Teaching & Education Track (incl. non-teaching staff content)

Presenter: Mark Curcher, Senior Lecturer, Tampere University of Applied Sciences

Room: G00-10

What could a musical genre and subculture from the mid 1970’s possibly offer to educators in the 3rd decade of the 21st century? Is it all just Mohican haircuts and safety pins through the nose, or is there something deeper that is worth examining and reflecting upon? In this seminar participants will learn something of edupunk and punk pedagogy and how these can link to ideas and values that are useful to us in our praxis as critical educators. We will see that some well known educators from pedagogical theory and literature may well be considered as “punk”. This is a call to action for educators to adopt a punk attitude.

Presenters: Emmanuel Abruquah, Senior Lecturer, Tampere University of Applied Sciences; Anne Kopperoinen, Senior Lecturer, Tampere University of Applied Sciences; Zsofia Makranyi, ESP Instructor, Budapest Business School University of Applied Sciences, Hungary; Viktória Pajor, ESP Instructor, Budapest Business School University of Applied Sciences, Hungary; Nicholas Sinn, Lecturer, Hochschule München University of Applied Sciences, Germany

Room: B6-33

Presenters: Piia Tienhaara, Development Manager, Tampere University of Applied Sciences & Pekka Kähkipuro, Chief Information Officer, Tampere University 

Room: B6-34b

Internationalization is a key strategic goal in many higher education institutions, including TAMK. We want to be the most international university. What does it mean for services and infrastructure? What kind of challenges are encountered in a multicultural environment (e.g. information management services, facilities, service encounter, processes)? What kind of solutions have been developed in higher education institutions? What kind of measures have been taken to strengthen the service experience of international students, staff and visitors?

Presenter: Frank-Michael Schleif, Professor, University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt

Room: A3-27

Presenters: Markus Lohse, Scientific Staff, University of Applied Sciences Mittweida, Germany & Katrin Naumann, Scientific Staff, University of Applied Sciences Mittweida, Germany

Room: B6-33

Presenter: Katarina Panic, Quality Assurance Coordinator, Artevelde University of Applied Sciences, Belgium

Room: B6-32

While including intercultural and international aspects in a curriculum can undoubtedly help to improve the quality of study programmes, it often also brings along various challenges in the area of quality assurance. In addition to their many benefits, international collaborations such as COIL, virtual exchange and study or internship abroad also imply that as an institution, you hand over part of your quality management. This, in turn, may present challenges during programme reviews and accreditations. Therefore, the suggested topic for discussion is ‘how to balance quality assurance with global citizenship within a curriculum’.

Hosts: VETO students, TAMK

Room: B5-26

Come and get to know other students and grow your international professional network!

Presenters: Sanna Ruhalahti, Principal Lecturer, Tampere University of Applied Sciences; Hanne Mäki-Hakola, Senior Lecturer, Tampere University of Applied Sciences & Jan-Willem Noom, Lecturer, Aeres University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands 

Room: B6-34b

We expect learning to be collaborative and social, but how do we coach and support students to learn together? In this workshop participants will learn and experience how to create a dialogical learning community through dialogical methods (Aarnio, 2012). Participants enhance their practice-led knowledge for the learning community creation. They will find answers to what dialogical actions are essential when engaging learning communities and how easily dialogical methods can be applied to practice. In the workshop participants experience dialogical methods through collaborative hands-on activities. Dutch-Finnish long-term dialogue developers, researchers and teacher educators run the workshop who thinks that the world needs dialogue more than ever.

Presenters: Maris Boeringa, Lecturer, Hanze University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands  & Lidy Bosker, Lecturer, Hanze University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands 

Room: B6-31b

In the workshop we demonstrate the differences in Management Style by means of the 8 principles of Erin Meyer. Starting with a theoretical frame then we give examples of how cultures differ. Participants will be asked to compare their own cultural blue print. Discussion and practice how to deal with different cultural styles.

