Teaching Portfolio

Teaching Philosophy

I believe that learning is driven by curiosity, by the desire to understand our environment. This curiosity drives us to use current knowledge and expand it with new. My aim as an educator is to awaken and feed that curiosity and provide my students, besides the knowledge, with ways of thinking, strategies, and tools they can use so that learning becomes a way of living. I also believe in interdependence and collaboration as the challenges of the future are complex and as such, they cannot be solved by only one discipline or one personality. My vision is to raise professionals who will be team players and this way create high-performing teams of the future. For all these reasons my teaching style highlights collaborative problem solving and hands-on, workshop-like instruction. This allows me to work closely together with my students and provides the direction for me to grow with them to bridge their individual knowledge gaps.

Practical teaching experience

Since 2010 I have thought six university courses from which in four I was the main teacher and in two I was an assistant. For all those four I designed the curriculum, the content and I kept all the classes and laboratory practices. In addition, I have been giving invited lectures at other courses. My practical teaching experience extents to also training other educators and instructional designers.

I have thought the following courses:

At University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland

  • 2022 – present Display Technologies – (5ECTS, main teacher, 10 -30 students per semester)
  • 2016 – 2020 Orientation to Innovation – Epic Challenge (5ECTS, main teacher 500 students in total, course offered every period, high school to PhD student level)
  • 2016 – 2020 Advanced Studies in Innovation – Epic Challenge (10 ECTS, main teacher, 10 – 20 students per semester per year)
  •  2013 – 2016 Color Science Laboratory (5 ECTS, main teacher, 10 students per semester per year)
  • 2013 – 2016 Spectral Imaging Devices (5 ECTS, assistant, 15 – 30 students per period per year)
  • 2016 Industrial Project (5 ECTS, main teacher, 5 - 10 students)
At University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Technical Sciences, Novi Sad, Serbia

  • 2010 Industrial Design (6 ECTS, assistant, 50 – 100 students per semester)

I have given invited lectures in other courses:

  • 2020 Learning Analytics at University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland (30 – 50 students)
    • 2017 and 2018 Fundamentals of Spectral Science at University of Granada, Granada, Spain (10 – 15 students)

    DISPLAY TECHNOLOGIES: In this course students learn about the basic concepts of display systems, visual system, performance requirements and different display technologies. By the end of the course students are able to: explain and discuss the basic concepts of display systems and the main display technologies available in markets; explain in their own words the basics of 2D and 3D human vision in the context of display technologies; identify, formulate and solve practical problems in display technology; use measurement technology to analyse and displays; interpret the measured data.


    ORIENTATION TO INNOVATION and ADVANCES STUDIES IN INNOVATION – EPIC CHALLENGE: In this blended STEM course interdisciplinary student teams work on solving complex space inspired challenges for Sustainable Human Habitation on Mars. They are solving the challenge by following and implementing the Innovative Conceptual Engineering Design methodology created by a NASA astronaut PhD Charles Camarda. It is though in a form of a workshop, with lecture time and hands on times. The program also provided an online learning platform for collaboration with student and experts around the world. My responsibilities: design and implementation of the the curriculum and the activities, design of the challenge, design and implementation of the online learning platform and the content in the platform, teaching the methodology, keeping the workshop and student work evaluation

     

    COLOR SCIENCE LABORATORY: Practical course where we learn about light phenomena by recognizing them in everyday life. We use existing spectral devices or we create simple/’home-made’ devices to identify, measure and demonstrate the phenomena. My responsibilities: design and implementation of the curriculum and the activities, keeping the workshop and student work evaluation.   

    SPECTRAL IMAGING DEVICES: This course demonstrates how spectral imaging and non-imaging data is produces using different methods. By the end of the course students are able to use different measuring systems (spectrophotometer, spectroradiometer, bispectrometer, spectrogoniometer, LTCF, digital camera, spectral video camera), calibrate them and understand their pros and cons. My responsibilities: keeping laboratory session on the usage of spectral video camera, teaching basic principles behind the camera operation, guiding the students to perform measurement

    INDUSTRIAL PROJECT: This course focuses on applying and implementing concepts and principles of industrial problem study cases. Students learn how to self- and group learn, study industrial problems and suggest/find solutions to solve given problems. Problems are offered from industrial course partners. My responsibilities: communication with the industrial partner, design and implementation of the curriculum and the activities, keeping the workshop and student work evaluation.   

