When teachers define the learning objectives for the upcoming course and for the course participants, it is assumed, most likely quite correctly, that the teachers already have obtained those skills themselves that they are teaching. Teachers do master the subject matter, but in my pilot, I wanted to check, how can I in my course design process identify my own innovation competences.
Course: Destination Germany Austria 3 ECTS (offered as a compulsory course for students going to ERASMUS / double degree exchange in Autumn 2024)
Teacher: Sanna Simola
Students: 11 (+ 2 who chose to attend, but not to do all the tasks)
Goal and learning objectives: training and preparation for exchange in Germany or Austria, networking, inspiration (guests), career planning, language and culture skills, information search.
Course implementation Hybrid (Campus – online lessons – tasks in LMS itslearning)
Duration: March- May 2024 (14 weeks)
| Contact lessons at Campus |
| Contact lessons at Campus |
| LMS itslearning Task 1 cultural awareness, stereotypes, culture shock |
| Online lesson |
| LMS itslearning Task 2 Germany, Austria, education system |
| Online lesson, guest – a person who has lived in Finland for a long time shares his views on the differences between Finland and Germany- Frohe Ostern! |
| Contact lessons at Campus ein bisschen Deutsch (Restaurant, travelling) |
| LMS itslearning Task 3 student life, working life. |
| Online lesson, guest aFinn living and working in Germany. |
| LMS itslearning Task 4: Duolingo etc. |
| no meeting, Duolingo, online assignments |
| LMS itslearning Task 5 own destination – school, city, hobbies |
| Contact lessons at Campus presentations = task 5, feedback task 4 |
| Online lesson exchange students (one already at home in Germany) |
| Contact lessons at Campus Gute Reise und schönen Aufenthalt! Exchange Student |
When designing a course, it is good to be aware that things may occur unexpectedly. During this course there were three things I had to react quickly to and must have a plan B. In unexpected situations innovation competences are really needed.
During the spring I was asked to join an Erasmus week in Romania, in April we suddenly got snow again and one of the students had a request for the possibility to have some of the exchange students from Germany/Austria to attend the course and tell their experiences about Erasmus exchange in Finland and cultural differences.
These demands were quite easy to tackle. After 24 years of experience of teaching, I knew of course that situations where I must react quite quickly may occur. The long experience has formed and developed the innovation competences. During these years I have learnt to be creative, to network with people, take initiative (contact people and suggest an idea of participation), be in a team and work together. Also, critical thinking is an important skill; for example, in the design process it is good to think critically about the choices you are making. I nowadays implement my courses in a hybrid format to increase flexibility and guarantee a versatile learning experience.
About the hybrid implementation - Online teaching gives a teacher more options and a great way to reach material, resources, and people outside the campus area and beyond the borders. In this implementation it was a natural choice to implement the course in a hybrid format.
Below I list advantages of this format:
versatile, varied (the content and place are matched to suit the purpose)
It is good to have different kinds of tasks and environments to enhance the learning experience.
flexible (weather conditions- easy to change the place)
to get guests to attend (abroad, longer distances)
high quality online learning material (e.g. Deutsche Welle)
in this case: online lessons with a small group, camera on, active participation, discussions. Working online did succeed well, because of the group size and motivation of the students. Motivation was high due to upcoming stay in Germany/Austria.