Presenter: Lode Mentens, Lecturer, UC Leuven – Limburg, Belgium

Room: D1-04

The fifth industrial revolution, or Industry 5.0, will be focused on the co-operation between man and machine, as human intelligence works in harmony with cognitive computing. By putting humans back into industrial production with collaborative robots, workers will be upskilled to provide value-added tasks in production, leading to mass customisation and personalisation for customers. If you want to know the ‘Why’ and the importance of materials selection in all of this, you have to come and listen to my presentation…

Presenters: Juha Tuominen, Senior Lecturer, Tampere University of Applied Sciences; Piotr Wołejsza, CEO, Science4People, Poland; Tatiana Tchemisova Cordeiro, Associate Professor, Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal; Bogusz Wiśnicki, Associate Professor, Maritime University of Szczecin, Poland; Veneta Hristova, Associate Professor, University of Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria & Wojtek Roskiewicz, University of Leipzig

Room: D1-04

Innovative bot tool for entrepreneurship education and user guide. Presentation of the MELES-BOT project, linked with the theme of the project outcome (and a call for the workshop on the 23rd of March).

Host: Anne-Maria Mäkelä, Head of External Financing, Tampere University of Applied Sciences

Room: B building lobby

Welcome to attend the Eye on TAMK 2023 poster exhibition! The posters will be visible from Tuesday to Thursday, but between 14:00 and 16:00 on Wednesday, the poster authors will be present to talk about the posters.

Posters:

1. Charlotte Demeyer: Collaboration between Regular Education Teachers and Special Educators: How to Reinforce Each Other in Achieving an Inclusive Learning Environment
2. Marianna Leikomaa: BUKA – Equity and Access to Higher Education through Open and Distance Learning
3. Volker Ahlers: Finding the Difference: Anomaly Detection in Computer Science Teaching and Network Security Research
4. Barbara Golini: Linguistic Treasures of the World – A Journey through Languages
5. Björn Elsche: VR in International Cooperations
6. Márkus Eszter: Longest Tradition and On-going Innovation of University Programs in Special Needs Education at the ‘Bárczi’ Faculty (Hungary)
7. Tuomas Eerola: NextSteps@TechVET
8. Tuula-Maria Rintala: DIGIDIA
9. Markus Jähi: Rethink Gastro
10. Aki Korpela: Intelligent Control in Modern Energy Systems
11. Mirva Kolonen: Kestävä aivoterveys
12. Eveliina Asikainen: EduSTA – Academy for Sustainable Future Educators
13. Maria Salomaa: EU 4 Inclusive Teaching
14. Yulia Sergeeva: Genuine Digi
15. Sirpa Salin: Vikkelästi töihin
16. Irja Nieminen: Project for strengthening young parenthood  
17. Silja Kostia & Riitta Vihuri – Industrial Symbioses in Tampere Region 
18. Jarkko Lehtonen: Smart Grid Simulation Environment – ÄSSÄ
19. Yulia Sergeeva: Project “Vaccine” –  teacher tools for the hybrid era
20. Kati Långsjö & Iina Nieminen – Kodig – Digital Skills for Experts by Experience 
21. Minna Niemi: DigiMESH
22. Maaret Salminen: SMART ART
23. Anne-Mari Sainio: Nepsy Tools
24. Marika Vuorenmaa, Sanna Tahlo, Petri Pohjola, Lasse Hillman, Jari Ruokolainen & Hanna-Greta Puurtinen: Digital skills and cross-domain entrepreneurship for societal challenges
25. Aki Kortetmäki, Aki Korpela & Hanna-Greta Puurtinen: Boosting Energy Communities massive deployment by equipping local authorities with comprehensive technical assistance cookbook, integrated services and capacity building
26. Eeva Heikkilä – CONFIDENT – Student’s Guide for Intercultural Communication and Digital Learning 
27. Eeva Heikkilä – VERSATILE – European cross-institutional studies 
28. Aki Kortetmäki: Building technology as an enabler of apartment adaptation
29. Antti Perttula: UCNDrone
30. Sanna Keskikuru: YDIN – You and I Digitally In society
31. Tarja Heinonen: Hippa Remote and Virtual Lab for Social and Health care 
32. Katja Varamäki & students: VETO
33. Harri Karvinen: BEAT IT – Strengthening the competence, changeability, and cooperation capability of creative entrepreneurs
34. Sanna Luoto: FUSILLI – Identifying Challenges of Food Living Labs in Food System Sustainability Transformation in Finland
35. Vesa Vuorinen: Virtual Travel
36. Laura Sairanen, Nasrin Jinia – Quickly to work 
37. Sami Puttonen – Project Compass – Tool to map out collaboration and development project in education sector

Presenter: Mark Curcher, Senior Lecturer, Tampere University of Applied Sciences

Room: B6-34b

14:00-14:30: Turning Collaboration Challenges into Opportunities…?

