Vaasa University of Applied Sciences’ pedagogical policies:

Johdanto

From guidelines to every-day practices

Opetuksen, oppimateriaalien ja oppimisympäristöjen avoimuus ja saavutettavuus edistävät kaikille yhdenvertaisia mahdollisuuksia jatkuvaan oppimiseen ja oppivaan yhteisöömme kiinnittymiseen. Tuemme opiskelijoitamme riittävien korkeakouluvalmiuksien saavuttamisessa myös jo ennen tutkinto-opintojen alkua.

Avoimuus ja saavutettavuus liittyvät opetuksemme kokonaislaatuun. Opetuksen avoimuus VAMKissa tarkoittaa oppimaan pääsyn ja osallistumisen mahdollisuuksien lisäämistä, opetuksen yhteiskehittämistä, oppijakeskeisyyttä, selkeitä ja linjakkaita osaamistavoitteita ja arviointikriteereitä, läpinäkyviä palautekäytänteitä, sekä mm. omien ja toisten laatimien avoimien aineistojen käyttöä osana opetusta. Tuemme ja kannustamme opettajiamme suunnittelemaan ja julkaisemaan avointa ja saavutettavaa opetusmateriaalia sekä edistämään entistä vahvempaa oppijakeskeisyyttä sekä yhteisopettajuutta omassa työssään.

Supporting the growth of professional expertise involves supporting our students’ agency and ensuring that all our teaching and guidance is student-centered and competence-based. Our students receive personal guidance with their studies and career paths. Previously acquired skills are identified and recognised as part of a student’s individual learning and career paths. As a teacher you are also a guide and mentor.

Promoting our students’ agency and growth into professionals involves ensuring that they gain up-to-date knowledge of the relevant subject matter. In addition, all higher education degrees include a variety of general skills and competences. The general competence areas compiled by Arene (see Arene’s shared general competence areas included in the bachelor’s and master’s degrees) provide a solid framework for our curricula. The Finnish National Agency for Education (2019) has created a list of future skills, which include interaction and communication skills; problem-solving; creativity; learning abilities; multi-culturalism; abilities for holistic thinking; and skills in self-governance, ethics, and information management and analysis, among other things. Furthermore, our student’s emotional experiences regarding their own skills, and their ability to influence and enhance their skills throughout their career are part of the agency that we at VAMK aim to strengthen. The development of these competences is integrated in all our curricula in the form of learning outcomes.

Our teaching will be closely connected to our research, development and innovation operations, in terms of teaching content, pedagogical approaches and collaboration with working life figures. We will not hesitate to adopt new teaching methods, technological solutions and learning environments.

We will provide our students with a learning environment where they are offered opportunities to develop and experiment with their own ideas in practice, be creative and acquire new information. It will be safe to leave their comfort zone when studying. Diverse forms of feedback that provides guidance and support with self-reflection during our study units will aid learners and help them achieve their competence objectives.

We will encourage and support our teachers in bold experimentation and application of new pedagogical methods. Experiments, learning from them and skill sharing are natural parts of a teacher’s pedagogical freedom, as long as they are in line with the shared degree objectives, the curriculum and forms of teaching. We will promote a culture of experimentation, and reward pedagogical innovation and skill sharing

Digital skills are partly field-specific, partly more generic abilities that are needed both at work and when learning. With this policy, we want to engage our entire community in supporting our students in developing their digital skills. We adapt new learning environments and technologies, such as learning platforms, services, artificial intelligence and VR technology in our teaching, and expose our teachers and students to these technologies. The ability to learn and apply the tools responsibly is stressed.

We collaborate with working life and other higher education institutes, through which, our teachers and students also encounter new technologies. We support our students as they develop e.g. programming, media production, use of analytics, use of large AI-based language models, and social media within project work and internships. We promote our students’ competences in creating their own digital portfolios and show-casing their competences. We offer studio available to the students and offer internships in media production and digital teaching roles connected to teaching support and development.

We develop our pedagogical competences continuously and collaboratively. We also build new structures, roles and processes for developing and leading teaching related work. Via this iterative process we create and maintain a work culture which promotes students’ learning and success, as well as the wellbeing of our entire community.

We strenghten the existing structures (e.g. the Management’s Pedaforum and Peda teams, our monthly development days, annual pedagogical publications, other teaching related seminars and peer mentoring). We build a strong network for supporting and developing teaching, which include the actors supporting and developing digital learning and the development of the learning facilities on-campus. We collaborate with higher education pedagogy institutes to streghten our pedagogical competences. We take part in national and international higher education pedagogy related projects and events, and share the input with our colleagues. We encourage our staff members to publish teaching and learning related work.

We promote our students’ and staff members’ shared expertise and learning together. Open interaction and encounters within the study units and during a variety of events at our physical and digital campus enhance our wellbeing and engagement.

Every encounter is an opportunity for learning. Our study units and degrees put focus also on team building and functioning interaction between peers. Learning together and having shared experiences is also linked to inclusivity and internationality. The diversity within our community is reflected on our campus through bilingual services. In addition, multicultural competences are promoted as part of teaching and learning.

Collaborative learning is an integral part of VAMK’s research, education and innovation (RDI) work, which is closely tied to all our teaching and learning. We promote our students’ participation in phenomenon-based and multi-sector RDI projects, and support them in building working life networks during their studies. The integration of teaching and RDI is realised e.g. the form of thesis topics, project work, learning assignments, expert visits, consultations, simulations, bootcamps and hackathons, to mention a few. We also encourage our students to release co-publications with our staff

We train new talents for working life in cooperation with the employers in the area. We connect work life with our students. We promote business development in the area, and access to skilled individuals by integrating and engaging students with working life before graduation. We strengthen and develop international students’ integration with Finnish working culture and their employment in Vaasa.

The networks and partnerships are realised to our students in the content of our study units and our practices: e.g. visits by specialists, alumni activities, simulations, various project assignments, RDI projects, thesis work, internship programmes, events and career services.

Our career services offer support to students with career planning, development of job seeking skills, identifying personal competences and building a professional network. We provide career advice, organise events and workshops, and share information about jobs, internships, working life and employability.