A perfect ecosystem for learning? Modern thoughts for organizing higher education

Abstract

The background of the article lies in South Eastern Finland, in Lappeenranta, where an active University campus has attracted a group of ICT startups as well as SME's in the field to collaboration. The novel education approach also has another remarkable role as a developer and source of innovation. An experimental development ecosystem (EDE), where learning of knowledge, skills and character are combined, is presented in the article. Also future paths of the EDE are discussed. Companies in the ICT field worldwide are in constant need of competent experts who are ready to adopt the new tools and, at the same time, have an entrepreneurial mindset. We argue that inspiring students to learn through appropriate learning methods and providing them with a modern learning environment comes first. ICT tools, applications and systems to support learning objectives come second. The model presented in the article has been studied for some years as action research. The learning methods that have been found beneficial in IT and marketing bachelor education have been spread to other bachelor and master study programs as well. Results from the data show that students who study as team entrepreneurs have learned content knowledge, meta-skills and reflection skills via the learner-centric methods used in EDE. They have also been inspired to employ new ICT tools and applications to support their learning and project work.