Presenters: Iwona Seta-Dąbrowska, Senior Assistant, Silesian University of Technology, Poland & Bożena Stefanowicz, Senior Assistant, Silesian University of Technology, Poland

Room: D1-04

In today’s globalized world, there is a growing need to integrate collaboration in educational contexts. Virtual cooperation has the potential to master transferable skills and prepare students for the new working environment. Depending on the particular project, there are however some challenges to face on the way. In our presentation, we will share the experience of telecollaborative projects with the universities in Japan and Ukraine. Paradoxically some of the differences and limitations we faced, enabled to motivate, inspire and engage our students in collaborative tasks, finally leading to positive outcomes.

14:30-15:00: A New System of Drivers in Contemporary Lifelong Learning

Presenter: Anikó Kálmán, Associate Professor, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary

Room: D1-04

Lifelong learning has permanently been on educational policy agendas. The lifelong/lifewide paradigm shift has recently been the subject of moving focus and realization attempts in recent years. In the 2020s, one can identify movements on structural levels of education indicating operational changes in the systems. They reflect new approaches and requirements of the labor market, the restructuring changes in the economy and society, the transforming power of the ICTs, and the acute post-Covid impact. The most crucial decision for their career is not when people leave school but when they decide how much importance and effort they devote to learning for their next job. Creating new pathways for lifelong learning and moving away from the front load is in progress. New validating testing scenarios emerge: accreditation becomes the job itself, and the ’granularity’ of learning/teaching delivery and recognition is changing by the micro-credential systems.

Hosts: Sari Himanen, Principal Lecturer, Tampere University of Applied Sciences & Hannele Laaksonen, Principal Lecturer, Tampere University of Applied Sciences

Room: A3-27

Topics and presenters:

14:00-14:45 Change and Project Management, Lecturer Shaidul Kazi, Tampere University of Applied Sciences

14:45-15:00 Discussion on the topic

15:00-15:45 Human Resource Management: From a structural-functionalist perspective, to a relational-humanistic perspective, Professor Jorge Gomes, University of Lisbon

15:45-16:00 Discussion on the topic

The seminar will include two presentations on the topics of development and management, which will be discussed and ideas shared after the presentations. Two presentations will guide the participants to share their experiences and opinions in a safe environment and enable plenty of time for open discussion. What kind of ideas you get? How to implement new aspects of leadership or management to the own work community? How to develop working procedures or environment? How to strengthen professional development of staff?

Presenter: Karola Kopeferl, Scientific Staff, TU Chemnitz, Germany

Room: E1-06

Corona 2020: Grandma was also online all of a sudden. The corona pandemic put the spotlight on the fact that older people don’t live offline at all. However, their use varies. Not each smart device really helps, and people do not only use technology to overcome deficits. It can also be fun. I would like to report on my project in the Living Lab Stadtlabor 2022, where we, my colleagues and students, spent more than 10 afternoons researching the topic of smart technology in the community of older people in Chemnitz. Not about the people but with them. By designing useful technology for everyday life with Lego bricks, taking Alexa apart with screwdrivers and looking at why that should actually be smart as well as learning a lot about each other over coffee and cake. Re-Connecting after lockdowns-young and old, university -theory and practice in everyday life.

