At Aalborg University Research Articles

Digital Problem Based Learning for Facilitating the Acquisition of Collaborative Competencies

Is Networked Learning (NL) and Problem-Based Learning (PBL) the future of education to foster collaboration? Networked learning has been proposed to be combined with PBL. Both are pedagogies and philosophies influenced by traditions of open learning, radical pedagogies and humanistic educational ideas. Problem-based learning is a constructivist, student-centered, and problem-based approach used at the medical education at Aalborg University (AAU). During COVID, AAU fast-tracked the implementation of Digital PBL (DPBL) methods. Digital PBL opens new possibilities for collaborations across platforms and holds a potential to improve learning. This potential has yet to be released through systematic efforts to understand the possibilities in the context of medical education.The curriculum at the medical education at AAU is centered around the seven roles of physicians originally described in the Canadian framework, CanMEDS. Healthcare systems becomes increasingly complex, interconnected, and rely on interdisciplinary teamwork. The Collaborator role thus becomes more important than ever before. Physicians are expected to excel in clinical expertise and collaborate effectively with other healthcare professionals, patients, and families.The specific focus on collaboration is a good example of alignment between PBL-, NL pedagogy and the CanMEDS framework, and could be important to further exploration using DPBL.This study will investigate the possibilities of DPBL within the medical education at AAU by exploring and testing digitally supported pedagogical design options for facilitating the acquisition of collaborative competencies.This explorative sequential mixed-method study will explore user-needs and perspectives using DPBL in the medical education. This contextualized knowledge will inform the development of a new teaching intervention aimed at enhancing the Collaborator role. It will be evaluated using quantitative measures of student engagement, time requirements, satisfaction and self-report learning outcomes. The data will be merged with focus group interviews to gain an in-depth understanding of the quantitative results.The theoretical background will be learning design, including constructivism. This approach will be employed using the ACAD-model. The DPBL will include a digital element, the podcast media, and a pedagogical practice encouraging the medical students to engage actively in the learning process. This is facilitated by podcast production in groups.At NLC24 the findings of the user-needs and perspectives will be presented and interpreted as part of the design and frame of the podcast intervention. The intervention will take place in autumn 2024 and this can answer if NL and PBL is part of the future education to foster collaboration.

Circular Economics is the Next Economics

The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the global everyday lives of people, communities, businesses and government activities are what motivated me to provide and enact different, understandings the situations in daily life. These discussions and debates are directly at the core of what western industrialized capitalism had become. However today the research and in-depth analysis that I have done for over the last two decades and is the next economics. Due to my work over the last three decades of research, experiences and investigations into philosophical, historical and linguistics roots to make economics into a science. Starting in early 1994, I was a Fulbright fellow at AAlborg University (AAU), Denmark when I met other professors such as Professor Michael Fast, Professor Xing LI and others with whom I have kept in touch with as wrote papers and books together. When I returned to Northern California, I was recruited as the first manager of technology at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). Also in 1990s, I was a contributing author and editor for The Nobel Peace Prize for UN IPCC (December 2007). Due to all of this work, research and experiences, I earned 2nd PhD (as well as 6 peer reviewed published papers) in science. All of this, as well as my volunteer work with the United Nations then, led me to make economics into a science. What I learned at LLNL is science is not just quantitative, but also qualitative as my first book on Qualitative Economics (QE) documents. As a professor at AAU, I kept in touch as asked lecturer during the 1990s and then in 1999 a full-time visiting professor for three years. Then as a full professor at AAU, I predicted “brown and black outs” in Southern California (June 2000). California governor Davis asked me to be one of his five energy advisors. I started QE research in energy problems and solutions. This led to our investigations of quantitative numbers, data that used linear economics of supply and demand. All of was questionable which is why QE was enacted on companies that submitted false data, charts, statistics and numbers. The results for the governor’s legal team by using qualitative and quantitative methods were transformational then and set a methodological approach for other investigations then and now. However, the governor was recalled in late 2003 that led to my forming Clark Communications-Strategic partners for consulting, publishing, updating my pass media with international speeches and more. Over two decades, I have been doing research on Qualitative and Quantitative Economics (Q2E), since QE is the next economics and my book on circular economics TOC 2020. People, organizations, companies and governments to provide financing for new technologies, systems and create products those are economical and hence viable for the public to acquire for their own use. This is circular economics in action. Therefore, the dependence on linear supply-demand that never worked can be put aside. As this paper will show, CE is applied around the world starting in the EU Nations (EU) January 2015 and now in China (July 2018). Other countries are also enacting CE for small businesses and now a few large corporations and communities who have plans for circular economics as sustainability and other cases below.

