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From High School to University

Partnering high schools and universities

A model for creating personalized learning paths from high school to university using virtual reality.

Finland 100

Overview

HundrED has selected this innovation to

Finland 100

2015

Established

-

Children

1

Countries
Updated
March 2017
A gifted high school student gets the opportunity to proceed faster in their studies according to their own interests and talent.

About the innovation

What is it all about?

Technological development makes it possible to study in locations where it has not traditionally been possible. In this model, university-level courses are introduced into the high school curriculum so that high school students can study content remotely.

In addition to distance learning and personalized learning paths, technological advances enable learning new types of content. Virtual reality (VR) enables studies that would be traditionally difficult to understand, expensive, rare or even hazerdous. Examples of these include modern physics phenomena, medical physics, and radiotherapy. For example, human anatomy can be approached inexpensively and in detail through virtual reality.

Personalized study paths have been developed in co-operation with the University of Eastern Finland and Kuopion Klassillinen lukio high school so that students can take university courses while still in high school.

There are plenty of benefits for students in creating personalized learning paths: making career choices becomes faster, choosing the right education path becomes easier and university courses completed in high school level can be transferred as course credits at a later stage.

Collaboration has been intensified especially through virtual environments. Virtual environments are well suited for increasing co-operation between high schools and universities, as it enables a more concrete experience of studying in a university environment. For example, students have filmed laboratories of the Department of Applied Physics, enabling virtual access.

The longer-term goal of co-operation is to develop models for recognition of skills and to include more opportunities for taking university courses as a part of high school studies. For example, there is an objective to develop electronic exams that could even replace university entrance examinations in the future.

The project uses the flipped learning competence of the University of Eastern Finland combined with new 360 ° virtual learning environments.

Impact & scalability

Impact & Scalability

Innovativeness

A gifted high school student gets the opportunity to proceed faster in their studies according to their own interests and talent.

Impact

The model offers more meaningful and deeper learning for students throughout high school.

Scalability

Possible to execute in all universities and high schools as a collaborative project.

Implementation steps

Contact your local Open University
Suggest co-operation to your local Open University for providing university courses to high school students.

It is a good idea to attend a high school study counselor, the University Student Affairs Office and the management of the institutions in the meeting.

Discuss the following:

  • Which basic studies of the various faculties would be in a suitable format for distance learning so that a high school student could complete them with minimal physical attendance at the university.


  • Which courses could replace the applied and advanced courses in the high school curriculum so that the student would receive credits for completing them at university.


Collaboration with OpenUniversities is fruitful because it has a clear gateway to universities, as faculties do not directly provide teaching for non-university students. The Open University is the best option, since all supply, marketing and co-ordination of education and administration are in one place, instead of different faculties.

Request a presentation
Request a presentation for high school students from the University Student Affairs Office.

When the University Student Affairs Office has given a proposal for suitable courses for high school students, high school student counsellors periodize and tailor the courses to fit the needs of their own school. Following this, the Student Affairs Office will present the courses to the high school students.

Virtual reality as a part of teaching
Virtual reality can be utilized in some of the study modules. Ask the university about suitable study modules.

For example, the Kuopio Klassikka High School and the Department of Applied Physics of UEA took 360 degree images and film of physics laboratories, in collaboration for teaching purposes in fall 2016.

High school students learned the use of the cameras and went on to film and take photos of the labs. The aim was to make laboratories familiar with a 360 degree environment, which would speed up laboratory work, understanding and safety.

The University was responsible for producing and linking educational content to Moodle courses, from which high school students were able to take courses remotely. For this purpose, the resources required are 360 ​​cameras and a Viwer platfrorm.

If you are enthusiastic about combining virtual reality and educational content, proceed as follows:

1. Acquire necessary equipment and choose your platform: For example, Samsung 360 or Ricoh Theta S camera. You can initially try out platforms such as ThingLink, Viwer or Vizor.

2. Agree on a filming schedule and implementation:


  • Make a script for filming, the videos and 360 environments and for combining them:


  • Consider what is genuinely beneficial both from the university’s and high school’s point of view


  • What you do in practice: (image embedding on a background, etc.)

For practical implementation, contact jukka.sormunen@kuopio.fi

3. Take your VR units into use: Link 360 environments to the basic courses and vice versa in Moodle.

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