Presenter: Steffen Ritter, Professor, Reutlingen University, Germany

Room: D1-04

Presenter: Marion Mansberger, FH Wiener Neustadt University of Applied Sciences, Austria

Room: B6-29

Presenter: Koen Malfait, Lecturer, Vives University of Applied Sciences, Belgium

Room: B5-18

Presenter: Marianne Annion, Lecturer, Tallinn Health Care College, Estonia & Janika Mavor, Lecturer, Tallinn Health Care College, Estonia

Room: B4-20

Presenters: Lisa van Zanen, Lecturer, the Hague University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands & Mirjam Verweij, Lecturer, the Hague University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands

Room: D1-04

This presentation will be led by two teachers from THUAS, The Netherlands. In the discipline of ‘Pedagogy’ the relationship between a significant adult and a pupil or student is the main condition for learning and development. During our daily endeavors, as both teachers and students, there is hardly any time to reflect on the skills and needs to meet the changing way we learn and interact. For instance, handing over knowledge top-down, in the role of the teacher, will become obsolete, and has so to certain extent. This transition changes the way teachers practice their craft, but also the way we meet student’s needs. By means of exchanging our experiences, our questions, but also good-practices, from different educational backgrounds, it is possible to accomplish a sustainable narrative and understanding about the role of the future teacher.

Presenter: Eveliina Asikainen, Senior Lecturer, Tampere University of Applied Sciences & Jaume Ametller, Associated Professor, University of Girona

Room: B6-34b

9:00-9:30: Preparing ESP and Academic English Materials for University Students: An Ongoing Challenge

Presenter: Natalia Szymaszek, Lecturer, Jagiellonian University, Poland

Room: B5-25

9:30-10:00: How Satisfied Are the Students of Three Professional Higher Education Institutions in Estonia with the LSP Teaching System? (A Student Feedback Study)

Presenters: Aida Hatšaturjan, Lecturer, Estonian Academy of Security Sciences; Triin Kibar, Lecturer, Estonian Academy of Security Sciences; Elen Laanemaa, Head of the Language Centre, Estonian Academy of Security Sciences; Siret Piirsalu, Senior Lecturer, Tallinn Health Care College; Lea Püss, Lecturer, TTK University of Applied Sciences & Õie Tähtla, Lecturer, Tallinn Health Care College

Room: B5-25

The three largest Estonian state professional higher education institutions – Estonian Academy of Security Sciences, Tallinn University of Applied Sciences, Tallinn Health Care College) – have a long tradition of teaching the Estonian, English and Russian languages for specific purposes (LSP). Our long-term experience in teaching LSP and effective cooperation between the institutions gave us the idea to compare the structures of our language teaching systems through the analysis of student feedback. Students were asked to provide feedback on the language teaching system of their higher education institution. Each institution was interested in its students’ assessment and feedback on their institutions’ language teaching system. The research provides the opportunity to learn and adopt the best practices, methods and approaches implemented by the other higher education institutions. Student feedback was also used to highlight and analyze the main problems that students faced when learning a language for specific purposes. A comparison of the results showed the similarity in the problems faced by the language teaching systems of the three higher education institutions.

Presenter: Steffen Greuling, Dean, Esslingen University of Applied Sciences, Germany

Room: B6-33

At Esslingen UAS we organised our first blended intensive programme (BIP) on “Materials Technology and Processes” which consisted of a blended phase for the preparation prior the arrival in Esslingen, an on-site phase with lectures and lab activities as well as a social programme and a post-processing phase, in which the lab goups, consisting of students coming from different universities, had to prepare their final presentation. The preparation, the execution, the challenges as well as the conclusions will be presented in order to motivate the participants of the round-table discussion to contribute their thoughts and to think about the possibility to offer a BIP at their home university. More details can be found at www.hs-esslingen.de/ms-bip.

Presenters: Hanna Kinnari-Korpela, Head of Degree Programme, Tampere University of Applied Sciences & Kirsi-Maria Rinneheimo, Senior Lecturer, Tampere University of Applied Sciences

Room: B5-18

10:00-10:30: Learning Both Ways – Finnish Early Childhood Education from International Viewpoint

Presenter: Piia Roos, Senior Lecturer, Tampere University of Applied Sciences

Room: D1-04

10:30-11:00: A VERSATILE Online Teaching Guide and Adaptive Toolbox for Educators

Presenter: Teija Lehto, Senior Advisor, Tampere University of Applied Sciences

Room: D1-04

Presenters: Nina Eskola-Salin, Senior Lecturer, Tampere University of Applied Sciences; Marita Sakkara, Project Worker, Tampere University of Applied Sciences & Minna Seppälä, Senior Lecturer, Tampere University of Applied Sciences

Room: B5-25

Presenter: Jussi Hannunen, Designer, Tampere University of Applied Sciences

Room: B6-25

The presentation concerns a statement or belief related to sustainable development. The thought process behind the statement is explained. In the process the presentation will touch upon the concepts of Joy, Fear and Self-doubt and connect it all to design thinking. Plenty of time will be reserved for dialogue.

