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This paper considers the direct involvement of students in degree programme curricula design, specifically four computer science teacher students designing new curricula for the Faculty of Information Technology of the University of Jyväskylä. They participated in a project to make recommendations for the 2017–2020 master’s and bachelor’s programme curricula. We examined how these recommendations were implemented in the new curricula and what hindered student voice. The project led to major changes: making basic studies in mathematics optional, adding three new courses, and defining new learning goal descriptions for two master’s programmes. Several factors hindered student voice: insufficient perceived expertise, doubts about project significance, negative attitudes towards student involvement, and lack of personal interest. Hence, despite the project leading to considerable changes, the students themselves expressed rather critical attitudes towards student involvement in curriculum design. Consequently, promoting student voice in higher education curricula design is a more tensioned phenomenon than has been discussed in earlier research. peerReviewed

We account for the first research results from a government initiatedexperiment that scales Making to a national discipline.The Ministry of Education, in Denmark, has introducedTechnology Comprehension as a new discipline for lowersecondary education. Technology Comprehension is first experimentedas an elective subject in 13 schools. The disciplinecombines elements from computing, design, and the societalaspect of technology and, thus, resonates with the existingFabLearn and Making initiatives in Scandinavia. We reportthe identified opportunities and challenges based on interviews,surveys, and a theme discussion with experiencedteachers from the 13 schools. The main takeaways are: First,the teachers did not perceive Technology Comprehension asa distinguished discipline, which calls for more research onhow Making is scaled into a national discipline. Second, TechnologyComprehension opens up for interdisciplinary andengaging learning activities, but teachers need scaffoldingand support to actualise these opportunities. Third, TechnologyComprehension challenges teachers’ existing competenciesin relation to the discipline and students’ prerequisitesand needs. Teachers need pedagogical means to take thesocietal aspect into account within the discipline. Finally,we argue for further research on supporting teachers whenscaling Technology Comprehension on a national level.

Our study contributes to the research on computer-mediated communication in higher education by experimenting a modern communication tool called Slack. In particular, we consider using Slack to support students’ peer interactions during Master’s thesis work. For this purpose, we designed a case study that was executed in a Master’s thesis seminar course. During the course, all out-of-class communication was carried out by using Slack, instead of e-mails or learning management systems. After the course, we used a questionnaire to investigate how the students perceived Slack for asking for assistance, their intention to use Slack, and Slack’s ease of use. Furthermore, the questionnaire asked feedback about challenges that the students found in slack. To examine the students’ peer support in Slack, we analysed the messages in the course’s public discussion channels. We investigated opportunities and challenges of Slack from instructional perspective by conducting an auto-ethnographic data collection. Our analysis revealed that the students perceived Slack as an easy-to-use communication tool with a low threshold of asking questions. The students also expressed high intentions to use Slack in the future. However, the students were worried of information overload in Slack, frustrated with decentralisation of communication tools in higher education, and cautious of using communication tools that are not officially supported by the university. The students’ interactions were assigned to three categories: practical, technical, and thesis-related. Analysis of these categories revealed that the students were able to explicate and solve issues in Slack, but the issues were only related to practical and technical problems, instead of actual Master’s thesis writing. The teacher perceived that Slack enhanced bi-directional communication with the students, but faced issues related to file management and user authentication. The results implicate that developing an alternative for Slack from educational premises could be more useful than a product that is not originally developed for pedagogical needs. Finally, we present recommendations that help educators to use Slack in their educational practices. peerReviewed