    INDUSTRIAL DESIGN: This course focuses on teaching the concept of product design, product life cycle, product research and development, conservation, packaging, transport, storage of products and recycling of products. My responsibilities: keeping laboratory session on the usage of a 3D modelling software CATIA to create 3D functioning models of products, teaching the basics of projection drawings and measurements, student evaluation.

    LEARNING ANALYTICS: Visiting lecturer giving a specialized lecture on Learning Analytics and Learning Impact. Students were introduced to these topics from an angle of a company who’s product is a Learning Experience Platform that allows for collection of learning data and creation of learning reports. As a learning consultant, I provided explanation of basic principles behind the learning software, principles of learning analytics, and I have given examples of data and reports.

    FUNDAMENTALS OF SPECTRAL SCIENCE: Visiting lecturer giving specialized lectures on Spectral Video Systems. Students were introduced to the working principles of spectral video systems (FluxData 1665-MS7), calibration, pros and cons, practicalities with using the systems and an example use case from own research in eye analysis and tracking. Exercise for students with real data from SPEED database collected by me during my PhD research: https://www.uef.fi/web/spectral/speed

    Supervision of studies and theses

    I supervised two master theses, two summer internships and one student laboratory work.

    Master Thesis, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland

    • 2018, ‘Collecting annotated eye blood vessel images using crowdsourcing’
    • 2017, ‘Spectral Image Enhancement for Improved Eye-Tracking in harsh imaging conditions’

    Summer Trainees, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland

    • 01.06. - 31.08.2018. ‘Learning Analytics in Epic Challenge Collaboratory’
    • 01.06. - 31.08.2018. ‘Company and Student Collaboration Using Digital Platforms’

    Laboratory, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland

    • March 2016 ‘High Accuracy Spectral Measurement Device’

    Teacher training

    I delivered training for educators on implementing the Epic Challenge educational program in Finland, US, Australia, Brazil, and Mexico. The training aims to provide educators with tools and examples to help them formalize the program curriculum according to their country standards and design weekly activities for their students. This training busted the global uptake of the program for 30%.  


    Educational materials produced

    For all courses I thought I produced the educational materials - presentations, videos, handouts, booklets, and workbooks. I selected here only a few representative examples of instructional videos and handouts I developed in the past: Experiment design level1 video, Experiment design level1 document video, Eye Contraction Capture with simple tools video

    Activities in planning and developing teaching

    The most of my activities in planning and developing teaching were done during my work at as a university educator. In addition to that I have worked as a learning consultant in the online learning industry, and I currently am active as a Chief Learning Officer at Epic Education Foundation(EEF).

    During my university work I have developed my own teaching style and I expanded it to online learning. I co-designed a blended STEM course on an innovation methodology called the Innovative Conceptual Engineering Design and I implemented a Collaborative Learning Experience Platform, the Collaboratory, for connecting students and experts around the world to collaborate on solving epic technological challenges.

    As a learning consultant I gained a lot of experience from working with my customers on how to identify learning needs in very different disciplines and design and implemented online learning software solutions to fulfil those needs. From training my clients on the usage of those solution I realized how to improve learning products so that they serve the practical applications the best.

    Currently I am applying all that knowledge and experience to continuously improve the effectiveness and efficacy of the EEFs STEM educational programs using problem based, phenomenon based and flipped pedagogical techniques. I am also actively contributing to rolling out a new-age online learning ecosystem for collaborative problem solving with capability to measure learning and team performance.

    Scientific activities relating to teaching and education

    My main interest in learning analytics, using modern devices (spectral imaging devices, wearable sensors, AR/VR/XR equipment) to measure learning and create new photonics-based devices to measure learning and define the learning signal. I am interested to study team dynamics, learning in teams and team innovation. I have co-authored a workbook and a research paper on these topics.

    Other merits relating to teaching

    During all my years of working at universities I have been an active promoter of science and education to big masses and all ages. I have organized stands for the laboratories at Researcher Night events (both in Serbia and in Finland) and at SciFest events. At these events I would have stands that I would host myself but most importantly my students would have their own stands as well. As an example, I would highlight is a Mars Escape room that one of my students made and a ‘MacGyver of light’ stand I hosted myself.

    Besides teaching at universities as a hobby I am a licenced group fitness instructor. I instruct Les Mills BodyCombat, SHBAM and own designed programs in Dancing and Mixed Martial Arts. Group fitness thought me a lot about motivation, discipline, and happiness and how to inspire others to move and make healthier lifestyle choices.