Presenter: Ilse Verhaeghe, Lecturer, Vives University of Applied Sciences, Belgium

Room: B6-29

This workshop explains how a restaurant or hotel manager can calculate and manage the food cost of a menu in Excel. The workshop is hands-on. If the workshop does not take place in a computer lab, participants should bring their own laptop on which Excel is installed.

Presenter: Carole Westerkamp, Senior Lecturer, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands

Room: D1-04

Are you sure that the message you want to communicate in class is what you are actually communicating? Does your message come across as you wish? Because we utter words based on our own “inner make-up” we assume that others will understand those words in the exact same way, but that isn’t always the case. In this presentation you will see examples and practice with different ways of communicating.

Presenter: Mikko Turunen, Senior Lecturer, Tampere University of Applied Sciences

Room: B6-31b

Educational inclusion is one of the keys to equality and participation of disabled people. The presentation is about the process of developing inclusive hybrid teaching practices in the VACCINE-project (Erasmus+ 2021-23). Vocational education and training practices faced all the same COVID-era challenges as all branches of human culture. Remote work, teaching and learning practices had to be developed fast to prevent the virus spreading. Hybrid pedagogy means teaching arrangements where one part of the training takes place in learning facilities and at the same time another part is done online. These arrangements were particularly challenging in the vocational education and training as the skills and talents have to be practiced in real life by hand. The main aim of the VACCINE-project has been to find solutions and tools for inclusion of students with special educational needs and tools for their teachers to use modern technology and pedagogical principles for implementing them.

Presenters: Monika Mechlińska-Pauli, Senior Lecturer, University of Gdańsk, Poland & Irena Moszczyńska-Janicka, Senior Lecturer, University of Gdańsk, Poland

Room: B5-25

11:00-11:30: How to MOU?

Presenter: Beate Maleska, Head of International Office, Esslingen University of Applied Sciences, Germany

Room: B6-25

Presentation about process flow of International MOUs and Exchange Agreements (non-EU).

11:30-12:00: Noticing Progress with Advanced EFL Students

Presenter: Dorota Lubińska-Pyla, Lecturer, Jagiellonian University, Poland

Room: B6-25

Presenter: Hedda Sander, Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences, Germany

Room: B5-18

Gustke, R., Körner, F., Kühnholz, P., Sander, H., (2023). Particularly at universities of applied sciences, the educational careers of first-year students vary greatly. These differences need to be addressed especially in the first semesters, in order to ensure sustained success in their later course of studies. Lectures accompanied by tutorials, self-assessment questionnaires and final exams are a common means of imparting knowledge. However, the number of participants often decreases towards the end of the semester, especially in the first year, because students still need to acquire self-determined, continuous learning at university level. In addition to the increase in technical and theoretical knowledge, competencies such as problem-solving competence, critical thinking, ability for self-directed learning and self-motivation are desirable. Also, knowledge management, media competence, communication and cooperation skills, intercultural and social competence, design and action competence will be acquired (competence model according to Lehmann and Nieke, 2000). The project “Chemification” will create a playful introduction to the basics of general, organic and inorganic chemistry in the context of sustainability and environmental engineering. These study programs require skills for evaluation of situations, development of solution approaches, simulation, etc. The emerging online escaperoom offers a team-based approach to facilitate the entrance to the learning environment at university level and reinforces problem-oriented, active discovery through own (virtual) experiences in solving subject- and application-related problems. In doing so, the problem-solving processes promote independent knowledge and self-directed learning in stages from easy to difficult. This stepwise process is accompanied during the attendance phases within tutorials and lectures. Students go through it in groups, which gives them a good opportunity to form first social contacts or even fixed learning groups. However, not all students are attracted by gamification options. Those students are offered the alternative of time- and space-independent interactive online questionnaires for in-depth study of the subject-specific teaching content, which also try to address practice-related issues arising from this content already at the basic level. The presentation will provide a first insight into student learning supported by gamification experiences for a digital native generation and game design for introductory chemistry courses.

