using student-generated questions in two different courses offered to master students in a software engineering program. © 2022 Copyright for this paper by its authors.

The Research Methodology in Software Engineering and Computer Science (RM) is a compulsory course that must be studied by graduate students at Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH) prior to undertaking their theses work. The course is focused on teaching research methods and techniques for data collection and analysis in the fields of Computer Science and Software Engineering. It is intended that the course should help students in practically applying appropriate research methods in different courses (in addition to the RM course) including their Master’s theses. However, it is believed that there exist deficiencies in the course due to which the course implementation (learning and assessment activities) as well as the performance of different participants (students, teachers, and evaluators) are affected negatively. In this article our aim is to investigate potential deficiencies in the RM course at BTH in order to provide a concrete evidence on the deficiencies faced by students, evaluators, and teachers in the course. Additionally, we suggest recommendations for resolving the identified deficiencies. Our findings gathered through semi-structured interviews with students, teachers, and evaluators in the course are presented in this article. By identifying a total of twenty-one deficiencies from different perspectives, we found that there exist critical deficiencies at different levels within the course. Furthermore, in order to overcome the identified deficiencies, we suggest seven recommendations that may be implemented at different levels within the course and the study program. Our suggested recommendations, if implemented, will help in resolving deficiencies in the course, which may lead to achieving an improved teaching and learning in the RM course at BTH. 

Online instruction has become increasingly common as an alternative to face-to-face instruction (Crawford-Ferre & Wiest, 2012; Maertens et al., 2016; Ananga & Biney, 2017). One benefit with online instruction is that it is more easily accessible for students who are not able to fully access the more traditional face-to-face instruction on campus. After the Covid-19 pandemic, online instruction has gained further ground (Zhu & Liu, 2020; Kerres & Buchner, 2022; Li et al., 2022). At the same time, we have seen a rapid increase in new educational technologies, including that of virtual reality (Ding & Li, 2022; Al-Ansi et al., 2023; Zhang et al., 2022). Studies show that virtual reality (VR) can make the learning process more engaging and interactive (Jackson & Fagan, 2000; Ardiny& Khanmirza, 2018; Roopa et al., 2021) and that it can increase reception levels and train collaborative skills (Isik-Ercan et al., 2010; Petersen et al., 2023). This paper raises the question of how the use of virtual reality in online instruction affects learning experiences. While the participants in the pilot study displayed a genuine enthusiasm for using VR in an online setting, results showed a lack of knowledge in how to use VR to improve student learning. One area of investigation was concentration. Here, results were inconclusive as 50 % of the participants in group 1 (G1) were unsure of whether VR improves concentration, while 50 % of the participants in group 2 (G2) claimed that the use of VR does improve their concentration level. Another area of investigation was understanding the topic. The participants from G1 gave higher ratings than those who performed the experiment in G2, which implies that the impact was not as great as expected. In fact, the participants in G2 found that the VR equipment shifted focus from learning to other details in the visual medium. Another area was interactivity. Here, results indicated that VR technology has the didactic potential of engaging students and making them more interactive in the learning situation. The study concludes that while VR technology has the possibility of enhancing learning, a prerequisite is that both students and teachers have the skills and knowledge of how to use VR technology in a pedagogical setting; furthermore, a few technical modifications to the device itself are required.

In order to shed light on the role of higher education and its importance for innovation and entrepreneurship this paper presents the results of a survey of the four major technical universities in the Nordic countries; Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland; Chalmers Technical University in Gothenburg, Sweden; the Danish Technical University in Copenhagen, Denmark; and the Norwegian Technical University in Trondheim, Norway. Through the survey we have investigated what forms or tools the four technical universities use to collaborate with industry in education and to what extent these forms affect innovation in companies and entrepreneurship. The survey results show that there are five main forms of educational collaboration for innovation and entrepreneurship: 1) Thesis and project assignments, 2) Internships, 3) Executive and continuing education, 4) Entrepreneurship education, 5) Meeting spaces for innovation, platforms or arenas, between companies and students. All four technical universities use all five forms but with varying intensity. In terms of volume of activities and an innovation perspective thesis and project assignments by engineering students in their finishing year seems to be the most important form. From an entrepreneurship perspective the entrepreneurship education and related facilities such as incubators seem be most important.

