People

Niclas Sandström is a PhD researcher and a pedagogical campus developer at the Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland. He is a member of Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science, HELSUS.

His R&D&I interests cover learning landscapes broadly, including school and educational design and campus learning landscapes as well as the sustainability of future-ready working and learning environments. Niclas works in and is the co-founder of Caledonia - Campus Learning and Development Initiatives Hub. Caledonia is a strategic partner in campus R&D&I, focusing on different levels of transdisciplinary development, co-creation and co-design of learning landscapes - sustainably.

One of the key themes in his work is the relationship and dynamics between learning experiences and outcomes and the physical learning environment. Niclas currently works on community involvement and co-design principles for sustainable school, workplace and urban development. His work is transdisciplinary by nature. One focus is on developing learning hubs towards smart campuses where the campus is seen as a network of learning landscapes. This research initiative is part of the DigiCampus research programme coordinated by the University of Eastern Finland. Niclas also works on trans-European projects where the assessment of learning Circular Economy in e.g. mixed and virtual realities is being developed and assessed, together with more sustainable solutions for the future experts graduating from 5 European universities. His motto: to be interesting, you need to be interested.

Anne Nevgi (Ph.D., Associate Professor) is the Principal Investigator of research focusing on university teaching and learning, digital and physical learning environments. She has led and worked in multiple research projects. She has developed and taught over the years a 60-ECTS programme of university pedagogy. She has noticed that it's not enough to change university teaching - it is necessary to change the digital and physical learning environments, as well. Her latest research interest concerns how to improve and develop learning landscapes of campuses. She is a co-founder of Caledonia – Campus Learning and Development Initiatives Hub. Currently she is leading Retrofitting Campus Learning Landscape Project (subproject of national spearhead project DigiCampus) and responsible senior researcher in e-CirP Embedding circular economy into product design and optimization - European consortium to develop new Master education that aims to develop virtual and mixed realities for teaching circular economy in five European universities. Her motto: to change something, you need to change yourself first.

Mikael is a PhD researcher at the Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland. He works in pedagogical ICT support. As an external fellow at Caledonia Hub, Mikael brings in expert knowledge and hands-on know-how regarding different technologies and applications used in teaching and learning.

Heidi Hyytinen, PhD, currently works as University Lecturer in University Pedagogy at the Centre for University Teaching and Learning, University of Helsinki, Finland. Her primary fields of research are students’ critical thinking and performance assessment in the context of higher education. Her interest also covers teaching critical thinking, especially how critical thinking and other academic competencies can beintegrated in curriculum, learning goals, teaching practices and assessment. These fields forms a unique combination: there is not this kind of research in the Finnish higher education context, even though they are the vital aspects of the learning and teaching in university. Heidi has gained experience in international research projects and networks. Her current main research projects are 'KAPPAS!' (CLA+ international) and 'International Collaborative for Performance Assessment of Learning in Higher Education – Research and Development' (iPAL). Heidi has diverse teaching experience at the various levels of university education and supervision experience of MA and PhD theses. As a formal pedagogical training, she has completed the pedagogical qualifications required of teachers specified in the University Pedagogy. Her motto  “what got you here, won’t get you there”.