Other supporting tools for teaching activities

The instruction belongs to the following themes

By selecting a degree programme you are able to see the general content as well as the possible degree programme-specific content.

You have the possibility to use tools for activities such as: joint production, team work, planning your teaching, and carrying out questionnaires and polls.

Wiki
Presemo – an easy way to keep your students active!
Flinga
Electronic forms
Using social media in teaching
Eportfolio
Thinglink

Wiki

Wikis are websites that allow you to easily create and modify webpages either by yourself or with others. Wikis are particularly good for supporting student-oriented and communal learning. As a teacher, you can allow your students to edit the course material or lists of links, or use the platform for teamwork tasks. The wiki can also be published to the whole world.

Further information:
Support and training materials of the Wiki service at the University of Helsinki
helpdesk@helsinki.fi

Presemo – an easy way to keep your students active!

Presemo is an activation tool that can be used to activate students during lectures or other teaching situations by means of questions, polls and conversations. Presemo is the best tool for promoting active student participation even with larger groups of students. The teacher can easily save a report of the session. In addition to lectures, Presemo can naturally be utilised in other public events, conferences, seminars and other similar events.

Presemo is browser-based, no software installations are needed. Presemo can also be used with a smartphone or tablet. All students do not need a mobile device of their own if they use the system in small groups (one device per group) during the lecture.

Presemo rooms can be managed by members of the University of Helsinki (teaching) staff.

Further information:
Instructions for teachers
Read the terms of use before using Presemo!
Order a new room
opetusteknologia@helsinki.fi

Presemo instructions in English

Flinga

Flinga is a type of online-based whiteboard that is particularly well suited for activities such as communal knowledge building and promoting active student participation during teaching. Flinga is browser-based, so you can use it with a computer, a tablet or a mobile phone as long as you are connected to the internet.

The version of Flinga available to university staff and students is the Campus version, which contains three different tools.

  • Flinga Whiteboard enables you to build mind maps and group the messages in any way you want.
  • Flinga Wall is an easy to use message wall. The messages sent can be arranged in their order of arrival or based on the likes they have received.
  • Activities contains short pedagogical scripts that can be implemented directly through this function. Activities can also be a good source of ideas for planning your own sessions.

Flinga is available to all members of staff and students at the University of Helsinki. To create and manage Flinga sessions, use your university credentials at hy.flinga.fi.

Participants of a session will be directed to edu.flinga.fi and they will receive a session-specific access code that Flinga will generate automatically.  Some mobile devices require you to press SEND to show the message field and other tools. This mostly applies to mobile phones. Watch the video.

Flinga has some accessibility problems and there is no easy way to fix them. The biggest problem is that screen reader programs do not work with it properly. This must be noticed when planning teaching.

Flinga instructions in English (NEW!)

Flinga’s video instructions (in Finnish):

More information and tips on how to use Flinga are available through the following links:

More information: edutech@helsinki.fi

Electronic forms

E-lomake is an online tool allowing you to build, publish, modify and copy various types of query forms. You can use the form to collect various types of information, such as sign-ups, feedback, research materials, initial information or attachments files.

E-lomake is browser-based. An e-form can be prepared, administered and edited by several people. It is also possible to create the same form in several languages. Replies collected with the form can be managed through the E-lomake report view or downloaded effortlessly to your own computer or into Excel or SPSS for further processing. When creating the reports, it is also possible to create public summaries of the replies received. E-lomake offers a reliable and safe way to collect data for teachers, administrative staff, researchers and students.

Office365 Forms allows you to create questionnaires, quizzes and polls by means of different question types. You can find Forms through the University of Helsinki Office365 service

Using social media in teaching

In general, using social media and other platforms not maintained by the university enables you to try out interesting pedagogical solutions. Often, students enjoy using familiar tools in teaching. However, when using services not provided by the university, you must ensure data security and that all students are aware of where they are storing their information. Services comparable to social media currently offered by the University of Helsinki include Skype for Business, Teams and Yammer included in the Office365 package as well as the Wiki platforms.

Matters to consider when using social media

Students taking the course cannot be obligated to

  • use their own name on public social media platforms,
  •  make their personal profiles a part of the course, e.g. creating a situation where the teacher and/or student unavoidably end up following each other’s profiles in the service, or
  • create new accounts in services outside the university, especially if disclosing personal information is required to create the account.

The students must be aware of

  • how and for what purpose the platforms are used and
  •  what is required of them to use the platforms.
  •  If necessary, you should offer an alternative method of completing the course or the possibility of completing the same studies on another course.

Students often want to keep their personal and study profiles separate, which should be respected. Shared accounts created under the course’s name are common and generally OK. The use of any service is basically possible, but their use and general rules of conduct must be considered separately for each service and course.

Eportfolio

E-portfolio

A portfolio generally refers to a collection of evidence or proof that helps to understand and demonstrate the development of skills as well as a learning process during a specific period, within a specific topic or as a continuum of lifelong learning. A portfolio can include a variety of documents: samples of writing in final or draft form, photos, videos, research reports and, for example, feedback and assessments by peers, mentors, teachers or supervisors. Consequently, a portfolio measures and demonstrates learning within a specific period (Butler et al. 2006). 

Portfolios can be collected for one’s own purposes or for a teacher or an employer. Portfolios have been grouped into a few different categories. A learning portfolio, or a process portfolio, presents a student’s learning within a specific period and may also include incomplete work or assignments. A showcase portfolio is a collection of a student’s accomplishments. This type of a portfolio does not include incomplete work and is, thus, suited for job seeking, as well. A portfolio can also be created for the purpose of assessment, such as a portfolio collected during a course as part of assessment. Portfolios help to identify one’s own skills, but they can also be used in skills assessment as an alternative to summative assessment. Because the assessment of a portfolio may encompass several areas, portfolios represent skills very accurately (Butler et al. 2006). At the University of Helsinki, students may also work on bachelor’s and master’s portfolios throughout their studies, collecting their reflections on different courses and at different stages of their studies.

A learning portfolio is more extensive than a learning journal: a portfolio is a collection of work, tasks and assignments assembled during a learning process that are analysed in depth (Lindblom-Ylänne et al. 2009). Portfolio work can include a wide range of assignments. For more information on assignments used at Career Services that are also suitable for portfolios, please see the links below.

At the University of Helsinki, the PebblePad software can be used for portfolio work in courses. Teachers wishing to use the software in a course can send an email to edutech@helsinki.fi. 

Similar tools that we recommend include Sway, which is part of the Microsoft Office 365 suite and suited to writing a CV, LinkedIn for networking and skills development, and Wix and Strikingly, especially for creating a personal website. You can learn more about Sway by clicking on the menu icon in the top-left corner of the Outlook Web App (OWA) of the O365 email service and selecting Sway.

Read more about portfolio work related to, for example, career guidance.

Ideas for portfolio assignments

 

Other sources:

Butler, P., Anderson, B., Brown, M., Simpson, M., Higgins, A., Northover, M., Meyer, L., Connor, M., Lamont, M. & Wyles, R. (2006). A Review of the Literature on Portfolios and Electronic Portfolios.

Lindblom-Ylänne, S. & Nevgi, A. (Eds.) (2009). Yliopisto-opettajan käsikirja. WSOYpro.

 

Thinglink

ThingLink is a platform that makes it easy to augment images, videos, 360° material and virtual tours with additional information and links. Thinglink is integrated with the university's Microsoft Office 365 account and an educational license is provided to both students and staff.

Here is an example Thinglink tour.

Getting started

Additional instructions