Parametric Study of a Taut Compliant Mooring System for a FOWT Compared to a Catenary Mooring

The catenary mooring system is a well recognized station keeping method. However, there could be economical and environmental benefits of reducing the footprint. In the last decades, more focus has been given to synthetic mooring lines and different mooring layouts to optimize the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for offshore renevable energy converters such as wave energy converters. Therefore, this work presents a parametric study of two important parameters, namely the mooring line angle and line pretension, for a taut mooring configuration focusing on the dynamic response when applied to the TetraSpar floating foundation compared to a catenary mooring system. The work is based on experimental results conducted in the wave basin at Aalborg University (AAU) and compared to analytical stiffness calculations. In addition, a numerical model was tuned based on the main dynamics to achieve the tension response. The results showed satisfying dynamic behavior where the angle and pretension mainly influenced the surge and yaw natural periods. The motion response showed similar behavior between the chosen parameters, and larger pitch amplitudes were found compared to the catenary system.

Promoting agency and identity building in dialogic learning communities online

For several decades educational institutions and their educational designers have waited for a significant innovation and pedagogical breakthrough in digitally based teaching and learning (Bates, 2015; Bruce, 2016; Conole, 2013; Tait, 2013; Sorensen & Brooks, 2017). New innovative approaches and pedagogies were expected in design of teaching and learning; approaches which, methodologically, would acknowledge basic human qualities and inter-human co-existential virtues and functionalities. Such approaches, as e.g. dialogue, collaboration, communication, creativity, improvisation, may be viewed to be relevant to any topic addressed, as pertinent values for developing and empowering robust identities. However, as it stands, new and innovative pedagogical paradigms for teaching and learning seem to have stagnated. The authors of this paper make a plea for the use of fundamental human concepts, features and inter-human functionalities - such as e.g. a focus on concepts of relational agency, dialogue and dialogic, identity, which may produce very fruitful teaching and learning processes through restoring, implementing and operationalizing fundamental motivating principles of development processes of the human nature. This paper reports on an explorative study of the learning dialogue in an online module, one module of an online master’s part-time program in Ict and Learning. The philosophy behind the design and organization of the program is inspired from the Project Oriented Project Pedagogy (POPP) approach, introduced at Aalborg University (AAU) at its very birth in 1974. The paper focuses on the use, role, potential and implications for teaching and learning when using a digital dialogic learning pedagogy built on the basic principles of POPP and unfolding in virtual learning environments. Through the analytical lenses of the theoretical concepts such as “identity” and “agency”, the authors set out to explore the extent to which online dialogues and potentially identified signs of developed identity, and agency in learners, may promote inclusion and contribute as very important meta learning values for the cultivation of awareness in citizens in our future global society.The analytical optic is formed from a perspective of some key concepts of theorists, such as the notion of “relational agency” by Edwards (2006 & 2007), the notion of “dialogic” by Wegerif (2007) and the idea of “co-creation” (Sanders, 2008). The methodological approach is inspired by the principles of Netnography[1] and is a continuation of the authors’ serious of earlier studies on inclusive online learning dialogues and their implications for learning in digital environments (e.g. Sorensen & Brooks, 2017).The findings of this study suggest that for networked learning of including quality, co-creation, identity and relational agency are important elements for learners to obtain and be exposed to. All of these concepts appear very close to the essential aspects of human nature. [1] Netnography uses these conversations as data. It is an interpretive research method that adapts the traditional, in-person participant observation techniques of anthropology to the study of interactions and experiences manifesting through digital communications (Kozinets, R. V, 2010)

Students’ perceptions of creativity in learning Information Technology (IT) in project groups

This paper explores students’ perceptions of creativity in learning Information Technology (IT) in project groups and the implications of better educating creative IT students for the future. Theoretically, the extension of social psychology research into creativity lays the basis of bringing creativity, learning and IT education into one framework. Empirically, qualitative interviews were carried out with 48 students from three disciplines, including Computer Science (n=16), Electronic Systems (n=15) and Medialogy (n=17) at Aalborg University (AAU) in Denmark, which has a tradition of using problem-based learning (PBL) in student project groups. According to the findings, the students’ perceptions of creativity reflect their domain-related conceptualization and tacit learning experience, with different levels of confidence of being creative persons. As IT plays multiple roles in developing students’ creativity, it can be regarded as a ‘learning partner’. This implies that in the future creativity should be taught more explicitly, helping students to become creative IT talents as a part of their professional identity. It also requires teaching efforts to build a learning environment that stimulates creativity more effectively through more interactions between learners, learning tasks and learning tools.