The purpose of this paper is to present the process and evaluation of case writing projects in co-operation with companies and organizations in a course for engineering students. The case writing projects could provide an illustration and example framework for working with companies in constructing cases. Normally cases are constructed for teaching purposes in higher education. However, in order to get closer co-operation and more interest from the companies the authors encouraged the students and the companies to construct cases on issues that the companies felt were especially relevant for them. Drawing on previous research on case writing in teaching case writing projects were set up. The companies who worked closely with the students were very satisfied with both the case writing process and the final cases. These companies expressed several benefits like getting a good public reputation, getting an analysis by a third party, a free look on possible future employees, maintaining good relations with higher education and also getting material for internal development purposes. The companies that had a more distant relationship to the projects or were the process had been problematic had a more critical view of the process and outcome. They saw few benefits with the case writing projects besides maintaining a good image.

Studien behandlar projektledares uppfattningar av lärande i projektarbete. Valet av yrkesgrupp projektledare, beror på att projektledare ofta tilldelas nya projekt vilka de snabbt är tvungna att sätta sig in i. För att ett projekt ska fungera och lärande ska uppstå är det ett måste att alla deltagare har goda relationer och ett bra samspel. Syftet med studien är att nå en ökad förståelse av projektledares uppfattningar av lärande inom projektarbete. Fenomenografiska ansatsen valdes då variation är viktigt för att fånga så olika uppfattningar som möjligt. Utifrån intervjumaterialet kategoriserades de olika uppfattningarna i beskrivningskategorier. Resultatet visade att projektledare och övriga projektdeltagare lär sig ny kunskap på en mängd olika sätt i olika situationer. Samspel, interaktion och relationer är mycket vikiga faktorer för hur projektledare och övriga projektdeltagare lär.

Engage the students in a three-stage reverse engineering role-play to increase their awareness of the importance of correctly using systems engineering methods, by experiencing them “in real life”.

Training engineering graduates in sustainable development literacy is an urgent task for aca-demic institutions. Even though environmental and social considerations are critical dimen-sions to be leveraged when designing quality advanced design-implement (D-I) experiences for students, sustainability is often confined to environmental protection and suffers from the under-development of the social dimemsion.

In the year 2000 a new interdisciplinary M.Sc. Engineering Programme started at Uppsala University, Sweden. The programme, named Systems in Technology and Society, combines science and technology with studies in humanities and social science. Of the 4.5 year long programme (all MSc Engineering education in Sweden are 4.5 years), one third (a total of 1.5 year, spread over the first 4 years) of the curricula consists of courses in humanities and social science. The courses are based in different disciplines such as economic history, social and economic geography, business studies, political science, philosophy, history and history of ideas and science. The courses are integrated with each other, in order to stimulate a deeper knowledge within the interdisciplinary academic field of Science and Technology Studies (STS). The students of this new programme are more active in discussing the relevance of different content, in order to understand why they should study this. We see this as a result of the training in critical analysis and reflection that they obtain in the courses within humanities and social science.

Ur förordet: Högskolans ”tredje uppgift” är att samverka med aktörer utanför högskolan och göra det som ett nytt sätt att bedriva undervisning och forskning och inte som någon extra pålagd vid-sidan-uppgift. De tre artiklarna i detta nummer av FoU vid MAM har vi samlat under titeln I närkamp med den ”tredje uppgiften”. De är exempel på hur samverkan med utomakademiska aktörer kan se ut i praktiken. Denna praktik är förstås olikartad. Här i förordet lyfter jag fram två teman i artiklarna. Ett tema är vad för slags samverkan det är fråga om. Det andra temat är att samverkan kan vara konfliktfylld. Sammantaget säger dessa teman något viktigt om samverkansuppgiften: Vilka samhällsaktörer är inblandade och hur ska de olika intressen de representerar hanteras produktivt när nya utvecklingsgrupperingar skapas i FoU-arbetet?

