Solving Diversity Issues in University Staff Training with UNIPS Pedagogical Online Courses

Abstract

In Finland and globally, many university teachers are teaching without pedagogical training. Employee training courses on pedagogy are offered via contact teaching, thus excluding potential students who are too busy to attend sessions at a specific time and place. In addition, majority of teaching is in Finnish, even though, for example, in the University of Turku, 10% of all employees are international. Due to limited teaching resources, university pedagogical studies used to be only available for university staff members who have teaching duties, excluding the majority of doctoral students from the courses. The UNIPS learning platform, developed by eight Finnish universities, was created to solve these problems. The current study investigates the impact UNIPS solution has on the above mentioned issues by looking quantitatively (N=590) at (1) which departments participants come from? (2) Are participants’ doctoral students or university employees and (3) what are the age and gender distributions of participants? In addition, participants’ perceptions of UNIPS studies are analyzed qualitatively. Based on the findings, UNIPS courses and similar MOOCs seem a promising way to support teachers’ pedagogical training. They can not only increase the diversity of offered studies, but also help create a more inclusive environment at universities.