SAMK international staff week

This track explores current themes in student guidance and counselling across higher education institutions, focusing on emerging student groups such as pathway students, working students, and the increasing number of international students. Discussions will include student well-being and other factors having impact to study ability in contemporary contexts.

Lecture room: C210

The event series offers a diverse perspective on leveraging artificial intelligence and digitalization in higher education and encourages participants to engage in active dialogue about the responsible use of technology.

Tuesday 8 April at 14.00 – 16.00: Finnish universities working together towards open and flexible learning – Digivisio2030 project

The Digivisio2030 project is an ambitious collaboration of Finnish universities, aimed at revolutionizing the future of learning. During the initial stages, the emphasis has been on establishing shared methodologies through a comprehensive change program. The crowning achievement of this project will be unveiled in April 2025 – a national portal, opin.fi, for open university studies, designed to serve all learners across the country. Extensive pedagogical training has been developed for universities, ensuring that the open courses offered on the portal opin.fi are of high quality.

Wednesday 9 April at 11.05 – 13.00: The recommendations of the Rectors’ Conference of Finnish Universities of Applied Sciences (Arene) on the use of artificial intelligence for universities of applied sciences: The use of AI in learning tasks.

The recent rapid development of artificial intelligence has placed universities of applied sciences in a situation where they must consider the role of artificial intelligence extensively, as part of the learning process and as a working life skill. Arene recommends that universities of applied sciences support, guide and advise students in the use of artificial intelligence.

In this session, we will explore the Finnish traffic light model and engage in a discussion with participants on potential national and university-specific AI guidelines.

Wednesday 9 April at 14.00 – 16.00: Artificial intelligence and teaching

In this session, participants will share practical examples and methodologies from their universities regarding the use of artificial intelligence, with a particular focus on education, as well as other aspects of university work. In this workshop, we will exchange ideas on how the use of AI can be guided, supported, and increased in higher education institutions.

Lecture room: A314

The purpose of this track is to introduce the participant to the activities of SAMK’s Faculty of Health and Welfare by presenting degree programmes, simulation activities and projects.

Sessions:

TUESDAY

At 14.00 – 15.00, choose one from:

• Online campus for social services education, lecture room A141
• Nursing degree programme and Finnish language studies, lecture room A419
• Physiotherapy degree programme, lecture room A356

Everyone at 15.00 – 16.00:

• Presenting Soteekki Service Center

WEDNESDAY

• at 11.05 – 13.00 Simulations and Simulation Centre at Faculty of Health and Welfare
• at 14.00 – 15.00 Research projects, lecture room A141
• at 15.00 – 16.00 MUNDO practice model presentation, lecture room A141

In this track we present how three universities are cooperating to develop integration services for international students. The three universities are all located outside the capital region and face similar challenges in integrating international students into the local communities. There are less integration services offered by the local authorities and fewer active international communities.

With limited local opportunities, our universities decided to form a strategic partnership. We work together to promote the wellbeing of international students, with the aim of giving them the support they need regarding integration and access to Finnish working life.

Sessions:

• Integration services
• International students and cooperation with companies
• tbc

Lecture room: LiveStudio

This track focuses on internationalisation of higher education institutions. We will present SAMK as an exchange destination and possibilities for cooperation in multiple study fields and mobility options. We will collect data from all participants in this track and will share the results of the survey during our sessions as a basis for discussion.

Lecture room: A107

Library track offers discussion on current themes in librarianship. Discussions will include integration of libraries in education (like electronic materials and library as a learning space) and National higher education library networks across Europe. We encourage participants to engage in active dialogue from their own library’s perspective.

Sessions:

• University libraries in Finland (Tue 14.00 – 16.00)

In this session we will talk about the role of the library in universities, as well as differences between library systems and library networks in different countries, hopefully also the role of the library in open science and education. In order to make this session as useful as it can be, we ask each participant to present their own library, including the library systems in their own country. After the session you will have the opportunity to visit the Pori Public Library.

• Electronic materials in education (Wed 11.05 – 13.00)

Our librarians will guide you to talk about the different ways to use e-materials in education, how to set up login off campus, etc. One particular example is our Finna discovery service https://samk.finna.fi/?lng=en-gblaunch, of which we are very proud.

• Library as a learning space (Wed 14.00 – 16.00)

This session gives you the opportunity to meet our IL specialists and also teachers who will talk about different ways to use library spaces and rooms in teaching. For us, library space also means virtual space, so librarians from other universities will also be online in this session.

Lecture room: B111 in the SAMK library

This track explores how the entire university community shares the responsibility in enhancing students’ learning, well-being and engagement. Discussions will highlight active teaching methods, breaks, university sports and students ‘well-being services, with a focus on co-creating practical solutions that can be implemented across universities to foster student success and holistic well-being.

Lecture room: A510