Denna presentation handlar om ett samverkansinitiativ för studenterna på Civilingenjörsprogrammet i AI och Maskininlärning tillsammans med regionala aktörer inom privat och offentlig sektor. Syftet är att genom samverkan mellan våra studenter och företag/myndigheter i Blekinge nå en rad synergieffekter för såväl studenterna som BTH och de medverkande regionala aktörerna. Nyckeln till framgång är få studenter och företag-/myndigheter att diskutera konkreta AI-case med varandra.

Problembaserat lärande (PBL) i ett Activity learning classroom(ALC-klassrum). Möjligheter och utmaningar.

Although academic skills, conceptualised as writing and critical thinking, are a vital part of university studies, research indicates that many students leave without having mastered these skills effectively. This research also reflects on nursing students. Nursing could also be said to be hampered by a number of complex educational challenges that are likely to impact on the academic socialisation process in general. These challenges include being a relatively ‘young’ academic discipline, the ‘theory–practice’ divide, a knowledge bed lying on a complex intersection of two ‘antithetical sciences’ and, at least in the Scandinavian countries, an increasing number of nurse educators with a PhD in nursing science but with limited time to develop their own teaching skills. In combination, these challenges have the potential to act as stumbling blocks, both from a teaching and learning perspective. I would suggest that a departure in teaching fromtheoretical educational models, such as Lea and Street's ‘academic literacies model,’ including skills, socialisation and academic literacy models simultaneously, could be one of several ways forward to create a learning environment that takes these issues into account.

In Sweden, regulations from the National Agency for Higher Education advocate an education that equips students with independence as well as critical, problem-based thinking, i.e. academic literacy skills. However, some research findings indicate that students may leave higher education without mastering these skills effectively. As part of quality-assuring a nursing programme at a university college in south-east Sweden we explored the nursing student's view of crucial academic literacy skills, such as critical thinking and appraisal and academic writing, by conducting a descriptive, qualitative study. Informants were recruited through an advertisement posted on the university's e-learning tool. Eight focused interviews were conducted during autumn 2010. The transcribed interviews were analysed – inspired by content analysis – and two categories became apparent: constantly questioning and formality before substance. The latter revealed a gap between the student's perception of academic writing and that of the educators, thus implying that nursing students might not be equipped with the tools they need to develop within academia. We suggest that students could benefit in their academic endeavours from theoretical educational models that integrate several academic skills simultaneously and which could be incorporated into the development of syllabuses and curriculums.

The more recent emergence of remote laboratories caused some discussions about their real educational value, when compared to traditional hands-on and virtual laboratories. This discussion is relevant because remote labs rely on computer-mediated access to real instruments and apparatus, being sometimes difficult to explain the difference between values obtained from real (remote) measurements and values obtained from computer simulations. This paper aims to evidence aspects that differentiate remote and virtual laboratories, by presenting two very simple experiments dealing with the characteristics of real instruments (limited bandwidth) and real circuits (electromagnetic interference). © 2017 Association for Computing Machinery.

Purpose This paper aims to explore a single-institution case study of partnership working between students, the University and Students' Union, through four student-led sustainability projects. The paper analyses the role and value of these partnerships and provides advice for other institutions on effective partnership working between these stakeholders. Design/methodology/approach A single case study of partnership working with multiple embedded units of analysis (four projects) is presented based on reflections of practitioners involved in the projects who have different roles within the University and Students' Union. Findings The longevity and effectiveness of student-led projects, and disciplinary-breadth of students engaged, can be enhanced by greater collaboration with, and integration into, University and Students' Union systems. Partnership working between different stakeholders is key to overcoming challenges and the success of student-led projects, helped by key staff "enablers". These projects provide myriad learning opportunities for developing change agency skills, even where projects are relatively short-lived and could be seen as failures in terms of longevity. Originality/value This paper draws together the experiences and reflections of four practitioners with different roles within the University and Students' Union across four different projects and provides advice to generate student-led sustainability projects which have longevity and impact for wider student populations and future generations of cohorts.