Motivating Students to Develop Satellites in Problem and Project-Based Learning (PBL) Environment

During the last decade, a total of three student satellites have been developed by engineering students in a Problem and Project-Based Learning (PBL) environment at Aalborg University (AAU), Denmark. As solving such a complex project, we emphasize that a high level of motivation is needed for the students. Thus some efforts have been done on project management style with this aim. However, it is necessary continuous to discuss this issue from the students’ perspective for a better PBL environment. This leads to the research question of how the students perceive their motivation in developing satellite projects in a PBL environment. Empirically, a total of 12 student participants were interviewed. The results show that students’ motivation is highly stimulated by the project management with a series of factors, such as the task characteristics, support of peers, help of supervisors, and openness, etc. However, the time schedule is a barrier to motivation. Thus, the supervisors are suggested to be more aware of the complex relationships between student, teacher, tasks and the students’ response.

A Survey on Chordal Rings, N2R and Other Related Topologies

Abstract In this short paper we summarize the main results of 10 years of research on network topologies carried out jointly at Aalborg University (AAU), Aalborg, Denmark, and University of Life Science (UTP), Bydgoszcz, Poland. The starting points are the Chordal Rings, which were mainly studied in UTP, and the N2R which were studied at AAU. From here the universities have collaborated intensely, and studied a number of alternatives and variations of the original topologies, based on methodologies developed both independently and jointly over time. This paper gives an overview of the work done, and provides appropriate references to the work for further details. The paper is presented as a tribute to Professor and Dean Antoni Zabłudowski who passed away during 2012.

Sustainable development

PurposeThis article aims to discuss the contradiction between signing an agreement to work for sustainable universities and the lack of practical commitment in one case, namely at Aalborg University (AAU). Focus is placed both on the University's core processes such as education, research and outreach; on the necessary inputs and outputs related to transport, food and operation, and maintenance of buildings, and on the university's products counting published results of research and educated students and researchers.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on a desk study of official university documents from the period 1990 to 2007, and a number of student reports that have focused on the sustainability or environmental merits of the University.FindingsAlthough adopting an environmental policy and signing the Copernicus Charter back in the early 1990s, AAU soon lost momentum. This was due to reasons defined as: the lack of commitment from top management, the missing acceptance from technical staff, and a narrow understanding of the university's environmental impacts. Obviously, a model of the environmental impacts should not only take into account the environmental impacts related to the impacts occurring in the present, e.g. related to the running and maintenance of buildings and laboratories, but also integrate considerations about the impacts in the processes (education, research and outreach). Thereby, the model shall provide the basis for more sustainable products, such as students considering aspects of sustainability in the solutions and approaches they apply in their future careers.Research limitations/implicationsThis article forms the basis for future research identifying how universities can contribute to sustainable development in a more coherent way by implementing new policies and plans. The article takes its starting point in a general model of a university's environmental impacts involving key processes at the university, the related inputs and outputs (emissions), and the transformation of intermediate products such as high school students and existing research results into products such as graduate students, PhDs, and new research results.Practical implicationsThe processes and the related inputs, outputs, intermediate products, and end‐products are analysed and discussed in order to illustrate the relevant environmental issues that need to be addressed by universities.Originality/valueThe paper identifies a number of key issues of sustainability that universities need to address and offers inspiration to staff and students on how to push these agendas at their home universities.

A danish perspective on problem based learning in space education

This describes the goals of the Student Satellite Program at Aalborg University (AAU), and the means for implementing it, namely a concept called problem based learning, which is the cornerstone in education at AAU. AAU has, within the last decade, chosen to focus strongly on education in space technology, not because the country lacks aerospace engineers, but because space projects require the students to think about systems rather than individual modules, while providing problems that are technically challenging for the students to solve. This combination makes the graduates very attractive for industry in general, and not only for the space industry