Presenter: Bernd Vögel, Professor, Ulm University of Applied Sciences, Germany

Room: B4-20

Presenter: Barbara Wedler, Lecturer, University of Applied Sciences Mittweida, Germany

Room: D1-04

Presenters: Poko Janssen, Lecturer, the Hague University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands & Natalie de Leede, Lecturer, the Hague University of Applied Sciences, the Netherlands

Room: B6-33

In this discussion we would like to exchange ideas, good/bad practices and theories about the cooperation between primary schools and universities of applied sciences in guiding students in becoming teachers. The question is if good cooperation will bring an added value to the education of teachers-to-be? What does good cooperation look like?

Presenter: Jutta Sendzik, Harz University of Applied Sciences, Germany

Room: B5-25

The pandemic and its effects have influenced student mobility: It has always been challenging to convince engineering students of the benefits of a semester abroad, but now it feels even more complicated. Therefore, shorter mobility can foster social, intercultural, and language competencies. Harz UAS Germany and Tallinn TK Estonia started a blended mobility program in which engineering students develop and apply their 21st-century transferable skills. Consisting of two virtual and two face-to-face sequences, the program offers the possibility to interact virtually and to travel. During the first round, not only did students collaborate intensively – language teachers also worked together to create tasks using cooperative methods, exchange different approaches, and set the basis for further teamwork. Some of the collaborative tasks will be reviewed during the presentation.

Presenters: Päivi Puutio, Development Manager, Tampere University of Applied Sciences; Maria Virtanen, Project Manager, The Council of Tampere Region & Johanna Kirjavainen, Analyst, Business Tampere

Room: B6-25

The objective of this session is to open the value of collaborative forecasting at university and regional level. Presentation will start with some ideas of future thinking, future data management, scenario work and future capability of organizations. As a concrete case will be TJANSSI-project, which goal is to move towards an innovative knowledge management and foresight collaboration/alliance model at Pirkanmaa (Tampere region) by 2025, in which future information is produced, processed and shared as an ecosystem together with both public sector service providers, universities and companies. Result is bringing added value to all parties, as shared data and scenarios will help universities (and other training providers) to act as a pioneer in both training and RDI activities and thus support more change-ready, innovative and open-ended business activities at the area. The presentation will be held together with all TJANSSI partners, The Council of Tampere Region and Business Tampere.

Presenter: Siegfried Zuern, Professor, Esslingen University of Applied Sciences, Germany

Room: B6-29

Presenter: Debora Stickler, FH Joanneum University of Applied Sciences, Austria

Room: B5-18

AI technologies and application are becoming wildly popular in almost every business branch and using those tools will become necessity over the next couple of years. A big issue regarding Neural Networks and similar is the security of the used data and the quality of the predictions (with i.e., regards to bias). In this workshop we are going to discuss common pitfalls when it comes to data security, the current EU- recommendations for AI design and the ethical debate around AI. Furthermore, we want to discuss what can lead to bias in the predictions and when you can trust your AI.

Presenters: Arja Halkoaho, Principle Lecturer, Tampere University of Applied Sciences; Nina Smolander, Senior Lecturer, Tampere University of Applied Sciences; Mari Laaksonen, Senior Lecturer, Tampere University of Applied Sciences & Essi Ylistalo, Senior Lecturer, Tampere University of Applied Sciences

Room: B4-20

Presenter: Nobert Rasch, Lecturer, University of Applied Sciences Mittweida, Germany

Room: D1-04

Together with other colleagues, students and teachers, parents and children of the primary school, we set off. On the way to the reform of this school. In this way we want to take you with us, share our ideas with you, develop them further. And because it’s about our children, we also want to shape this in a playful context.