Den här kvalitativa studiens syfte var att öka kunskapen om och isåfall hur samspelet mellan medarbetare och ledare kunde utveckla medarbetares tysta kunskap. Studien utgick ifrån frågeställningen hur anställda upplevde att ledare påverkade samt stöttade lärandeprocesser av tyst kunskap. För att uppnå studiens syfte valdes att göra djupgående semistrukturerade intervjuer med fyra anställda i olika yrkesroller från fyra skilda verksamheter. Intervjuerna genomfördes face to face med stöd av en mind map som gav utrymme för följdfrågor för att få fram så reliabla svar som möjligt. Materialet analyserades för att kunna tolka respondenternas beskrivningar som påvisade upplevelser av att ledarna påverkade samt stöttade lärandeprocesserna av tyst kunskap inom fem teman; arbetslagets uppbyggnad, dialog och reflektion, konkreta aktiviteter, yrkesroll och begreppsbildning samt autonomi och utrymme att ta initiativ. Tillsammans bildade de en helhet som gav en bild av hur upplevelsen av stöd och påverkan för lärandeprocessen av tyst kunskap tog plats på deltagarnas arbetsplatser. 

The key role of engineers for the transformation of society towards sustainability is a strong motivation for increasing the environmental knowledge within engineering education. Doing this by the concept of integration is presently considered more appropriate than to develop more new education programmes for environmental specialists. This paper describes the integration of environmental aspects into a mechanical engineering education programme. The Natural Step Framework has been used as a basis for this integration. It has been possible to include environmental knowledge without compromising the engineering quality of the programme.

The global challenges of our time are unprecedented and urgent action for transformation is needed of our systems, policies, institutions and ways of thinking. Education of sustainability leaders is one of the key leverage points to achieve this and many claim that learning on an individual, organisational and societal scale is required for society’s successful transitioning towards sustainability. 

In this relatively new field, practitioners and scholars grapple with what best promotes development of sustainability leadership, and with what competencies, capacities and transformative outcomes educators should be aiming to develop. The aim of this work was therefore to establish an improved understanding of this and to find recommendations for educators with ambitions to create systems change for sustainability by building the capacity of people to be sustainability leaders. 

As an educator and facilitator of sustainability work for over a decade, working at the crossroads of education for sustainability leadership; organisational  and community change, lecturing on leadership for sustainability in Australia and currently being Co-Director of the Master’s in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability (MSLS) program in Sweden, I have rested this thesis firmly within an action-oriented transformation research paradigm in which the only way to understand a system is through a comprehensive attempt to change it. Seven cases of sustainability leadership education are presented. Methods include surveys with open questions; workshops; interviews; document analysis; and, ethnographic field work. 

The thesis provides support for design of sustainability leadership education through the following outcomes: 

• Recommendations and improvements on a Typology for Transformative Learning to guide educators in designing and assessing transformative sustainability leadership education; 
• Eight Intrapersonal Capacities that may provide a map of the Intrapersonal Competence. These are: Hold complexity, Foster a learners mindset, Deeply value others, Let be, Show up as one’s full self, Regulate and manage the self, Persist with lightness and Ensure one’s wellbeing;
• Suggestions that the integration of the components of community, place, content, pedagogy and disorientation with hope and agency can provide synergistic reinforcement of the sustainability transformation required;
• Examples of reflection and dialogue as well as creativity and the arts as pedagogies and skills for sustainability leaders;
• Added evidence that learning can be a key leverage point for sustainability transformations by presenting outcomes and impacts of sustainability education programs where students attempted to make change in their work or world through creativity projects;
• Outcomes and impacts of an organisation change program within a local government which used education to empower sustainability leaders who then themselves created sustainability outcomes and impacts;
• Identified challenges of education for sustainability leadership from the perspective of students, learning designers and facilitators of the studied education programs.
• Challenges within sustainability education more broadly are also presented.

With those outcomes, the thesis contributes to the body of knowledge concerned with building capacity of human beings to facilitate strategic sustainable development work. 

The global challenges of our time are unprecedented and urgent action is needed. Transformational learning and leadership development are key leverage points for supporting society’s transition towards sustainability. Many even claim that learning on an individual, organisational and societal scale is required for society’s successful transitioning towards sustainability. However, in this relatively new field, practitioners, scholars and educators grapple with what best promotes transformational learning and with how to best design and operate learning experiences that truly build capacity for leadership for sustainability. The aim of this work was to establish an improved understanding of this and to find recommendations for practitioners and educators with ambitions to create systems change for sustainability by building the capacity of people to be sustainability leaders.

As an educator and facilitator of sustainability work for over a decade, working at the crossroads of local government and community change, lecturing on leadership for sustainability in Australia and currently being embedded within the faculty of the Master’s in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability (MSLS) program in Sweden, I have rested this thesis firmly within an action-oriented transformations research paradigm in which the only way to understand a system is through a comprehensive collaborative attempt to change it. One case of action research explored an organisational change for sustainability program that spanned over five years in a local government in Perth, Western Australia and the learning and policy interventions that supported this change. Participant observation with field notes, interviews, surveys and document analysis were particular methods used in this case. Two further cases focused on the MSLS program and its practices and specific components that support such leadership development and transformational learning. Feedback surveys from students and an open question survey to alumni were key methods used in these cases.

The findings suggest that community and relationships are essential for supporting and growing sustainability leadership capacity; that hope and agency are irreplaceable components for leading sustainability change; that self-reflection and dialogue are skills that will help sustainability leaders navigate complex and uncertain futures and that these can be learned. Findings also indicate that creating a shared language for sustainability work helps bridge disciplinary divides and practitioner silos, and that skills of dialogue are required to capitalise on participation. Also, the integration of the components of community, place, content, pedagogy and disorientation with hope and agency can help support transformation in sustainability leadership education and provide synergistic reinforcement of the sustainability transformation required.

This thesis provides added evidence that learning can be a key leverage point for sustainability transformations in an organisation and suggests how such learning can be most effectively achieved through a conscious design of learning environments, including the use and integration of the mentioned components to improve sustainability leadership for impact in society.

Students of the Masters in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability come from diverse and varied backgrounds, cultures, professions and countries from all around the world. The MSLS Core Team creates the learning container for the students, and works collaboratively to weave the courses of the program into an integrated and synergistic whole. 

Purpose: Transformative learning (TL) and leadership are key leverage points for supporting society’s transition toward sustainability. The purpose of this study is to identify essential components of TL within an international sustainability leadership master’s program in Sweden that has been described by many students as life-changing, empowering and transformational. Design/methodology/approach: Alumni spanning 15 cohorts provided answers to a survey and the responses were used to map components of TL as experienced by the students. Findings: The survey confirms the anecdotal assertions that the program is transformational. The findings suggest that community, place, pedagogy, concepts and content, disorientation and hope and agency are essential components, combined with the synergy of those into an integrated whole that support transformational change according to many respondents. Originality/value: This study provides program designers and educators with suggested components and emphasizes their integration and synergy, to support TL experiences for sustainability leaders. © 2021, Jayne Bryant, James Ayers, Merlina Missimer and Göran Broman.

This paper presents a case study about embedding sustainability into a local government in Perth, Western Australia, through the introduction of a sustainability policy and the accompanying education and culture change program. This longitudinal case study describes the approach and impact of the program initiated and delivered by internal officers between 2011 and 2016. The use of personal experience, document review and staff interviews present an ethnography of a bureaucracy that casts some light upon the seldom seen inner workings of a local government organisation as it introduced a sustainability program over a period of more than 5 years. The case study provides evidence of the potential power of learning as a key leverage point for transformational sustainability change.

Studien undersöker begripligheten av objektorienterade exempelprogram. Läsbarhet är en avgörande faktor för begriplighet. Vi presenterar ett mått för läsbarhet (SRES) och applicera det på exempel från vanliga läroböcker. Resultaten visar att SRES korrelerar väl med experters subjektiva kvalitetsintryck. Objektorientering, kvalitet, läsbarhet av kod.

Modeling is a key skill in software development. The ability to develop, manipulate and understand models for software is therefore an important learning objective in many CS/SE courses. In this working group, we investigated how and when (software) modeling is taught to help us better understand the key issues in teaching (software) modeling. Several shortcomings were found in common curricula, both in their understanding of the term "modeling" and in how they address its teaching. This WG report summarizes the fi ndings and formulates recommendations on the inclusion of software modeling courses in future CS/SE curricula.