Presenter: Koen Malfait, Lecturer, Vives University of Applied Sciences, Belgium

Room: B6-34b

Presenter: Hubertus Weyer, Lecturer, TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Germany

Room: B5-25

This presentation shares experiences about an innovative course concept integrating traditional Business English and a deep understanding of cause and effect of oral and written communication in corporate contexts based on methods as for instance Agile Management, Scrum or Lean Management. This course concept is different because participants are required to actively practice their communication skills in corporate scenarios chosen by participants themselves. A key element in the theoretical backbone of the course concept is for participants to comprehend the different communication styles at different levels of an organization (leadership, middle management, shop-floor employees). An integrated self-study concept safeguards the linguistic training of course participants. Excerpts from recorded videos, student assignments, evaluations and possibly course work for final grading from three courses will showcase the effectiveness of this approach. Overall, Professional Communication, as implemented in this concept, utilizes problem-based learning techniques to evolve the established idea of Business English into language learning that will remain relevant in the future.

Presenters: Study and Stay Team as part of Talent Boost, Tampere University of Applied Sciences

Room: B6-25

The aim is to triple the number of new foreign degree students in Finland to 15,000 by 2030. At the same time, the aim is to increase the employment and stay of foreign students in Finland to 75 percent. (Finnish Government 2021) In order to reach the goal, special attention must be paid to the integration and employment of international students both in higher education institutions and in other organizations. Research shows that the challenges of international students’ integration and employment are often related to language skills, insecurity due to cultural differences and lack of social networks (Pitkänen, Välimäki, Niemi 2022). Solving these challenges requires cooperation between different actors, such as universities, companies, and decision-makers. Although there are challenges associated with integration, many international students still feel that they integrate well in Finland. One factor promoting integration is that in recent years Finnish employers have begun to pay more attention to the recruitment of international students (Business Finland 2023). This opens more opportunities for international students to stay and work in Finland after their studies. In the workshop, we will examine the current situation of international student integration and employment in Tampere universities, e.g. in the light of student surveys and statistical data, and we present the Tampere Study & Stay collaboration model built to support students. Together with the participants, we identify the challenges of integration and employment and develop better ways to support the integration and employment of international students. The workshop consists of three stages:

1. Identifying and understanding the problem: Let’s review background information on the integration and employment of international students.
2. Developing solutions: Participants are divided into small groups, where they work on proposing solutions and sharing good practices.
3. Sharing ideas and follow-up: Groups present their solutions to other participants. Together we will discuss how solutions can be promoted in practice and who could take responsibility for their implementation.

The workshop ends with a joint deconstruction discussion, where we reflect on what kind of learnings and ideas emerged in the workshop. The aim of the workshop is to increase understanding of the challenges of international students in each higher education institutes and to find ways to overcome them. In the workshop, we ask together: How to take cultural diversity into account in our institutions?

Presenter: Robert Watty, Professor, Ulm University of Applied Sciences, Germany

Room: B5-18

Our university is founding member of a network of 8 international universities cooperating in product development. The idea is to bring together students from different countries in groups for joint tasks in product development. The tasks have to be interdisciplinary and innovative, many groups visit each other and a final symposium with presentation of the results is the highlight of the cooperation. The presentation (also possible for 55 mins) explains the approach and is open for questions and new members.

Presenters: Juha Tuominen, Senior Lecturer, Tampere University of Applied Sciences; Vesa Vuorinen, Senior Lecturer, Tampere University of Applied Sciences; Piotr Wołejsza, CEO, Science4People, Poland; Jolanta Koszelew, Science4People, Poland; Tatiana Tchemisova Cordeiro, Associate Professor, Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal; Ana Dias Daniel, Professor, Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal; Bogusz Wiśnicki, Associate Professor, Maritime University of Szczecin, Poland; Roma Strulak-Wójcikiewicz, Maritime University of Szczecin, Poland; Veneta Hristova, Associate Professor, University of Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria; Ivan Rumenov Byanov, Associate Professor, University of Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria; Wojtek Roskiewicz, University of Leipzig, Germany; Christian Scheffler, University of Leipzig, Germany & Team entrepreneurs from ProAcademy, Tampere University of Applied Sciences

Room: B5-25

Discussion of how to use a bot as an education tool – Consultancy of integration for the start of usage of a bot tool in entrepreneurship education – User guidance and sharing experiences of test implementations.